For a man who at first made his money as a professional song writer, soon after turning his attention to his own performances in the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed is enmeshed in a series of projects aimed at recalling his writerly heyday.

Most recently, a book of his lyrics has been meticulously arranged and prepared for publication. Just released by De Capo Press, the almost five hundred page tome, Pass Thru Fire, assembles a body of work that has spanned a few decades, numerous stylistic adaptations and unknowable personal peaks and valleys. The words at times may border on shock for shocks sake, but in 1967 that was a new concept to music – there was no Trent Reznor. There was no C-Murder.

If that weren’t enough, Reed, in collaboration with Matador Records, released a live performance of the 1973 album Berlin. A stark and unsettling set of tracks, that some may recognize portions of from later day Velvet Underground bootlegs and compilations, the scope and focus of Berlin is made even more unsettling when examined backwards through the Transformer album released the previous year. While not an upbeat group of songs in the least, Berlin tells of two drug addled lovers amidst drastically different production values than Reed’s previous work.

Fans might assume that the performance was culled from one of his good evenings seeing as during the time that this disc was recorded, Reed was (as he still is) perceived to be a bit moody at best. The drugs probably didn’t help too much.

Tracklisting:
1. Intro
2. Berlin
3. Lady Day
4. Men Of Good Fortune
5. Caroline Says, Pt. I
6. How Do You Think It Feels
7. Oh, Jim
8. Caroline Says, Pt. II
9. The Kids
10. The Bed
11. Sad Song
12. Candy Says
13. Rock Minuet
14. Sweet Jane