With Lou Reed’s untimely passing that leaving a large hole in the music industry, there’s bound to be a million retrospectives, live albums, and “lost” tapes released in the coming years, most of them being at the very best, unnecessary. The exception may just be Eagle Rock’s video bundle on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, combining the Classic Albums documentary on Reed’s seminal Transformer album and Live At Montreux 2000 onto one convenient disc. The Classic Albums documentary is definitely the more necessary of the two — the insights it provides are incalculable — but the live Montreux performance finds Reed in fine form.
Unlike many music documentaries today, which are either unauthorized or feature no one that knew or even met the artist in question, the Classic Albums brand itself has always been a respectable name, managing to actually feature interviews and performances from the artists themselves. What makes this edition so special is just the thought that they managed to procure an interview with Lou Reed, infamous for how stubborn and unwilling he could be. In fact, the only thing that could have been more unbelievable would have been an installment featuring every member of the Velvet Underground reunited.
The documentary begins with Reed’s history in the Velvets, and the band’s association with Andy Warhol. As expected, the time spent on the subject is brief but it is also surprisingly in depth for the time allotted, including rare and beautiful footage of both the band and Warhol. Not only does Reed allow himself to be interviewed for the documentary, he is open, insightful and even jokes in parts. “I never had kids screaming at me particularly,” Reed says. “They’d scream at David [Bowie], not at me. Me, they would throw syringes and joints onstage. Isn’t that a great line?”
From there the documentary quickly moves onto the recording of Transformer, going in depth into every song on the album with history, anecdotes, inside information on the album (Herbie Flowers’ story about the infamous bassline for “Walk on the Wild Side” is amazing), and best of all, Reed performing some of the songs from the album solo acoustically. Other than Reed, the documentary also features candid interviews with Warhol associate and one-time dancer for the Velvets, Gerard Malanga; music journalist and guitarist for Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye; both Mick Ronson and David Bowie; and various sessions musicians from the recording of Transformer.
Live At Monreux 2000 captures Reed’s only performance at Montreux promoting his then-newly released album, Ecstasy. Unfortunately, the performance is overloaded with songs from the merely OK album. Those that may be “surface” fans or have little interest in his music aside from his most famous recordings may be disappointed, but there are some fantastic gems here including “Romeo Had Juliette” from his New York album and “Small Town” from his severely underrated tribute to Warhol recorded with Velvets’ bandmate John Cale, Songs For Drella. Overall, it’s a fantastic collection, and a must-have for die-hard fans and those wishing to delve into his long, storied career more. It may seem at first glance like a way to cash in on his death, but it’s ultimately a fitting and loving tribute to one of rock ‘n roll’s greatest anti-heroes.
~ Cody Alexander
