Lou Reed – Sally Can't Dance

Mastered in Toronto. The Canadian pressing sounds fantastic. Love the Dynaflex!

A half-assed bored tired indifferent but charming Lou Reed by numbers but still interesting listenable & entertaining in its weird way. The excellent studio musicians knock these barely-there hard rock/funk songs into something fairly decent.
Good but not a great.
My copy:
Matrix: S.1: L1 0611A A1B

This is arguably the best sounding recording of Lou Reed's 1970s output. I only have this regular Dynaflex US pressing, but the recording sounds good enough to match some Steely Dan recordings of the same period. A few cringe moments here & there, but it's still Lou Reed, backed by some very good studio aces.

Alright, it’s NOT Lou at his best, but to my ears it sounds like the perfect stepping stone between Berlin and Coney Island Baby. And it displays elements of both (of course it does!). The live LPs that bookend this release almost seem like the work of another artist, featuring Reed’s Transformer/ Berlin touring ensemble.
In the studio Lou displays a more forward-facing momentum. A movement that doesn’t NEED to reference his past, except as a stylistic musical journey, updating from the past, morphing not the future. This momentum is certainly laid back in places (of course it is - it’s 1974 baby!) in other places he shows his dark side (Kill Your Sons) as well as his funkier side (Sally Can’t Dance). And it’s all a hip NY style that musically underpins much of this LP and it’s studio follow up, Coney island Baby.
That he pre-empted Bowie and all of the “Plastic Soul” bandwagon jumpers is just Lou: ahead of the curve, as he had been since the start of his career. After all he lived in the most influential, decadent, and vital city on the planet in 1974.
So he was there at cultural ground zero, from the VU onwards. Now I think it’s time to re-evaluate SCD. It’s high time all us listeners open our ears to Lou’s “where-I’m-at-in-’74” LP with a fresh perspective, unhindered by out-of-date standards.
Who knows, you might even consider giving it 4 stars.
And maybe even shake your ass a little to Lou’s funk.
Maybe?

My copy of Lou Reed - Sally Can't Dance has inverted labels. . . .

Lou Reed - Sally Can't Dance is a really fine pressing. Probably the best available.

Underrated album. Maybe because of a sometimes overly produced sound with much backing vocals and horns. And one weak tune, Animal Language, which has got a prominent placement as second track side one. But the record really grows on you and has stood the time test well. Personal favourites: Billy, a fine short story with acoustic music added, guitar and saxophone. Kill Your Sons, Ride Sally Ride and title track are Reed classics. And N.Y. Stars has a sound to it, that points towards Bowies Station To Station later in the same decade.

Maybe I'm just weird but I have always loved this record. I can sense the emotion and feeling of the songs. The title track is a rock-n-roll classic if ever there was...

My original USA copy is a cut out ( bottom left) still shrink wrapped with a black&white RCA sticker top right. Underrated Lou Reed album. Choice cuts'Kill Your Sons"&Billy.

In my version of this record the order of tracks "Billy" and "Ennui" is switched