Lou Reed RIP

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Lou and VU were a big part of the soundtrack of my life at a very dark time, and not in a "good influence" way. I was spiraling down into a chemical haze, and if I had not straightened out, I would have found myself going for opiates. Used to listen to The Velvet Underground and Nico quite a bit. "Heroin" sounded like something I could relate to...

 

Fortunately, I got my shit together and straightened out completely: no drugs or alcohol for over 24 years now. I put the VU albums on a shelf for a while, but at a certain point was able to get back into listening, and even expand the collection. I still prefer mostly VU material to Lou's solo career, but there are highlights and lowlights of both. In any event, he was a legend for sure, and his death feels like the end of an era, somehow.

[ih8music]

"To me, 'RIP' is the microwave dinner of posthumous honours" - Lou Reed

 

[LouieB]

Very sad. Hearing the first album was a revelation back in the 60s. Sad to see him go.

 

LouieB

[jw harding]

Only saw him once, at the Chicago Theater in 2000, while he was supporting Ecstasy. Great, great, powerful show.

That was the only time I saw him too. Great show, great band. They really jammed it out.

[Ghost of Electricity]

"To me, 'RIP' is the microwave dinner of posthumous honours" - Lou Reed

 

That's a great quote.  perhaps this is better, (although I wrote for people i know in the real world):

 

It was through Lou Reed/Velvet Underground that I first became aware of Plastic People of the Universe, Charter 77, and Vaclav Havel. That in thurn led me to the slew of Czech writers whose books ultiimately drew me to Czech Republic and Karlovy Vary, and then on to Poland. But Lou was the door, the gateway drug if you will. The first time I heard the Velvets was when I visited my brother at U of I and he and his friends put on Velvet Underground and Nico. My musical world changed immediately, my real world soon followed. That was '89, maybe '90, the same time the homelands I would later adopt were going through seismic political shifts. I won't pretend to be as emotionally attached to Tadeusz Mazowiecki as to Lou Reed, but I did see a sort of bitter irony that they passed the same day. Thus great political and artistic achievements of the 20th centruy are transformed; memory becomes history. Today I feel a little older and a great deal sadder.

[Analogman]

I'll admit that I'm not too familiar with most of Lou's work as a solo artist or with the VU. I downloaded a copy of their eponymous 1969 record back in college and listen to it a few times a year. Listening to Loaded now and realizing I have some catching up to do. It's easy to hear how a song like "Who Loves the Sun" was largely influential on Jeff Tweedy's writing of classic pop songs. Must be why Wilco covered it at Solid Sound this year.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk4CtcxfpQ0

 

If you end up getting them all  - don't forget Another View and VU, plus the boxset. I have the Fully Loaded edition of Loaded that came out in 1997. I think there have been other re-issues since then. Of course - Loaded is a different animal than The Velvet Underground & Nico, White Light/White Heat, and The Velvet Underground. The only solo album of Lou's I ever got was New Sensations (1984). I don't recall anyone listening to him or The Velvet Underground when I was a growing up. I don't know how I ended up buying that album. I do recall getting into the band (VU) in 1985. I think someone I was in the military with taught me about them.

 

I was reading something on Billboard this morning that stated Lulu (with Metallica) was the almost biggest album he had - with regards to sales. It's a strange world. I was never much into NY bands, outside of The Ramones/Blondie/The Velvet Underground and a few others.

 

Speaking of the 1980s. I wonder if anyone recalls the movie Lou was in - Get Crazy (1983). I saw that movie on one of those late teenage nights watching Cinemax - most likely.

 

 

Riding a Stutz Bear Cat, Jim

ya know, those were different times

all the poets studied rules of verse

and those ladies they rolled their eyes

[Fritz]

"Life's like

bacon and ice cream

that's what life's like

without you..."

[choo-choo-charlie]

If you end up getting them all  - don't forget Another View and VU, plus the boxset. I have the Fully Loaded edition of Loaded that came out in 1997. I think there have been other re-issues since then. Of course - Loaded is a different animal than The Velvet Underground & Nico, White Light/White Heat, and The Velvet Underground. The only solo album of Lou's I ever got was New Sensations (1984). I don't recall anyone listening to him or The Velvet Underground when I was a growing up. I don't know how I ended up buying that album. I do recall getting into the band (VU) in 1985. I think someone I was in the military with taught me about them.

 

I was reading something on Billboard this morning that stated Lulu (with Metallica) was the almost biggest album he had - with regards to sales. It's a strange world. I was never much into NY bands, outside of The Ramones/Blondie/The Velvet Underground and a few others.

 

Speaking of the 1980s. I wonder if anyone recalls the movie Lou was in - Get Crazy (1983). I saw that movie on one of those late teenage nights watching Cinemax - most likely.

 

Thanks for the recommendations. I listened to the main albums yesterday and liked quite a bit of the first two, but you're right that they are different animals than the others. 

[Ghost of Electricity]

theBlue Mask and New York are my faves

[winterland121072]

Just listened to coney island baby (glory of love)...

 

 

You know, man, when I was a young man in high school
you believe in or not I wanted to play football for the coach
And all those older guys
they said he was mean and cruel, but you know
wanted to play football for the coach
They said I was to little too light weight to play line-backer
so I say I'm playing right-end
wanted to play football for the coach
'Cause, you know some day, man
you gotta stand up straight unless you're gonna fall
then you're gone to die
And the straightest dude
I ever knew was standing right for me all the time
So I had to play football for the coach
and I wanted to play football for the coach

When you're all alone and lonely
in your midnight hour
And you find that your soul
it's been up for sale

And you begin to think 'bout
all the things that you've done
And you begin to hate
just 'bout everything

But remember the princess who lived on the hill
Who loved you even though she knew you was wrong
And right now she just might come shining through
and the -

- Glory of love, glory of love
glory of love, just might come through

And all your two-bit friends
have gone and ripped you off
They're talking behind your back saying, man
you're never going to be no human being
And you start thinking again
'bout all those things that you've done
And who it was and what it was
and all the different things you made every different scene

Ahhh, but remember that the city is a funny place
Something like a circus or a sewer
And just remember different people have peculiar tastes
and the -

- Glory of love, the glory of love
the glory of love, might see you through
yeah, but now, now
Glory of love, the glory of love
the glory of love, might see you through
Glory of love, ah, huh, huh, the glory of love
Glory of love, glory of love
Glory of love, now, glory of love, now
Glory of love, now, now, now, glory of love
Glory of love, give it to me now, glory of love see you through
Oh, my Coney Island baby, now
(I'm a Coney Island baby, now)
I'd like to send this one out for Lou and Rachel
and all the kids and P.S. 192
Coney Island baby
Man, I'd swear, I'd give the whole thing up for you

[Radiant Witch Face]

Just listened to coney island baby (glory of love)...

 

 

You know, man, when I was a young man in high school

you believe in or not I wanted to play football for the coach

And all those older guys

they said he was mean and cruel, but you know

wanted to play football for the coach

They said I was to little too light weight to play line-backer

so I say I'm playing right-end

wanted to play football for the coach

'Cause, you know some day, man

you gotta stand up straight unless you're gonna fall

then you're gone to die

And the straightest dude

I ever knew was standing right for me all the time

So I had to play football for the coach

and I wanted to play football for the coach

 

When you're all alone and lonely

in your midnight hour

And you find that your soul

it's been up for sale

 

And you begin to think 'bout

all the things that you've done

And you begin to hate

just 'bout everything

 

But remember the princess who lived on the hill

Who loved you even though she knew you was wrong

And right now she just might come shining through

and the -

 

- Glory of love, glory of love

glory of love, just might come through

 

And all your two-bit friends

have gone and ripped you off

They're talking behind your back saying, man

you're never going to be no human being

And you start thinking again

'bout all those things that you've done

And who it was and what it was

and all the different things you made every different scene

 

Ahhh, but remember that the city is a funny place

Something like a circus or a sewer

And just remember different people have peculiar tastes

and the -

 

- Glory of love, the glory of love

the glory of love, might see you through

yeah, but now, now

Glory of love, the glory of love

the glory of love, might see you through

Glory of love, ah, huh, huh, the glory of love

Glory of love, glory of love

Glory of love, now, glory of love, now

Glory of love, now, now, now, glory of love

Glory of love, give it to me now, glory of love see you through

Oh, my Coney Island baby, now

(I'm a Coney Island baby, now)

I'd like to send this one out for Lou and Rachel

and all the kids and P.S. 192

Coney Island baby

Man, I'd swear, I'd give the whole thing up for you

 

 

love love LOVE that song!

[auctioneer69]

First time I have posted in a long time. As the days go by the sadder I am about the news.

 

For me, simply the most influential songwriter in popular music.  There might be better songwriters (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul Simon) but nobody comes close to his influence for me.  He invented alternative music and several sub-genres thereafter. So many of the bands and artists I adore and who set a massive template for many others might never have coming into being or developed the way they did without him. Just a short list: Bowie, Iggy Pop, The New York Dolls, Joy Division, Talking Heads, Nick Cave, R.E.M., The Jesus and Mary Chain.

 

It really is difficult to overstate his influence: song-wise, sonically, visually and attitudinally.  My first love was Punk and New Wave. Whilst musically it was a rehash of R&B based rock and pop, attitude wise it was all Lou Reed and Iggy Pop.

[nalafej]

Anybody else here I'm Waiting for the Man in Wilco (The Song)? Caught it during a piece on Lou yesterday.

[uncool2pillow]

Definitely a VU style on that song.  Didn't tie it directly to Waiting for the Man, but it makes sense.

[Fritz]

A collection of very nice tributes here:

 

http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/news/37442/Iggy-Pop-Patti-Smith-and-John-Cale-lead-Lou-Reed-tributes

[LouieB]

Interesting article from the NY Times today.

 

LouieB

 

The Real-Life Stories Told in ‘Walk on the Wild Side’

 

By GUY TREBAY

 

 

Snagged from among the thousands of condolences, recollections, posthumous mash notes and encomiums launched into the Twitter slipstream last week was a message from the actress Virginia Madsen to her 74,656 followers. Lou Reed was a “cool cat,” the award-winning indie star observed. What is more, Ms. Madsen wrote, the singer’s biggest hit and most famous lyric, “Walk on the Wild Side,” once served as “encouraging words for a young Virginia.”

 

Encouragement is where you find it. Plenty about Mr. Reed’s 1972 song, from the David Bowie-produced album “Transformer,” flouted convention, beginning with the lyrics’ overt reference to prostitution, transsexuals and oral sex. Released as a single, the song went on to unlikely success as the biggest mainstream hit of the singer’s long career; more curious still, the ballad of misfits and oddballs — a hustler, a speed freak, a passel of drag queens — became an unlikely cultural anthem, a siren song luring generations of people like Ms. Madsen to a New York so long forgotten as to seem imaginary.

 

Yet those people existed, a ragtag band of “superstars” and assorted cosmic trash spinning in Andy Warhol’s orbit in the late 1960s. As Mr. Reed himself once said of the era and milieu evoked in “Walk on the Wild Side,” it “was a very funny period with a very funny group of people doing almost the same thing without anyone knowing anybody else.”

 

One of those strangers was Holly Woodlawn, the drag-queen eminence whose loopy hegira is recounted just after the hypnotic, elastic bass opening lines of Mr. Reed’s song: “Holly came from Miami, F.L.A./Hitchhiked her way across the U.S.A./plucked her eyebrows on the way/Shaved her legs and then he was a she.”

 

Speaking from her home in West Hollywood last week, Ms. Woodlawn said, “Paul Morrissey made me a star, but Lou Reed made me immortal.”

 

Ms. Woodlawn was one in a ceaselessly fluctuating cast of Factory characters — Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis, Ondine, Brigid Berlin, Rotten Rita, Andrea (Whips) Feldman, Ultra Violet, Taylor Mead — each a creation of a time that seems increasingly distant from the New York of today.

 

Even were another Candy Darling miraculously to appear, hair dyed ash blond (or “Blonde Cendre” as she liked to say); husky, affectless purr aping Kim Novak’s in “Picnic,” it is hard to imagine where she would find a place, as she did working at the Factory taking messages for Mr. Warhol from people like Luchino Visconti.

 

There is nothing, for that matter, resembling the Factory or Max’s Kansas City, Mickey Ruskin’s fabled nightclub and restaurant on Park Avenue South. There are no longer even the “rich people parties” that, as the Warhol superstar Viva explained last week, “were where we were supposed to go every night to ‘bring home the bacon’ ” — business art being, as Warhol always said, the best art.

 

Perhaps it doesn’t matter, Viva added. Hardly anyone but Warhol himself brought home any bacon: “The bacon stayed in the fridge.”

 

For the photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, a Reed intimate who came on the scene as a young Columbia student and went on to become its essential documentarian, this was substantially so. “Lou is probably the one person from the Warhol Factory who survived to become a great star in his own right,” Mr. Greenfield-Sanders said by telephone following Mr. Reed’s cremation. “If Lou hadn’t written that song, none of these characters would be remembered.”

 

By “characters,” Mr. Greenfield-Sanders meant the performers who appeared in underground films directed by Mr. Morrissey and generally credited to Warhol — evanescent creatures like Ms. Darling, né James Lawrence Slattery, or Jackie Curtis, né John Curtis Holder Jr., or Joe Dallesandro, who entered pop cultural history (not altogether wittingly) as the male hustler Little Joe.

 

“That’s not the truth about me,” Mr. Dallesandro said this week. “Lou took my character from “Flesh” and wrote about it in the song,” he added, referring to a 1968 film. “He didn’t know me. He hadn’t even met me yet when he wrote that song.”

 

Just as fiction became a kind of truth, the facts of the era have been burnished and improved on extensively enough, say those who were part of the scene, that hardly anyone knows what actually happened anymore.

 

“It’s been so mythologized,” Viva noted from her home in Palm Springs.

 

Still, she said, who ever heard of anybody running around with an inkpad saying unzip your pants, dip your penis and make a print — referring to a tome compiled by the Warhol intimate Brigid Berlin (the book was later bought by the artist and bibliophile Richard Prince for $175,000). “Nobody would ever do that anymore,” she added.

 

“That was the era of fun for fun’s sake — fun art,” Viva said, referring to the world and city of “Walk on the Wild Side.” “I have no idea what kids do for fun anymore.”

[tinnitus photography]

nice read. thanks.

 

I'll return the favor...a good piece that an acquaintance of mine wrote:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-krefting/lou-reed_b_4178090.html

[mountain bed]

^ That was REALLY good, TP. Thanks for sharing.

[tinnitus photography]

[kidsmoke]

nice read. thanks.

 

I'll return the favor...a good piece that an acquaintance of mine wrote:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-krefting/lou-reed_b_4178090.html

 

The best thing I've read yet on Lou's passing. Thanks for sharing it!

[Oil Can Boyd]

Very nice piece from Laurie Anderson:

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/laurie-andersons-farewell-to-lou-reed-a-rolling-stone-exclusive-20131106

[LouieB]

The Laurie Anderson piece is really remarkable and maybe the most reposted article on Lou that is going around. I always found it quite remarkable that they ended up together.

 

LouieB

[calvino]

Yeah, Anderson's was nice.

 

Patti Smith had a nice one too, in the New Yorker.

 

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2013/11/11/131111ta_talk_smith

[Winston Legthigh]

The Laurie Anderson piece is really remarkable and maybe the most reposted article on Lou that is going around. I always found it quite remarkable that they ended up together.

 

LouieB

I find it remarkable that they didn't meet until the 90s, and that she had thought the VU were an English band?!?

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Lou's last interview:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/lou-reeds-last-words-watch-his-final-interview-20131108?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter