Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico live at La Bataclan, Paris, Jan 29, 1972

 

This album documents a shows that I knew nothing about until I read Do What You Fear Most, Richie Unterberger's extensive review of the VU, and when I found it easily available, I grabbed it.

This mini-VU reunion was an acoustic show featuring Lou on guitar'n'vocals (of course), Cale on acoustic piano, viola and 12 string guitar as well as vocals, and Nico on harmonium and vocals. They run through some classic VU numbers along with some then-new solo material and Cale performs a tune or two that, as far as I know, has never been released in any other form.

The sound is quite good, but, at least on my stereo, the mix is a little awkward with Cale's piano and viola drowning out Lou's guitar, although it seems to balance out as the show progresses. They open with "I'm Waiting For My Man" with Cale on piano and Lou ad-libbing/forgetting some lyrics and that moves into the more recent "Berlin" that works well with simply piano'n'vocals - Lou calls it his Barbara Streisand number. "The Black Angel's Death Song" features Cale's viola, although he is not playing anything like the recorded version which makes it almost sound like a completely different song, especially as his lines don't necessarily go with the vocal melody - not that this is necessarily a bad thing! 

Back to a then-new song of Lou's, "Wild Child", with Cale adding some nice lines on his 12-string, and back to the viola for the ubiquitous "Heroin" that also has some lyric changes. Cale is front'n'center for his terrific "Ghost Story" from Vintage Violence. His "The Biggest, Loudest, Hairiest Group of All" is the one that, as far as I know, has never been recorded anywhere else and is an unusual (for him) folky, sing'n'clap-along, fairly goofy number - certainly the odd song out of this collection! I'm also not familiar with his "Empty Bottles", but that is a little more Cale-like, albeit also in a folky manner.

I know that for some people Nico is, at best, an acquired taste, but I have always dug her solemnly sonorous, Medievally melodic, droney material. Her spot starts out with, appropriately enough, "Femme Fatale" before moving into several of her own numbers with her voice - to me she sounds very good here although she complains that cigarettes are doing her vocals in - backed by harmonium and Cale's viola for "No One is There", "Frozen Warnings" and "Janitor of Lunacy" before they finish their set with "I'll Be Your Mirror". For an encore they create a folk version of "All Tomorrow's Parties", which has always been low even for Nico and it does seem to be a slight bit of a struggle here, but it is still pretty fab.

For bonus tracks there are a couple of snippets from a rehearsal of "Pale Blue Eyes" and "Candy Says" but  both are just Lou showing the others how the songs go and nothing is complete - mildly interesting, but nothing earth shattering.

The accompanying booklet contains a number of fine photos from the event along with some poetic prose by Nina Antonia.

A nice package overall and any VU fan would certainly want to own this memorial of a one time event.