Vicious (Lou Reed) (LP 3618 - 3621)

Lou Reed  Rock'n'Roll Animal (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1974) *****

Lou Reed  Lou Reed Live (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1975) ****

Lou Reed  NYC Man (Vinyl, BMG Records, 2013) ****

Lou Reed  A Life in Music (CD, Mojo Magazine covermount, 2016) ***

Genre: Rock, Alt rock

Places I remember: Marbecks Records, The Warehouse, Mojo Magazine

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Sweet Jane (Rock'n'Roll Animal)

Gear costume: Satellite of Love (Lou Reed Live) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: Over the years I've owned other albums by Lou but they were culled at various times and I haven't felt the need to buy them back.

Basically, I love the live albums and the two compilations in this post, but a lot of his studio stuff leaves me cold. He can be very hit and miss I've found.

Both Rock'n'Roll Animal and Lou Reed Live are from the same source material - a concert on December 21, 1973, at Howard Stein's Academy of Music in New York City. The extra guitar power from Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter and the fresh arrangements make these albums all killer. Lou sounds interested!

Rolling Stone has this to say: The band does not emulate the violent, hypnotic, dope-trance staccato power and subway lyricism of the Velvet Underground, but rather opts for a hard, clean, clear, near-royal Mott the Hoople/Eric Clapton opulence and Reed sings out most of the songs in his effective street-talk style.

The two compilations are also important additions to my collection.

NYC Man is a career spanning double album. It combines his solo efforts with his Velvet Underground classics. 

It's also a special compilation as all the songs were chosen, sequenced and remastered by Lou Reed himself.

A Life in Music was a covermount for a Mojo Magazine issue in 2016. It takes the side road route with lesser known Reed songs. I can certainly live without hearing anything off Metal Machine Music that's fersure.

Where do they all belong? I love the Lou Reed albums I own but I don't want any more.