Review of Lou Reed: Rock `n` Roll Heart

Introduction

When I was first introduced to `The Velvet Underground` by a fellow Bowie fan in `75, I didn`t like them. They seemed tinny and ragged, horribly unpolished and noisy. Two years later, converted to Punk like most other 16 year olds, the constant namechecking of both Iggy and Lou Reed persuaded me to check them both out for a second time. This time, with altered perception, I fell completely in love with the Velvets and set about collecting every utterence the band had committed to vinyl. Naturally I didn`t stop there. Catching up with Lou Reed`s releases was fun too and I got them all. Even `Metal Machine Music` , his difficult homage to feedback - which I play to this day.

Of course, it`s not easy being a Lou Reed fan. Apart from the tales of his unbearably monstrous ego and a highly developed cruel streak (in the mid-seventies), he also failed to deliver the goods more often than not. But, in common with devotees of Neil Young or `The Fall`, the moments of occasional genius more than reward the loyalty. When he`s good he`s very very good.

Whilst a string of mis-fires in the mid-to late seventies severely tested my devotion, along came `The Blue Mask`, a work of breath-taking beauty. Then there was his best post-velvets work (imho) `New York` - and he has remained true to his hard work ethic ever since, releasing a stream of hit and miss albums with complete disregard to the musical trends of the time. Highlights of this latter output have been `Songs for Drella` with Cage (his Warhol tribute) and `Magic and Loss` which was painfully brilliant. More recently he released `The Raven` which confounded most critics with its mix of straight narrative song-writing and experimental art-house doodling, but which still spun in my player for weeks as I tried to figure out whether I loved or loathed it.

That decision was a lot easier to reach with this DVD release which gives a really top-notch critical appraisal of the man and his work, even though it possibly sidesteps the `bad times`.

It originally aired as a feature length "American Masters" series program in 1998, directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders`s (the `artists photographer`) and shown on PBS, the channel for American culture vultures. It also had a very short theatrical run prior to this at Anthology Film Archives in New York where Reed has, quite rightly, become the official poet spokesperson for a city.

It`s a brutally honest and raw portrayal, using a wealth of nicely shot, intelligent interviews with Reed`s peers, both in music and the wider arts scene, a melding that was perhaps first officiated with Warhol`s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, with Reed`s Velvet Underground at its core.

Though intelligent and respectful, squeezing thirty-plus years of Reed`s adventure`s in modern music into the length of one of his albums is no easy task. Despite the high pedigree of contributions this never gets beyond surface level at best.

But whether you`re a fan or not, the high production value and the breadth of interviews that form the film`
s foundation are entertaining indeed. Perhaps the most notable contributors are the other Velvet`s, Bowie, Jim Carroll (`The Basketball Diaries`), Patti Smith and some survivors from the Factory, like `Candy` and Malanga. Even our very own Channel 4 Arts commissioner, Waldemer Janusczek gets a few moments of airtime (which is more than he gave me when I applied for a commission to make a William Burroughs documantary with the great man`s blessing, though that`s another tale for another day…).

There`s also quite a bit of music here with some rare live nuggets that to die-hard fans may well be worth the price of admission.

Of course, it all looks great. This is no cheesy cash-in rockumentary. Greenfield-Sanders, portrait photographer to the New York art scene, has clearly applied some of the same sensibilities to the interviews, even apeing Warhol by getting them to silently stare into the camera in Warhol screen-test style.

Video

Well, despite the inevitable journey from NTSC to PAL, this looks in great shape. A really very nice look overall, though clearly variable when archived footage is cut in.

Audio

Just a standard Dolby 2.0 track here, though perfectly adequate.

Features

Just a very few, despite the promise. There are a few moments of 8mm film shot mute at Warhol`s factory showing the Velvet`s in their glorious best. There are also the full-length `screen tests` of all the major interviewees (where they stare into camera silently) though most corpse within seconds which is mildly amusing.

There are some text biographies of most the major contributors, and a text based Reed discography too.

Conclusion

I`m a long-serving Lou Reed fan and in many ways this documentary is a gift. In fact, I don`t recall any documentary appraisal of the man and his work since the South Bank Velvet`s documentary in the early 1980`s.

Of course, in common with most arts documentaries, it suffers from brevity, attempting to pack in thirty-plus years into 75 minutes. Given the challenge, it does the job remarkably well with some really enlightening and intelligent interviews with a wide range of Reed`s contemporaries, as well as with the man himself. It intercuts these with a wide range of relevant performance footage and the results are very good indeed.

However good it is though, my own experience of such things suggests that it`s not the sort of DVD that will get played twice. It has very few complete uninterrupted performances which tend to be a vital ingredient in the repeat viewing stakes.

In that light, I`d suggest that, if you`re a Lou Reed fan, you should add this to your rental list now, though probably not worth a purchase.