Lou Reed remains one of the greatest and most impactful songwriters that the United States of America has ever produced. Today, fans and casual listeners can again be reminded of his superior skills as a performer as well thanks to a brand new live recording of his immortal Velvet Underground classic “Sweet Jane,” taken from a show performed at the Bottom Line in New York City back on February 2, 1994.
This new song is part of a planned archival release titled, Lou Reed and Kris Kristofferson: In Their Own Words with Vin Scelsa that’s set to drop next month on September 15. Lou shared the stage with Kristofferson for a number of different cuts that night in the iconic New York club, but the country star was excluded from the take on “Sweet Jane” that you can hear above. Actually, he tries to insert himself into the song with his patented harmonica, but Reed shoots him down. “See me after the show,” Reed deadpans once the song ends.
“All of the songs where Lou plays by himself, you can hear the audience hanging on every word and every sound, Gregg Bendian, the Bottom Line’s archivist and producer of the Bottom Line Archive Series, told Billboard. Throughout the whole evening the audience is gasping. The audience is laughing. The audience is interacting with [Reed and Kristofferson]. Lou just lets it all hang out. He’s funny, he’s irascible, he’s sarcastic. It’s a full Lou experience, and it’s very pared down and very raw.”
Indeed, it’s all of that and more.
