Sabotage/Live [Bonus Tracks]

RELEASE
LABEL
Diesel Motor
GENRES
Pop/Rock, Experimental, Art Rock, Proto-Punk

Album Review

Though Lou Reed is often thought of as the abrasive member of the Velvet Underground, during the punk era Reed was writing confessional singer/songwriter albums while his former bandmate, John Cale, was traveling the world in the company of a band of snot-nosed youngsters raised on hard rock, shrieking himself into a frenzy, wearing a hard hat on-stage, and writing songs like "Chickenshit," a real-life tale of the time he beheaded a chicken (already dead) on stage and threw the carcass into the crowd and his whole band quit in protest, set to the most merciless music he'd been a part of since White Light/White Heat. The similarly slashed Sabotage/Live is the noisiest album of Cale's career, but there's more here than volume and feedback. Recorded live at punk mecca CBGB's, the nine songs range from the howling "Mercenaries (Ready for War)" to the more reflective, dirge-like "Captain Hook," a sardonic epic meditation on British colonialism that's every bit as powerful as the louder, faster tracks. [For completists, the CD version includes the three tracks (including "Chickenshit") from 1977's Animal Justice EP and the rare B-side "Rosegarden Funeral of Sores," later covered by Bauhaus.]
Stewart Mason, Rovi

Track Listing

  1. Mercenaries (Ready for War)
  2. Baby You Know
  3. Evidence
  4. Dr Mudd
  5. Walking The Dog
  6. Captain Hook
  7. Only Time Will Tell
  8. Sabotage
  9. Chorale
  10. Chickenshift
  11. Memphis
  12. Hedda Gabler
  13. Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores