(Extract from my essay on Lou Reed's 1973 record, Berlin, 'The Hamlet of electricity' that I published some years ago - read it here).
So beautiful the classic rendition, with the sensitive piano accompaniment provided by John Cale, especially the way it works with/against the jarring guitar when it comes in. Compare it with this perhaps more standard version from the same year, recorded in New York.
I'm still looking for my favourite, though where Lou Reed introduces it with words to the effect that this is his Marlene Dietrich number. That said, the vocal delivery on the album version is so touching, the way it holds back.
In the essay I spent time concentrating on the track 'Oh Jim' which I still think is one of the most intelligent, subtle songs I have ever heard in terms of the way it unsettles perspective.