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MINT! 1972 RARE ORIG LP + LYRICS BOOK ~ LOU REED = BERLIN Suicide & Drugs Psych

Sold Date: April 30, 2017
Start Date: April 25, 2017
Final Price: $46.01 (USD)
Bid Count: 10
Seller Feedback: 17440
Buyer Feedback: 9

This item is not for sale. Gripsweat is an archive of past sales and auctions, none of the items are available for purchase.


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                ORIGINAL 1973 FIRST PRESS
             BEAUTIFUL TOP COPY + BOOKLET

                                ..

                ... LOU REED ...

                        Berlin     

    

                                     

                USA - (Orange) RCA - APL 1 - 0207



ORIGINAL 1973 FIRST PRINTING ..... with booklet lyrics insert ...

BLACK inner sleeve, original to the first press ...

TOP COPY .... final collection "mint" collectible

....................................................................................................................................................................................

Lou went for Baroque on his third solo album, singing about such light subjects as suicide and drug abuse over grandiose Bob Ezrin production.
Eternally perverse, Reed responded to having a pop hit with Transformer by making a massive bummer of an album, built around reworked versions of a couple of older songs. Berlin is psychologically grueling and unremittingly dark (scariest moment: "The Kids," which ends with a very long tape of children screaming in terror), but the savage contrasts of its sound have gotten more impressive with time. The big production flourishes hit like a hangover, Reed's voice sounds like he's trying to stave off emotional involvement with his lyrics because it would hurt too much, and the multi-layered textures of "Oh Jim" surge and recede like details of a nightmare. The album takes strength to hear, and rewards it. Lou Reed's "Berlin" is perhaps the darkest album ever made. That said, it is a masterpiece. The subject matter is unremittingly bleak but the lyrics are startling in both their empathy and detachment. In "The Kids" Reed sings, "They're Taking Her Children Away", and it is about just that, chronicalling the disintegrating life of a single mother, "Caroline Says Pt 1" tells the tale of an uberbitch and the man who licks her boots, while "Caroline Says Pt 2" (same Caroline?) offers the contrast of a beaten and abused speed freak at the end of her rope. The utter apotheosis of despair is realized with "The Bed", in which a man takes us on a mordantly matter-of-fact tour of the apartment in which his wife, and the mother of his children lived, loved and killed herself. It is absolutely unapproachable as a hymn of resigned desolation. "This is the room where she took the razor...and I said, Oh, what a feeling." The orchestration of "Berlin" is likewise stunning, ranging from full-on horns and strings ("Caroline Pt 1") to bare acoustic minimalism ("The Bed"). All in all there is nothing in music I can compare Lou Reed's "Berlin" to. It is perfect in its despair, but not for the clinically depressed.

Berlin 3:23 Lady Day 3:40 Men Of Good Fortune 4:37 Caroline Says I 3:57 How Do You Think It Feels 3:42 Oh, Jim 5:13 Caroline Says II 4:10 The Kids 7:55 The Bed 5:51 Sad Song 6:55


              

 

CONDITION: The cover: rated: M- TOP COPY, sharp and clean all over... remains with a fresh appearance, no delete marks, no split seams, no bends, and no writing ... VERY collection worthy rarity ...

The vinyl: Rated: M- TOP COPY, smooth and clear all the way ...very enjoyable CLEAN audio ...NO distracting surface problems ... both RCA labels are clean

The lyrics insert/pages are all mint

      

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!








 

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

 

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record

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