Wednesday, February 16, 2011

LR- 1983-02-25 - Bottom Line (Early Show)

Source 1
Source 2

5 comments:

Dr. Forrester said...

Source 1 info -

Lou Reed
The Bottom Line
New York, NY
25 February 1983 (Early Show)

Band:

Lou Reed: guitar, vocals
Robert Quine: lead guitar
Fernando Saunders: bass
Fred Maher: drums

Setlist:

01 Sweet Jane
02 I’m Waiting For The Man
03 Martial Law
04 Vicious Circle
05 Sally Can’t Dance
06 Don’t Talk To Me About Work
07 Women
08 Waves Of Fear
09 Walk On The Wild Side
10 Pow Wow
11 Turn Out The Light
12 Underneath The Bottle
13 New Age
14 Betrayed
15 Average Guy (cut)
16 Legendary Hearts
17 Kill Your Sons
18 Satellite Of Love
19 White Light / White Heat
20 Last Shot
21 A Gift
22 Rock And Roll

After you catch your breath listening to The VU at The Gymnasium, here's another treat from 25 years ago this week.

From the original Maxell UD120, with an incomplete "Average Guy" due to the flip.
A solid "B" recording which is highly listenable.

This show is Lou's first after an absence from live performance and features the actual debut of the Quine band,
who are captured here at the peak of their power. Lou is clearly excited at this show and it is great to hear the
VU and solo songs that Quine was pushing him to play.

Note: "A Night With Lou Reed" is an excellent video document of this band lineup that was filmed a few days after this set at The Bottom Line.

For lurid_uk - keep up the great work!

Lineage: (AUD) Aiwa HSJ-500 with condenser mic --> Maxell UD-100 --> azimuth correction --> .wav --> FLAC --> you

Dr. Forrester said...

Lou Reed New York 25 February 1983 early show audience recording

"...this is our first set in a long time, so, you know,....it's a little rough....."

Bottom Line
New York
25 February 1983
early show

01: Sweet Jane 5.13
02: Waiting For The Man 5.01
03: Martial Law 4.09
04: Vicious Circle 3.51
05: Sally Can't Dance 5.04
06: Don't Talk To Me About Work 3.02
07: Women 3.54
08: Waves Of Fear 4.46
09: Walk On The Wild Side 6.45
10: Pow Wow 3.20
11: Turn Out The Light 3.30
12: Underneath The Bottle 2.32
13: New Age 4.57
14: Betrayed (with false start because Lou gets the key wrong) 4.56
15: Average Guy (cut) 1.17
16: Legendary Hearts 3.53
17: Kill Your Sons 5.06
18: Satellite Of Love 6.52
19: White Light White Heat 4.30
20: The Last Shot 3.18
21: A Gift 4.20
22: Rock And Roll 6.22

Lou Reed: guitar, vocals
Robert Quine: guitar
Fernando Saunders: bass, vocals
Fred Maher: drums

lineage: 1st generation Maxell XL1 cassette - (Wavepad) - wav - flac (level 8) - you

original audience recording by EJ
transfer to wav August 2008 by lurid_uk
uploaded to Dime August 2008 by lurid_uk

The 1983 "comeback" shows:

Bottom Line, New York, 25 February (2 shows)
Bottom Line, New York, 26 February (2 shows)
Bottom Line, New York, 28 February (2 shows) (filmed and subsequently released by RCA Records on VHS/DVD as "A Night With Lou Reed")
Bottom Line, New York, 01 March (2 shows)
Studio 54, New York, 08 March 1983

Two and a half years after announcing his "retirement" from the touring circuit, Lou returns with a 4 night residency at his favourite local club, the Bottom Line. He's got a new LP, a new live band and a new, stripped-down sound: they play tight, snappy versions of his songs. There's no room for extended improvisation, but the arrangements are littered with Quine's broken-glass guitar licks and Saunders' looping bass runs. There are songs from all corners of the Reed back-catalogue - all the way from the 1st Velvets LP to "Legendary Hearts" via "Kill Your Sons" and (almost unbelievably!) "A Gift", from "Coney Island Baby". The whole band are very professional, and Lou doesn't talk much, leaving the performances to speak for themselves.

Lou was now almost 41 years old, and his personal life had been completely turned round since his last appearance at the Bottom Line in June 1980. His new wife Sylvia had dragged him up out the narcotic haze he'd been wallowing in for most of the 1970s, and put his life back into order. As a result, he'd stopped drinking and taking drugs, bought a country "estate", left/been released by Arista and (amazingly) rejoined RCA. His 1982 release for them, "The Blue Mask" had been a critical success but didn't sell, but "Legendary Hearts", due out in March 1983, was softer and more commercial (it would be critically panned and still wouldn't shift any units).

This is a reasonable quality mono audience recording but there's not much dynamic range and the audience are quite noisy between songs. The overall sound is a bit murky and bass-heavy (Saunders seems to be having sound/mix problems at various different times during the set). "Average Guy" is cut on the original recording (a tape flip?).

Anonymous said...

I just want to say that this is a fantastic blog - this Lou Reed music is great - unbelievable - excellent !!!! I love the rock and roll animal period and you have done it right - I salute you sir!
Gary

Anonymous said...

Lou was in top form during this period. His 1982 album `Legendary Hearts` was the best thing he had recorded in many years.

Anonymous said...

Dr:

Brilliant!!! As the internet police gets tougher, I must say that I have spent hours searching in vain to locate the few shows from 83 prior to the addition of the abominable keys and the replacement of Maher by the extra lame Ferrari? YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!! EXTRA THANX.