BETWEEN THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION: THE LOU REED ANTHOLOGY

by

Lou Reed

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Lou Reed's solo career is notoriously erratic, and for anyone looking for a good introduction or a good summary, this is your best choice. A three CD set over three hours long, it has almost everything going for it. Everything's been remastered by Bob Ludwig from the original sources (in many cases, much better than other currently available CD's), the extensive liner notes by Rob Bowman is very well-written, incorporating a great deal of input by Lou himself, and the track selection by Lou and Bowman is very good. Every studio Lp recorded from 1972 (Lou's self-titled solo debut) to 1986 (MISTRIAL, his final Lp with RCA) is covered as well as a handful of choice live cuts and rarities. Every important aspect is given equal representation, from tender confessionals ("Think It Over"), raging confessionals ("The Blue Mask," "The Last Shot") political anthems ("Voices Of Freedom"), avant-garde experiments ("The Bells"), and even expert pop ("My Friend George").

This is almost everything you'd want from Lou Reed's RCA/Arista output (later Sire/WB albums like NEW YORK and MAGIC AND LOSS are worth owning), but it's not definitive. A few key tracks are missing, at very least, "Perfect Day" from TRANSFORMER, "I Wanna Be Black" from STREET HASSLE which Lou was hesitant to include, "Families" or "All Through The Night" from THE BELLS, a few more tracks from THE BLUE MASK and LEGENDARY HEARTS, and "I Love You Suzanne" from NEW SENSATIONS (his finest pop hit ever).

It's a minor complaint, because TRANSFORMER is a popular album, THE BELLS is love-it-or-hate-it (some think it's one of his best, others think it's a career killer), and THE BLUE MASK, LEGENDARY HEARTS, and NEW SENSATIONS are three rock-solid albums, arguably Lou's best run, so anyone who misses those tracks will probably buy the albums.

Normally I wouldn't recommend a three-CD box set as a first purchase, but in used condition, this set can be found CHEAP. Look around on ebay, or better yet here (as of this writing, there are THREE complete sets selling here for less than $10). Why pay $12 for one of Lou's subpar single disc collections, or a two-disc "NYC Man" when you can get this set for less? A nice introduction, after this set, check out THE BLUE MASK and NEW YORK, and if you still want more, check out TRANSFORMER, LEGENDARY HEARTS, and NEW SENSATIONS for Lou's more accessible side, and THE BELLS, BERLIN, and MAGIC AND LOSS for Lou's darker, somewhat more experimental side.

"Between Thought and Expression" is an uneven and disappointing collection that catalogs the wildly uneven and disappointing career of Lou Reed. Which is to say, it's an accurate representation, I guess. Which is too bad, really, because the high points of Reed's career are indeed very high, but the lows are almost unplummable.

Song selection is very strange: disc one features six, count 'em, SIX songs from "Berlin"--why didn't they just throw the whole damn thing on? Beginning to understand the uneven factor? On the plus side, the best three songs from "Transformer" are here: "Vicious", "Satellite of Love", and, of course, "Walk on the Wild Side". Also a plus, the live version of "Sweet Jane" is kept intact with Steve Hunter's intro. But where is "Sally Can't Dance"?

Disc two features the best cross-section of Reed's output, concentrating on the drug-addled 70s. Some of the tunes are presented in edited versions, which is always frustrating, but there is an interesting assortment of previously unreleased tracks which is great--the first time you hear them, anyway. The inclusion of a snippet from everybody's fave desert island disc, "Metal Machine Music", is a ballsy maneuver.

The third disc, though it has a nice collection of tunes from "The Blue Mask" and "Legendary Hearts"--two of Reed's better albums--slips badly into mediocre crap like "My Friend George" (in lieu of "I Love You, Suzanne"!??!), "The Original Wrapper", and "Tell it To Your Heart".

All in all, this is Lou Reed for better AND worse. Maybe a tighter two-CD set would have been a better, and less revealing, idea. See John Cale's "Seducing Down the Door" for the right career retrospective recipe.