Rock is a Four Letter Word

Rip It Up, Issue 25, 1 August 1979, Page 10

Rock is a Four Letter Word

William Dart

Lou Reed Take No Prisoners RCA My copy of this now-notorious album had a nifty little label attached to its frontside warning "This Album is Offensive". To be true such appendages have a certain chic quality,, but the great Lenny. Bruce could spend an hour analysing the meaningless of such a statement. Offensive .to whom? Offensive, because of what? Offensive perhaps to the many people that Reed slings off at ‘ during - his spoken monologues a. galaxy of personalities including Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Patti Smith, Candy Darling and . rock critics in general, with particular reference to Robert Christgau. Not everyone wants to be described as a.toe’f**ker,-and anyone who still flinches when that four letter colloquialism for sexual intercourse is mentioned would be advised to steer clear of this particular vinyl twin set. Now, Reed as a rock’n’ roll Lenny Bruce. Certainly the raps which take up a good deal of the album, and “Walk on the Wild Side" in particular; recall the American satirist. But Reed’s visions are less personal and more distanced from himself, and he has none of Bruce’s basic proselytising spirit. And whereas Bruce's work was in the form of mini-these of logic, Reed just fires out random ideas at his audience ranging from quotes from Yeats to streams of four letter words hurled at the audience. -

Like Beethoven in his way, Reed is striving beyond the limitations of music. This may be seen in the 17 minute "Walk on the Wild Side" where long spoken interludes ‘open out’ the characters of the original song oh for a similar job on “Wild Child" or Nico’s "Chelsea Girls"! It’s really like an underground Rona Barrett transformed into high art. The same spirit can also be seen in the bleak "Street Hassle" with all of its studio arrangements and trimmings castrated, leaving the barest of musical skeletons. Then there is a quite heartrending “Coney Island Baby”, a song of obvious personal relevance to Reed. Reed's band is tight, although the backing singers are amazingly casual in their work for .those accustomed to the immaculately tailored choruses of the studio "Walk on the Wild Side”. Stylistically the album ranges from some fairly funky jamming on “I Wanna Be Black” through the quite Baroque keyboard stylings of "Satellite of Love” to a version of "I'm Waiting For the Man” that defines ’laidback’ for all time. Take No Prisoners makes it as a documentary as much as a ‘work of art’ an important record of a great rock'n’roll animal caged for a few hours, sometimes snarling, occasionally purring but never letting his audience slip away for a minute. And who knows the shrieked accusation of "Rock'n’Roll Whore” from the audience may become as celebrated as the "Judas” hurled at Dylan during his 1966 Albert Hall Concert.