Broadcast on SkyArts1
Costello welcomes rock star Lou Reed to his show, where he discusses
his career, jams with his host and gives fantastic performances of hits
such as ‘Perfect Day’ and ‘Sweet Jane’.
Lineage:Sky+box-->recorder-->DVD-->YOU
MPEG2
Menu: Yes Basic
Chapters: Yes
Format: PAL 16:9 720x576
Pics 25.000 /Frames 25.000 / Fields 50.000
Audio AC3 0xbd[0x80]:48000Hz 256 kb/s tot , stereo (2/0)
Number of Discs:1
Disc Type: DVD5
What else would one expect when you get Elvis Costello interviewing Lou Reed?
And then, for good measure, getting Lou's best friend, artist/director
Julian Schnabel, up on stage for a wide-ranging, not ready for prime time
(fitting, as the whole thing took place in the fabled NBC Studio 8H where SNL
has held court all these years) rumble.
Elvis is a good interviewer and host. He's smart -- but you could already tell that
from his songs. Hearing two major songwriters going at it about
their craft is bracing. And Lou Reed, if anyone's got stories, he does.
Lou was a little out of it at first. But as the conversation wound on,
from memories of songwriter/boxing fan/gambler Doc Pomus (both Costello and
Reed wished to whatever version of God they worship they had been able to come
up with a song like "Save the Last Dance for Me") to tales of writing hot-rod
songs for Pickwick Records, Lou warmed up. By the time Schnabel got out there
and started riffing on Lou's Berlin album, the envelope was pushed. To say the least.
And it sunk in -- here were three guys who didn't have to kow-tow to anybody.
As contrived as Schnabel's appearance feels, it works. He is, truly, out there.
As is Lou. The conversation ranged, widely, from the artistic inspiration for
the shot of Bauby on the platform in the sea in Diving Bell and the Butterfly
(off script) to the right way to play the riff of “Sweet Jane†to Elvis's
eating habits when he was living with his first band, to gentrification and Brooklyn
rock. In short, daring. Fascinating.
This was not "edgy" in the marketing sense. When Schnabel described how Lou Reed
came over to his apartment and grasped his dead father's hand "while it was
still warm," it was in a whole new realm.
And after all this talk, nobody in the room, or Elvis, wanted to stop, Lou Reed and
Elvis Costello played two duets that should be preserved for eternity.
The lithe Reed, almost frail, assumed stolidity, strength and force; the powerful,
ample Costello became lithe and supple. Song one: an elegiac, acoustic guitar
and piano (Steve Nieve jet-fresh from Paris helping out) version of
Reed's "Perfect Day," and a blistering, two-electric-guitar version of his "Set the Twilight Reeling" that was unquestionably the finest rock being played on our planet at that particular moment. When Reed turned his fuzz box on, well, he showed why as a bandleader he could be called the Duke Ellington of rock. He started, built, and ended each song with Duke-like perfection, timing, that took one's breath away.
But the moment that lingers is when Schnabel, impromptu, recited the complete
lyrics of "Rock Minuet," from Reed's album Ecstasy, channeling Lou Reed and
Andy Warhol and Allen Ginsberg - even Walt Whitman. And Lou mouthing the words,
at his side, his eyes closed. The first line: “Paralyzed by hatred and a piss
ugly soul.
Uploaded to MWP by Other 16th July 2013
Elvis Lou
