| | Lou Reed Berlin CD Lou Reed Discography of CDs
 (5 Customer Reviews)
After the success of his glam-rockish TRANSFORMER, the expectation was that Lou Reed would plow deeper into commercial territory. As usual, Reed delighted in confounding expectations. BERLIN is a song cycle that uses the decadence of its namesake and some Brecht/Weill-esque orchestrations to tell a story of two psychically damaged people and their doomed relationship. (Aided by Berlin producer Bob Ezrin, Pink Floyd would attempt a similar feat several years later on THE WALL).
Far from the rock-star poses of TRANSFORMER, BERLIN is lyrically and musically frank and blunt. The arrangements move from sophisticated, arch orchestration to naked-sounding acoustic sparseness, but the words are uniformly unflinching in their depiction of violence, addiction, and desperation. Not for the faint of heart, BERLIN is a harrowing journey through the aforementioned tribulations, and one of Reed's most unusual, demanding, but ultimately rewarding albums.
1973 album for RCA, featuring a virtual plethora of guests,including Michael & Randy Brecker, Jack Bruce, AynsleyDunbar, Tony Levin and Steve Winwood. 10 tracks, including'Berlin', 'Caroline Says', 'How Do You Think It Feels' and'Sad Song'.
Recording information: Morgan Studios, London, England.
Photographer: St.Jivago de Sanges.
Arrangers: Bob Ezrin; Allan MacMillan.
Personnel: Lou Reed (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards); Lou Reed; Steve Hyden, Dennis Ferrante, Elizabeth Marsh (vocals); Jon Peirson (trombone); Allan MacMillan (piano, keyboards); Allan Macmillan (piano); Tony Levin , Jack Bruce (bass instrument); Gene Martynec (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, synthesizer); Dick Wagner (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, background vocals); Steve Hunter (guitar, electric guitar); Michael Brecker (saxophone, tenor saxophone); Randy Brecker (trumpet); Jon Pierson (trombone, bass trombone); Bob Ezrin (piano, Mellotron, drums); Blue Weaver (piano, keyboards); Steve Winwood (harmonium, organ, keyboards); Aynsley Dunbar, B.J. Wilson (drums).
Liner Note Author: Michael Hill.
Q (5/92, p.103) - 5 Stars - Indispensable - "...a melancholy masterpiece...places Reed's dry narrative in sophisticated settings..."
The Wire (6/00, p.37) - "...Fascinating....Detailing a couple's breakup, a woman's breakdown and her eventual suicide.....succeeding despite itself..."
NME (Magazine) (9/18/93, p.19) - Ranked #33 among The Greatest Albums Of The '70s.
NME (Magazine) (8/12/00, p.29) - Ranked #28 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums" - "...Heartbreak. Heroin. Dubonnet on ice. Reed poured all this badness into this bitter and twisted masterpiece..." Berlin Music | List Price | $7.99 (You save $0.24) | | Category | Rock Albums, Rock/Pop CDs, Hard Rock, Singer/Songwriter | | Label | RCA | | Orig Year | 1973 | | All Time Sales Rank |  7097  | | CD Universe Part number | 1111849 | | Catalog number | 67489 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Mar 24, 1998 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Bob Ezrin | | Engineer | Robin Black; Peter Flanagan; Robin Black; Peter Flanagan | | Recording Time | 49 minutes | | Personnel | Tony Levin
Aynsley Dunbar
Jack Bruce - bass instrument
Lou Reed - vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards
Steve Hunter - guitar, electric guitar
Bob Ezrin - piano, Mellotron, drums
Bob Ezrin - piano, Mellotron, drums
Dick Wagner - vocals, guitar, electric guitar, background vocals
B.J. Wilson - drums
Gene Martynec - vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, synthesizer
List all 20 contributors
| | Additional Info | Remastered |
Berlin Music Review Average Rating: (4.8 out of 5 stars)  His Masterpiece
Aside from the first 3 Velvets albums, this is about as good as it gets. Ezrin's slick production somehow works beautifully; gems include "Oh Jim", "Caroline Says", "How Do You Think It Feels", and the closer "Sad Song" which is, ironically, the happiest song on the album. Need I say more?
Submitted by Jason (New York, NY) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  Decadent Bombast
Bob Ezrin and band take a break from the Alice Cooper gig and lavishly produce the score.
Lou is propped up in a barbers chair. Nodding off between takes, he monotonously croaks out the lyrics with the most heroin soaked vocals since Billy Holiday.
Monumental decadence.
Submitted by raqvb (washDC)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
Desolation Road....
Lou Reed's output since the break up of the Velvet Underground has been very erratic to say the least. However, he made one true masterpiece which he has never surpassed, although " New York" from 1989 is almost as good. When "Berlin" was first released in the autumn of 1973, it was very far removed from the mock decadance which surrounded the rock scene at the time. Critical reaction to it was very extreme, and even far seeing writers such as Lester Bangs were utterly scathing about the psycho drama of violence, drugs and suicide. Reed was so stunned by the hostility from the various scribes that he sank into brooding despair for years. Maybe the critics were not used to the icily adult vision of a disintergrating relationship. Thirty five years later now that the dust has settled on ghastly prog rock acts such as Yes and ELP, Reed has had the very last laugh with "Berlin" being staged to very large audiences to rapturous acclaim from critics and audiences alike.
"Men Of Good Fortune" indeed....
Submitted by Rob J (Letchworth, Herts)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No Melancholia at it's sublimest
One of my favorite albums of all time. One of the few times the term "concept album" has worked beautifully. Themes, the poetry and the absolute perfect production and instrumentation tell the tale the way it should be told.
Submitted by Tony (Atlnta, Ga)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No Conceptual Freaks...
If you are looking for conceptual masterpieces look for this one too.It's Lou Reed in his highest pick.A masterful of songs covered with wine,heartbreaking,love and yes love...love in the pure simple of human beings.Thank you Lou.
Submitted by pravindaswani (Canary Islands,Spain)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No | Have you heard this album? |  |
Purchase Berlin CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Lou Reed Rock 'N' Roll Animal CD (1974) Remastered
Berlin album
 $8.99   
Lou Reed has always dabbled in contrasts, so it comes as no surprise that the follow-up to his darkly ...
| | VH1 Presents The Corrs Live In Dublin CD (2002)
Berlin CD music
$6.39
This audio document of The Corrs' Dublin homecoming concert has pretty much everything fans of Irish pop could wish for, including an appearance from Bono in his earthly incarnation, fresh from an audience with President ...
| | Lou Reed Transformer CD (1972) Bonus Tracks; Remastered
Berlin music CDs
$8.99 
After a tepid solo debut, Lou Reed's post-Velvet Underground standing looked dicey. Fortunately, David Bowie and his guitarist Mick Ronson stepped in to help Reed craft one of the best albums of his career. TRANSFORMER built on the stripped-down, quirky pop of LOADED-era VU, infusing it with the androgynous, cheeky glitz of the glam era (the bleached-out black-and-white cover photo of Reed in eye makeup is a giveaway), not to mention a fair bit of Ronson's guitar muscle. Much to everyone's credit, however, the album's stylish flair never eclipses Reed's excellent songcraft or acerbic wit. [paragraph here] TRANSFORMER's sense of chic fun is infectious, and is heightened by Reed's character sketches of Andy Warhol's entourage and the glitterati of New ...
| | Mike Bloomfield Super Session CD (1968) Bonus Tracks; Remastered
Berlin songs
$6.75 
A surprise best-seller when it was first released, this mostly improvised pairing of singer/keyboardist/producer Al Kooper with two major guitar heroes of the day sounds fascinating all these years later precisely because of the distance of time--nobody makes records like this any more. The material runs the gamut from folk pop (covers of Donovan and Dylan), to blues ("Albert's Shuffle," "You Don't Love Me"), to heady jams ("His Holy Modal Majesty"), to big-band jazz ("Harvey's Tune").
All the tunes make effective templates for the kind off-the-cuff music-making that in ...
| | Neil Young On The Beach CD (1974) Remastered
Berlin album
$8.99
| | Red Rider As Far As Siam CD (1981)
Berlin CD music
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| | Up! The Psycho Mellow CD (2000) Import
Berlin music CDs
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| | Doo Wop 45S On CD, Vol. 12 CD (2002)
Berlin songs
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| | Maria Teresa O Mar CD (2004) (Import)
Berlin album
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| | Yvonne Catterfeld Meine Welt CD (2003) (Import) Germany
Berlin CD music
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| | Adolescents Complete Demos 1980-1986 CD (2005)
Berlin music CDs
$9.25
The title of this 16-song collection, Complete Demos 1980-1986 -- clocking in, as true short-sharp-blasts of hardcore should, at just under a half-hour -- might lead you to believe it's less focused on a certain time frame than it really is. Although it was recorded between 1980 and 1986, all but three of the tracks were done between March 1980 and July 1980. In essence, then, it's like hearing an unreleased Adolescents debut album with three bonus tracks, as all of the 1980 recordings predate their actual 1981 self-titled debut (also referred to among the faithful as "the blue album"). Seven of the songs on the 1980 demos (which include two versions of "Wrecking Crew") would be redone for The Adolescents, so as you'd expect, they're very much in the early Southern Californian hardcore style of the official album. Although the speed and energy jumps off the VU meter, fans can't get too over the moon, as the fidelity is often pretty mediocre. True, that's not something that matters to punk listeners as much as it does to followers of many other styles of music. But be warned that, although this will certainly be of interest to Adolescents devotees, the sound is quite substandard on about half of this material, the vocals suffering the most. The first four tracks, in fact, were recorded in Tony Reflex's garage in March 1980 on cassette. Though they brim with prototypical teenage rebellion, even the more forgiving aficionados might find the lo-fi result a significant loss, since none of these four songs were redone for The Adolescents. Things improve a lot on the four May 1980 numbers done at Phantom Studios ...
| | Lost Cherrees Free To Speak, But Not To Question CD (2006) (Import) United Kingdom
Berlin songs
$15.65
Re-forming in 2003 around founding member Steve Battershill, "classic period" drummer Nuts and guitarist Andy Rolfe, and vocalist Beverly Cook Abbott, Lost Cherees' first album in 22 years is one of those so-rare examples of a band picking up precisely where they left off, and then astonishing every ear by proving that they lost absolutely nothing during their absence.
The same fractured pop choruses and rhythms, the same eye for melodic punk shot through with discordant riffs, the same taste for unexpected reggae-tinged interludes -- and that's just the opening "Wake Up Call." Sixteen songs include an amazing return to the first EP's "Living in a ...
| | Elvis Costello This Year's Model CD (1978) Digipak; Special Edition
Berlin album
$12.39 
THIS YEAR'S MODEL is packaged with a 28-page booklet that includes rare photos and printed song lyrics.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions: Elvis Costello (vocals, guitar); Steve Nieve (keyboards); Bruce Thomas (bass); Pete Thomas (drums).
Recorded between August 1977 and October 1978. Originally released on Columbia (35331). Includes liner notes by Elvis Costello.
Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Bruce Thomas (bass guitar); Pete Thomas (drum); Steve Nieve.
For his second album, Elvis Costello fine-tuned his aesthetic by abandoning the California studio cat accompanists of his debut for the more aggressive, quirky and very British Attractions, who would define EC's sound over the next several years. Where MY AIM IS TRUE highlighted Costello's rootsy influences (the Band, etc.), THIS YEAR'S MODEL wholeheartedly embraces the "new wave" out-with-the-old mindset, favoring tightly wound ferocity over back-porch-isms.
Irresistibly catchy, in a twitchy, neurotic, white-knuckled way, THIS YEAR'S MODEL is Costello at his edgiest. The classic "Pump It Up" pummels the listener with garage-band organ, pounding drums, and HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED-style ranting. "Radio, Radio" turned into something of an anti-authoritarian anthem for Costello. The snaky guitar and reggae-tinged drums of "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea" complement his verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown vocal performance nicely. Come to think of it, so does nearly everything else here.
Where ...
| | Kings Of Tomorrow Beginning CD (2007) (Import)
Berlin CD music
$13.15
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