Keith Doughty discusses songs, albums and artists that are unappreciated, unknown, and/or unfairly-maligned by the general public. This is Hidden Tracks.

Lou Reed - "Oh Jim"

All your two-bit friends
they're shootin' you up with pills

Although it is looked back on much more fondly now, Lou Reed’s 3^rd album, Berlin, was largely reviled at the time of its release in 1973. In its review of the album Rolling Stone stated that “there are certain records that are so patently offensive that one wishes to take some kind of physical vengeance on the artists that perpetrate them”. In other words, they did not enjoy it. Coming on the heels of his hit album Transformer, which yielded the top twenty single “Walk on the Wild Side”, Berlin is certainly not what audiences were expecting. Despite being released only one year apart, the two albums are very different.

Reed replaced Transformer producers (and glam rock extraordinaires) David Bowie and Mick Ronson with Bob Ezrin, who at that time was best known for producing Alice Cooper records and would go on to produce Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Instead of utilizing the more traditional rock instrumentation he did on Transformer (such as his own electric guitar playing), Reed brought in a slew of session musicians including such notable names as Jack Bruce (Cream bassist), Steve Winwood (Traffic, Blind Faith organist), Aynsley Dunbar (Journey drummer). The combination of Bob Ezrin and the session musicians leads Berlin to have a very full, theatrical sound although it can also be too polished and overbearing.

But the thing that people found most strange and off-putting about Berlin was Reed’s songwriting. Whereas Transformer was filled with fun, largely upbeat songs, Berlin is a downright depressing album. The songs form a loose storyline about the downfall of two lovers in Berlin. Typical song topics include drug addiction, physical abuse, childhood trauma and suicide.

But despite the somewhat questionable production and bleak lyrical content, Berlin is actually a really good album. Many of the songs date back to Lou Reed’s Velvet Underground days when he was in peak songwriting form. The album also features some of Reed’s finest vocal performances, during which he artfully balances singing and speaking (unlike later in his career when he would learn too heavily on the speaking part). The album is depressing, but the story it tells is also compelling. It also doesn’t hurt to have the drummer from Journey on your album; that guy is awesome.

It’s the drummer of Journey that starts off one of my favorite songs on Berlin, “Oh Jim.” The song begins with a tom-tom heavy beat while a deep droning sound ominously pulsates along with it. It gets louder and louder until finally a few snare hits lead to the verse. Lou Reed snarls the line I quote above and is immediately followed by a snappy horn section. The contrast between his dark lyrics and the upbeat horns continues throughout the first half of the song. During this half of “Oh Jim,” Lou Reed sings from the perspective of the abusive boyfriend character that is angry about his wife singing in bars, something that an earlier song established she loves to do but may be leading her down a dark path. Lou Reed as the boyfriend vows to “beat her black and blue and get it straight."

At around the halfway point of the song there is an instrumental break with lots of drums, horns and a prominent guitar solo. This goes on for a minute until it fades into an acoustic guitar strumming a single chord. Reed begins to sing a new melody, but this time he is singing from the perspective of the abused girlfriend. As the girlfriend, Reed asks “Oh Jim, how could you treat me this way?” The chord progression for this section is a simple I, IV, V progression and the instrumentation is just acoustic guitar. What makes this part of the song is Reed’s delivery of the melody and lyrics. The song ends with Reed repeating the line “when you’re looking through the eyes of hate, oh oh oh” over and over again. Taken together, “Oh Jim” is a powerful, disturbing, yet catchy song that illustrates Lou Reed’s strengths as a songwriter and a performer.

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Keith Doughty is a non-profit finance professional who in his spare time dabbles in music, politics, and interesting food. He lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Contact him at neuroticmonkey.