The Lou Reed album that gave Bob Ezrin PTSD
As Lou Reed expanded out of The Velvet Underground and into his solo career, things got weird. While the band had never shied away from more experimental sounds on tracks like ‘Sister Ray’ or ‘European Son’. But left to his own devices, Reed pushed the boundaries of his own skill, sound and even his producer’s mind.
It all started with one track. ‘Berlin’ was first released in 1972 on Reed’s debut solo album, stretching out in the five-minute long run time. The song sits as a kind of pocket-sized rock opera, following the story of one character and one night in a Berlin cafe. Something about the tale seemed to plant a seed that, while it took a minute, would blossom into a huge and perhaps overbearing weed. There was something in the storytelling element of ‘Berlin’ and his ability to now tell these tales in utterly his own way without input or the considerations of a more traditional rock band set-up.
As the album came out to minimal success and he moved on to Transformer, it seemed that he’d returned to his older form. The 1972 record contains many more radio-friendly rock hits that returned to The Velvet Underground’s delicate merger of experimentation and classic sounds. Perhaps that’s why Bob Ezrin got involved.
Maybe Ezrin thought he was signing onto another good old-fashioned rock record, or perhaps he was testing out the waters by moving into more left-field projects. Either way, when he decided to produce the 1973 album Berlin, he was pushing into the dark, deep end. Despite the original song not being a hit, Reed returned to his sordid story and extended it out into a full-length record. He cast Ezrin as his co-pilot to drive through the twisted tale of love and addiction.
When considering Ezrin’s resume, his collaboration with Lou Reed feels incredibly odd. Just before Berlin, he’d wrapped up working on Alice Cooper’s School’s Out. The melodramatic rocker once described him as “our George Martin” as he worked on plenty of Cooper’s records as well as albums from Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel and even modern pop and rock big leagues like Taylor Swift and Deftones. Amidst his lengthy discography of works, Reed stands out both as the start and end of something new.
On one hand, the album might have changed his life. Ezrin’s work with the musician came early in his career as Reed took a chance on a newer name in the industry. Having his name on Berlin no doubt helped score him more art-rock work down the line as he went on to co-producer Pink Floyd’s epic concept album The Wall. Sitting at the start of his lengthy and successful career, Berlin definitely opened doors. But when hearing more about the experience, it begs the question, at what cost?
As Reed returned to his initial ‘Berlin’ story and extended it out, the album was always going to be a difficult one. In the longer tale, his characters gain the names Caroline and Jim as we’re brought deeper into their sad and violent lives. Throughout the tracks, their relationship descends into violence, and even after having children, they can’t function together. It ends in a grizzly suicide without a second of reprieve from the grief. With a story like that, this album was never going to be a laugh-a-minute to make.
But as the sessions got underway, and Reed was left to dive as deep as he wanted to into this story without any band input, it got dark. Ezrin has said that the 12 days it took to record the album were some of the most harrowing and distressing in his career, leaving him with short-term PTSD symptoms. “I got home and started breaking things,” he told Circus. “That album just had me so taut inside.”
The album feels even bleaker with the knowledge that on the track The Kids, as Reed’s characters neglect and mistreat their children, it is the voice of Ezrin’s own kids crying and screaming. It’s no wonder it ended up getting in his head.
