Fans give Lou Reed's Berlin its ovation 35 years on

Published on Thursday 26 June 2008 10:39

Lou Reed's Berlin **** Playhouse SCORNED and all but ignored for years, Lou Reed's Berlin finally got the reception he and his fans believed it always deserved last night at the Playhouse. It only took 35 years.

The album, which has been described as a concept album, a rock opera and a song cycle – take your pick – had as its main themes depression, a relationship imploding violently beneath the shadow of the Berlin Wall, prostitution and the abuse of drugs.

As a follow-up to 1972's incredibly successful Transformer, it wasn't so much a sequel as a complete reinvention. With hindsight, and given the stark contrast between the albums, it's perhaps no surprise that it was something of a commercial disappointment at the time.

Die-hard fans will no doubt feel vindicated, though, now that the work is being hailed as a masterpiece.

Reed is unlikely to win awards for his singing or guitar playing, but as for his storytelling, well, that's a different matter. Like many musicians of his era, he had a lot to say, and for the most part he knew how to get it across.

Despite the poor reception it received at the time, Berlin was a perfect example of that. Unfortunately though, a story about a tragic relationship which ends in suicide was a little too much for some audiences to stomach.

Surrounded by an exceptional band which featured the legendary guitarist Steve Hunter, who performed on the original album – and backed by the New London Children's Choir and seven members of the London Metropolitan Orchestra, Reed stepped back in time.

Performing them in exactly the same order as they appeared on the record, many of the songs were treated to extended arrangements and codas. They were elongated partly, cynics might say, to fill out the time. The effect, however, was of the rusted nail of a narrative being driven home even deeper.

The anger represented by Men Of Good Fortune and the helplessness of the addict in How Do You Think It Feels were intensified by the relentlessness and the wall-of-sound treatment given to these extensions.

Things were quieter and more reflective when Reed moved on to side two of the album, beginning with Caroline Says (II). Quieter perhaps, but not easier; during The Kids, which details the events leading to Caroline's children being taken into care, the sound of children crying and screaming bled terrifyingly into the music, threatening to overwhelm both it and the audience.

With two songs still to go, including a seemingly endless version of Sad Song, the audience had already been taken to the far edge of their emotional endurance.

The show had been what it promised: Berlin, in its entirety and then some. The audience stood and applauded, hoping for just a little more and, after what seemed like the longest ever gap between performance and encore, they got it.

Satellite Of Love, Rock And Roll and The Power Of The Heart served as their reward for letting Reed finally tour an album which clearly meant so much to him, and the crowd roared, not minding the fact that he didn't play at least two of his best loved songs. Maybe not a Perfect Day, but close enough.