LOU REED
Palace Theatre
Dayton
27 October 1974
with some tracks from the Felt Forum, New York, 09 October 1974

soundboard recording

disc 1
D101 Tuning* 1.26
D102 Intro* 2.38
D103 Sweet Jane* 5.21
D104 Vicious* 6.26
D105 Ride Sally Ride 4.24
D106 Heroin 11.13
D107 Kill Your Sons 7.35
D108 NY Stars 5.00

disc 2
D201 Animal Language 3.08
D202 Waiting For The Man/Sally Can’t Dance 9.38
D203 Bass Solo 3.46
D204 Walk On The Wild Side* 4.26
D205 White Light White Heat 5.40
D206 NY Telephone Conversation/Goodnight Ladies 1.44
D207 Rock And Roll 12.38

*Tracks D101, D102, D103, D104 and D204 are MONO soundboard recordings from the Felt Forum, New York, 09 October 1974

The remaining tracks are STEREO soundboard recordings from the Palace Theatre, Dayton, 27 October 1974

Lou Reed: vocals. amphetamines, foul language
Danny Weiss: guitar
Prakash John: bass (definitely tracks D101, D102, D103, D104, D204 and possibly all the others)
Peter Hodgeson (?): bass (possibly the tracks recorded at Dayton)
Michael Fonfara: keyboards
Peter “Mouse” Johnson: drums

Notes from the original uploader:

The late 1974 US tour to promote “Sally Can’t Dance” was Lou’s amphetamine and alcohol – fuelled assault on the unsuspecting youth of North America. The RCA publicity machine had moved into top gear, but Lou was speeding way, way ahead of them. While they were pushing him as a user-friendly glam-rock/white soul superstar, he was dying iron crosses in his hair, living with a half-Mexican transsexual called Rachel and (simulating) shooting up on stage. The new LP and 45 were being being heavily promoted via nationwide TV ads featuring our man in trademark leather jacket, blonde hair and shades (…follow the bouncing ball and sing along with Lou…..). Whatever RCA were doing, it worked, and “Sally” was in the US top 10 LP chart. Lou was later quoted as saying “….I slept through that LP – whatever they suggested I said yes….”. It seemed that the further Lou descended into self-parody, the more records he sold, and the more pressure RCA put on him to produce even more “product”. This would ultimately backfire in mid 1975, when he vomited up “Metal Machine Music” and then had a very public breakdown during the Australian leg of the ’75 world tour. Lou wouldn’t perform in public again until late 1976.

I think this is a simply outstanding show. Lou may be out of it, but the band most certainly are not. I love the way you can hear Lou slapping the mic stand at the end of “Vicious”. The vocals alternate between detached and manic throughout this set, but are particularly expressive during “Kill Your Sons” (surely the best EVER live version of this song). It’s as if he’s standing on the edge of a cliff and he’s just about to jump off because he KNOWS he can fly. This tour was the only outing for “NY Stars” and “Animal Language” – these live renditions sound better than the studio versions to me. You can hear him sneering as he spits out the words to “NY Stars”. It sounds as if someone broke a string during “Animal Language”: the band start a loose jam while it’s being replaced. Lou starts vamping the words to “Waiting” during the jam, and just continues singing it when the band move on to the “Sally Can’t Dance” riff. The end result is a unique medley of “Waiting” and “Sally” (you have to wonder how long it took Lou to realise he was singing the wrong song – he did pretty much the same at the Chalmette show in November, singing “Vicious” while the band played “Sweet Jane”). “White Light White Heat” is a heavy metal prototype for every late 1970s punk band. “Goodnight Ladies” is a gas, with the whole band gathering round the microphone – you can (just) hear someone in the background asking where the “Jacks” (Jack Daniels) is…..they were having a good time. “Rock And Roll” is simply sublime.

The stereo recording made at Dayton was missing “Intro/Sweet Jane” and part of “Vicious” and there was a tape break during “Wild Side”: mono soundboard recordings from the New York concert have been used to replace those songs.