Lou Reed: Rest in Peace

Capturing a live musical performance so the magic of the performance transcends the vinyl (or whatever it is people listen to music on nowadays) and transports the listener into the experience of the music is a rare thing. The Grateful Dead were masters at it thanks, in large part, to the fans who taped all their live shows, but with other groups/artists, live albums seemed like more of a novelty, or a way, like a ‘greatest hits’ compilation, to buy some time between albums than an actual attempt to capture a moment in time and make that moment come alive.

Live albums aren’t new, probably every band at one point or another has put out a live album and a lot of them are really good and a few of those very good releases rise to the top and become classics. Bands like The Who (Live at Leeds), Bruce Springsteen (Hammersmith Odeon – London 1975), Van Morrison (It’s Too Late to Stop Now), The Allman Brothers Band (At Fillmore East), KISS (Alive! – controversy about the album notwithstanding), Johnny Cash (At Folsom Prison), The Band (The Last Waltz), The Rolling Stones (Get Yer Ya-Yas Out), all of those would probably top anyone’s “Best Live Album of All Time” list, including my own, but with apologies to fans of all those bands, I put Lou Reed’s Rock N Roll Animal at the top of the list and, by my admittedly subjective standards, believe it to be the best live rock and roll album of all time. Of course, as always, your mileage may vary.

Lou Reed, rest in peace.