The intricate, extensive and sublimely rocking introduction to "Sweet Jane" which opens ROCK & ROLL ANIMAL must have made many of this album's earliest buyers think they'd fallen victim to a record company foul-up. Surely the soaring guitars, thundering bass and tight, swirling drums with which they were confronted couldn't have had anything to do with Lou Reed, legendarily laconic purveyor of atonal drones and decadent, rambling anecdotes. But sure enough, after three and a half minutes all that virtuosic showboating somehow morphed into the beloved Velvet Underground classic, with Reed tossing off his lines in a voice by turns sardonic, indifferent and haunted. The result was, and still is, an album both the hardcore Reed fan and the Reed-hating hard rocker can dig, an eminently successful experiment in classic seventies metal from a man whose prior recordings had firmly established him at the opposite pole of the sonic spectrum.
In truth, however, ANIMAL is less a Lou Reed album than an album of Lou Reed songs as (stunningly) interpreted by what was then Alice Cooper's touring band. The leader's presence here, while significant in establishing the requisite dark, dissipated and druggy ambience, is ultimately more counterpoint than fulcrum. Instead, it's the beautiful picking of guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, Ray Colcord's nightmarish organ runs and the stop-on-a-dime interplay of bassist Prakash John and drummer Pentti Glan that are the real story, offering up post-Allman Brothers reinventions of Velvets nuggets like "Heroin," "White Light, White Heat" and "Rock & Roll" as well as several tracks from Reed's outrageously underrated BERLIN LP. What starts out looking like the most awkward of musical marriages ends up being one of rock's all-time greatest live albums, its dynamism literally unflagging from one end to the other. Recommended for...well, you.

For those of you looking to purchase this c.d. you might be interested to know that there is another c.d. called "Lou Reed Live" that is the rest of this concert. It took me years to find, thanks to the help of the internet, but it is just as good as this disc. If you've already had this album, then you probably like me thought it wasn't long enough? Thanks to the newly released version with bonus tracks it has been made better. But if that's still not enough, here's the answer. The "extended version" is available but it's basically the same as the original but with "explicit" lyrics included. Also included is Reed's best band ever! So if your buying Rock & Roll Animal you've got to make it a 2 pack & get "Live"! The complete show is worth the price of admission!

Lou Reed's Rock and Roll Animal completely blew me away. It is completely different than most of Lou's other material. First of all, the setlist is great. It includes four great songs by the Velvet Underground; Sweet Jane, Heroin, White Light / White Heat, and Rock and Roll. It also contains three great songs from Berlin; Caroline Says I, Lady Day and How Do You Think It Feels. Each song is done incredibly. The Intro into Sweet Jane is great. Following this, Lou and the band rip through Heroin, doing a 13 minute version that is fairly different than the original, but still great. The two extra tracks, How Do You Think It Feels and Caroline Says I are two of the best songs from Berlin, and these recordings are just as good as the album, if not better. You even hear Lou tell the audience to shut up before starting a song. The version of White Light / White Heat is even louder than the original. The version of Lady Day done is even better than the album version on Berlin. The album closes with a great version of Rock and Roll, with a funky rhythm solo in the middle. The overall effect of the album is incredible. It makes you feel like you are actually at the show. If you are a fan of Lou, you will love this album. You'll love it even if you aren't a fan. It makes a good starting place for Lou Reed. Especially with the two extra songs, Rock and Roll Animal is one of the greatest live albums of all time.

Lou Reed fans remain divided over this one and even Reed himself reportedly declared a strong opinion (against) its artistic validity. Yet it remains amongst Reed's most celebrated and controversial albums.
The reason for this is obvious, or at least it is obvious to any musician listening to it - "its the BAND man". The rhythm section is a decade ahead of its time, Prakash John blazing a path on bass that many rock (and more than a few jazz) artists were to follow. The arrangements are precisely thought through and well rehearsed, this outfit was tight, and the set is presented as it was performed, with no overdubs [edit 2008: having transcribed the Intro (Sweet Jane) I now believe there to three, perhaps four, guitar parts in this piece, suggesting overdubs to the track].
On guitars hired gun master musicians Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner (also credit Wagner for most of the arrangements) kick Reed's Velvet Underground material into a space Reed possibly hadn't totally prepared himself for. This is pure rock, high voltage rock , raw, totally-controlled-yet-live rock and roll. The terms glam-rock and heavy-metal are simply inapplicable.
The band aside, Reed's contribution is also superb, even powerful, despite his less than prominent level within the mix. Regardless of the contentions of some critics this isn't Lou Reed plus an overpowering backing band, it's a cohesive and sonically democratic ensemble. Whoever originally mixed this concert also understood this essential fact.
It will persist as one of the era's finest live rock recordings.

An argument can be made that this is the greatest live rock'n'roll album of all time. Certainly, it is on the best albums of the 1970s and you don't have to like Lou Reed at all to buy it! Moreover, found herein are the definitive versions of Reed's Velvet Underground canon: "Sweet Jane," "White Light/White Heat," and "Heroin." Most of Lou Reed's other solo work is self-absorbed, self-pitying and musically thin. "Rock'n'Roll Animal" contains some of the greatest rock guitar work--period. Guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunters' playing is blistering, snarling, inspired, and absolutely rocking. Forced to compete with this powerful back-up band, Reed has to shout and fight to deliver his vocals over the smoldering accompaniment. But it works. Reed's normally monotone and off-kilter singing sounds animated and inspired. Be sure to buy the recently re-mastered version (the one with purple photographs of Reed on the back) which contains two additional songs ("How Do You Think It Feels" and "Caroline Says I"). Rock'n'Roll animal indeed!