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Rating: There are albums that, beyond being beautiful and particularly inspired, become indelibly linked to episodes in one's life, marking that specific historical period. It also happened to me with this album, lent to me in June 1995 by my colleague/friend Gianni A. We had been working together for a couple of years in an advertising agency in Milan, and we were very different from each other: he was 29, slim, with a deep face, beautiful, silent with a tormented soul, while I was 30, hefty, friendly, sunny, and a joker. Very different but attracted to each other because of this.
He gave me this album, recommending that I listen to it well since, for him, it was a milestone in rock. I expected to encounter yet another rock'n'roll digression, but already on the first listen, I felt a different atmosphere here, dark, melancholic, and slightly naïve.
"Berlin" begins mournfully with a distant reverb of voices, end-of-party sounds, a tired piano, and Lou's whisper sliding over a melancholic and decadent blues. With "Lady Day", the tempo becomes more assertive, even though the remnants of a pompous and slightly prog arrangement remain, with symphonic breaks that necessarily hark back to those years (it's an album from '73!). "Men Of Good Fortune" enters Reed's great classics. A sustained rock, although confined to a latent tension that never erupts into liberating screams or powerful sounds. Similarly, "Caroline Says", another classic, proceeds with a rock style without ever veering into extreme solutions. But it's the delicate and "sick" sound of songs like "How Do You Think It Feels" or "Oh Jim", arranged with excessively orchestral solutions, that gives this album its unmistakably "resigned and nihilistic" flavor. "Caroline Says II" reprises the song acoustically, but it's the following "The Kids" that marks (in my opinion) one of the most powerful and indelible emotional passages (with the tail end sung by crying children?) of the entire CD. The subsequent "The Bed" also reaffirms the album as a masterpiece of "restrained" rock, in many aspects acoustic, suffered, and "felt" like few others in this almost dreamy and hallucinated placement that is perceived in almost all the tracks. It closes with "Sad Song", another great classic of ours, arranged with an orchestra, trombones, and violins in a high-intensity Grand Finale.
Prophetic words, those closing this album, which, years later, still remind me of that horrible year: in July 1995, Gianni was admitted to Niguarda in Milan with a reserved diagnosis that was later communicated to us as pancreatic cancer. In September, I met Gianni again at his home (he had been discharged by then), and he was unrecognizable: he weighed 35 kg, bald due to chemotherapy but strangely euphoric and full of "zest for life." He asked me to organize a trip to Jamaica (he who was always very reluctant to speak!) and other things, and he asked me to keep this album as a gift. It was the last thing he said to me. On October 29 of that year, Gianni died from metastasis, and I was stunned, shocked, and shaken for weeks and weeks. I was left with a couple of his books, a book he wrote of transcribed "dreams," and this CD, which, beyond anything else, will always be a unique and unforgettable album for me for this and other reasons. An album I cannot separate from the figure of my friend/colleague, a great, deep, and complex person who disappeared "too" young to trust in a just and merciful God who allows such injustices.
**This review is dedicated to Simona Cella (his girlfriend at the time)
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Berlin (03:25)
In Berlin, by the wall
you were five foot ten inches tall
It was very nice
candlelight and Dubonnet on ice
We were in a small cafe
you could hear the guitars play
It was very nice
it was paradise
You're right and I'm wrong
hey babe, I'm gonna miss you now that you're gone
One sweet day
Oh, you're right and I'm wrong
you know I'm gonna miss you now that you're gone
One sweet day
One sweet day
In a small, small cafe
we could hear the guitars play
It was very nice
candlelight and Dubonnet on ice
Don't forget, hire a vet
he hasn't had that much fun yet
It was very nice
hey honey, it was paradise
You're right and I'm wrong
oh babe, I'm gonna miss you now that you're gone
One sweet day
You're right, oh, and I'm wrong
you know I'm gonna miss you now that you're gone
One sweet day
One sweet day
One sweet day, one sweet day
oh, one sweet day
One sweet day, baby-baby, one sweet day
one sweet day, one sweet day
04 Caroline Says I (03:57)
Caroline says that I'm just a toy
she wants a man, not just a boy
Oh, Caroline says, ooohhh, Caroline says
Caroline says she can't help but be mean
or cruel, or oh so it seems
Oh, Caroline says, Caroline says
She say she doesn't want a man who leans
Still she is my Germanic -
- Queen
Yeah, she's my Queen
The things she does, the things she says
people shouldn't treat others that way
But at first I thought I could take it all
Just like poison in a vial
hey, she was often very vile
But of course, I thought I could take it all
Caroline says that I'm not a man
so she'll go get it catch as catch can
Oh, Caroline says, yeah, Caroline says
Caroline says moments in time
can't continue to be only mine
Oh, Caroline says, yeah, Caroline says
She treats me like I am a fool
But to me she's still a German -
- Queen, ooohhh, she's my -
- Queen, ya ...
Queen, hey baby, she's my Queen
(Queen)
(Queen)
(Queen)
(Queen)
(Queen)
(Queen)
(Queen)
(Queen)
...
05 How Do You Think It Feels (03:43)
How do you think it feels
when you're speeding and lonely, come here baby
How do you think it feels
when all you can say is if only
If only I had a little
if only I had some change, come here baby
If only, if only, if only
How do you think it feels
and when do you think it stops
How do you think it feels
when you've been up for five days, come down here mama
Hunting around always, ooohhh
'cause you're afraid of sleeping
How do you think it feels
to feel like a wolf and foxy
How do you think it feels
To always make love by proxy, huh
how do you think it feels
And when do you think it stops
when do you think it stops
06 Oh, Jim (05:12)
All your two-bit friends they're shootin' you up with pills They said that it was good for you that it would cure your ills I don't care just where it's at I'm just like an alley cat And when you're filled up to here with hate don't you know you gotta get it straight Filled up to here with hate beat her black and blue and get it straight Do, do, do, do, do, do when you're lookin' through the eyes of hate All your two-bit friends they asked you for your autograph They put you on the stage they thought it'd be good for a laugh But I don't care just where it's at 'cause honey, I'm just like an alley cat And when you're filled up to here with hate don't you know you gotta get it straight Filled up to here with hate beat her black and blue and get it straight Uh-huh Oh, Jim how could you treat me this way Hey, hey, hey how could you treat me this way Oh, Jim how could you treat me this way Hey, hey how could you treat me this way You know you broke my heart ever since you went away Now you said that you love us but you only make love to one of us Oh, oh, oh, oh, Jim how could you treat me this way You know you broke my heart ever since you went away When you're looking through the eyes of hate oh, oh, oh, oh When you're looking through the eyes of hate oh, oh, oh, oh When you're looking through the eyes of hate oh, oh, oh, oh When you're looking through the eyes of hate oh, oh, oh, oh When you're looking through the eyes of hate oh, oh, oh, oh When you're looking through the eyes of hate oh, oh, oh, oh ...
08 The Kids (07:53)
They're taking her children away
Because they said she was not a good mother
They're taking her children away
Because she was making it with sisters and brothers
And everyone else, all of the others
Like cheap officers who would stand there and flirt in front of me
They're taking her children away
Because they said she was not a good mother
They're taking her children away
Because of the things that they heard she had done
The black Air Force sergeant was not the first one
And all of the drugs she took, every one, every one
And I am the Water Boy, the real game's not over here
But my heart is overflowin' anyway
I'm just a tired man, no words to say
But since she lost her daughter
It's her eyes that fill with water
And I am much happier this way
They're taking her children away
Because they said she was not a good mother
They're taking her children away
Because number on was the girl friend from Paris
The things that they did - ah - they didn't have to ask us
And then the Welshman from India, who came here to stay
They're taking her children away
Because they said she was not a good mother
They're taking her children away
Because of the things she did in the streets
In the alleys and bars, no she couldn't be beat
That miserable rotten slut couldn't turn anyone away
I am the Water Boy, the real game's not over here
But my heart is overflowin' anyway
I'm just a tired man, no words to say
But since she lost her daughter
It's her eyes that fill with water
And I am much happier this way
09 The Bed (05:51)
This is the place where she lay her head
when she went to bed at night
And this is the place our children were conceived
candles lit the room brightly at night
And this is the place where she cut her wrists
that odd and fateful night
And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling
And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling
This is the place where we used to live
I paid for it with love and blood
And these are the boxes that she kept on the shelf
Filled with her poetry and stuff
And this is the room where she took the razor
and cut her wrists that strange and fateful night
And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling
And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling
I never would have started if I'd known
that it's end this way
But funny thing, I'm not at all sad
that it stopped this way
This is the place where she lay her head
when she went to bed at night
And this is the place our children were conceived
candles lit the room brightly at night
And this is the place where she cut her wrists
That odd and fateful night
And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling
And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling
10 Sad Song (06:59)
Staring at my picture book
she looks like Mary, Queen of Scots
She seemed very regal to me
just goes to show how wrong you can be
I'm gonna stop wastin' my time
Somebody else would have broken both of her arms
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
My castle, kids and home
I thought she was Mary, Queen of Scots
I tried so very hard
shows just how wrong you can be
I'm gonna stop wasting time
Somebody else would have broken both of her arms
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
...
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Other reviews
By hans
"He could have recorded 'Transformer 2-transformer 3' and other versions of 'Walk on the wild side.' But instead, he decided to undertake the most courageous act ever seen in pop history."
"Berlin. The absolute masterpiece (among the many) of the New York author deserves a place among the greatest records of the 20th century."
By luca reed
Berlin is a record that wounds, shocks, destroys.
An unattainable album that forces the listener to immerse into the coils of a gloomy atmosphere.
By AR (Anonima Recensori)
Here Reed strips himself bare, poetically, cruel towards himself.
"I am the water-boy" captures the excessive emotionality and vulnerability conveyed throughout the album.
By carlo cimmino
One evening I put on "Berlin." It was raining outside. I floated in a shabby and dusty leather armchair and in the dark, I listened in reverent silence, when I understood.
I had too many problems and she didn’t want to be involved. She was tired of being with someone who only played the role of the loser.
By Meco
The main problem is Lou Reed himself, with his monotonous, clinical, and borderline unmelodic singing.
Essentially, the album sounds bad, and not because the arrangements are intentionally sparse, but because it often lacks a fundamental blend between the various components.
