We'll Always Have Paris

After years spent floating in bootleg obscurity, Lou Reed, John Cale, and Nico's legendary 1972 concert at Paris's Bataclan club has finally surfaced as an official release, under the title Le Bataclan '72. Delivered in a casual and intimate tone that recalls the Velvet Underground's self-titled third album, the performances are simple and unadorned, with Reed on acoustic guitar, Cale on guitar, piano, and viola, and Nico on her signature harmonium. Each take turns performing their own material (eight Reed originals, three by Cale, and three by Nico), drawing both from the first Velvet Underground album (the only other recording on which all three performed) and later solo projects. While the mix of songs isn't entirely ideal--Cale's are not his best, and Reed's only scratch the surface of the wealth of great material he had written up to this point--the performances are direct and jarring.

The most impressive moments belong to Reed, whose thick and resonant voice renders his readings of Velvets classics like "Waiting for the Man" and "Heroin" compelling. Both songs are stark and minimal in arrangement, but pack an emotional punch that equals or exceeds those of the more fully-arranged original versions. Reed's introductory comments are an added bonus, as he hilariously delivers deadpan remarks like "This is a song about scoring drugs in New York" or "This is a song called 'Wild Child.' It's about a wild child, funnily enough" to a puzzled French-speaking audience.

But, not all the highlights of the recording belong to Reed. Nico's vocal performances are impressive and otherworldly, particularly on her harmonium-accompanied originals "No One is There" and "Frozen Warnings," both highlights from her Cale-produced solo album, The Marble Index.

Cale, for whatever reason, performs two songs that ended up never appearing in any other form--probably a result of his estimation of their worth. But, "Ghost Story," from his solo debut, Vintage Violence, does fit in quite nicely between Reed and Nico's compositions. Still, Bataclan's set list makes Cale seem more like a sideman than a substantial performer in his own right. This false impression results from the lack of performance time he receives relative to Reed and Nico. Despite his position on the album, his contributions to the Velvet Underground, and to Nico's subsequent solo albums, should not be underestimated.

Appropriately, the concert peaks when all three performers join forces on the last pre-encore number, a rendition of Reed's "I'll Be Your Mirror." Here, the trio's steely-cool voices take on an unexpectedly childlike cast as they join in harmony, creating a bizarre musical blend that is simultaneously sweet and sinister.

While the album's sound quality may not be up to professional standards, its shortcomings actually enhance the performances more than they detract from them: the static and distortion only add to the ragged and gritty feel of the songs, and give the vocals a textured, antique quality particularly suitable for Nico's droning medieval chants. Light years away from the polished studio projects that Reed and Cale were working on the time, Bataclan sounds like a musical message from a primitive past, a kind of medieval minstrel show miraculously transposed to modern-day Paris. A rare meeting of three iconoclastic and enigmatic artists, Le Bataclan 72 is a staggeringly beautiful and haunting affair, essential even for the casual Velvet Underground fan.