Lou Reed’s complicated relationship with ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal’
Lou Reed never once made an album that wasn’t 100% what he wanted to do. Ever since leaving The Velvet Underground, everything that he created was going to be his own singular artistic vision, and if the masses liked it, it was usually just a happy accident in between his other projects. Although he did get millions onboard listening to records like Berlin, Reed would have a cold relationship going back to projects like Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal.
Then again, it’s hard to recreate any kind of artistic vision on the live stage like that. Reed was used to playing concerts night after night, but how would he blend the massive exercises he was doing now with stuff like ‘Sweet Jane’ and ‘I’m Waiting For the Man’ and make it sound seamless?
Well, looking at the track list, he didn’t exactly try to. Going through the entire album was just another excuse for Reed to create a new vision for his old songs, having them each play off each other and throw in different arrangements to keep the audience on their toes and entertain himself half the time.
Just look at the version of ‘Sweet Jane’ that turns up on here. The core track is still firmly in place, but there’s a lot more teeth behind it on the final version. After all, this was a more metallic and borderline glam rock version of Reed, so if he was going to make rock and roll, he was bound to make something that could leave the original takes on ‘Heroin’ and ‘Rock and Roll’ in the dust.
At the same time, many problems come from live shows, and it’s not like Reed was trying to be perfect on every track. He did have some help from new kids like David Bowie on his previous output, but during a handful of the record’s greatest moments, he almost toed the line between his art-rock persona and the inverse of Bowie. ‘Louie Stardust’, if you will.
According to guitarist Dick Wagner, though, Reed wasn’t as in love with the massive production behind his tunes, saying, “He claims that he didn’t like the Rock n’ Roll Animal album, but at the time he sure loved it. A lot of the songs were from The Velvet Underground days, and I wanted to take them out of that placid performance of the songs and make it more for the concert stage and the stadiums. Within the context of the band and how to deliver the songs, it really worked. I guess Lou doesn’t really like it that much, but that’s kind of a lie.”
And it’s not like Reed isn’t in fine form on the record as well. You have to remember that even crazier art rock acts like Alice Cooper had started to come up in his wake, so by doubling down on his classics, he made the kind of record that sounded like what Kiss would write if they actually lived up to their rock and roll demon personas.
If anything, this was the best way that Reed could have hoped to revamp his older material and fit them into the context of the 1970s. Because, let’s face it, no artist wants their art to just lay dormant like a museum piece, so it’s sometimes better to take it out of the can and see how it holds up years after the fact.
