RIP Lou Reed

Absolute pioneer in his field.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lou-reed-velvet-underground-leader-and-rock-pioneer-dead-at-71-20131027

 

RIP

Play it. Loud:

 

Great quote from Brian Eno:
"The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."

 

Reed's "Magic and Loss" (1992) is one of the most direct R&R meditations on mortality and death ever done. I was (and Reed was) a hell of a lot younger, healthier and happier when it came out, but it was still oddly chilling. Guess I'll bust it out of the dusty CD rack tonight.

 

My freshman year of college, the guy next door to me had a poster on his wall: "Wanted Dead or Alive (what's the difference): Lou Reed, for turning a whole generation of young Americans into faggot junkies."

For a guy who carried that reputation for many years, he had a way with a romantic pop song. (And played the role of proud husband, too - a few years ago, when Laurie Anderson gave the commencement speech at RI School of Design, the ProJo had a great shot of Lou in the crowd with his video camera on the jump page.)

Even before today, this could make any room misty (as Lou called it in a longer version with the intro, "My Barbra Streisand song").

 

I'm a big late period Velvet Underground fan, particularly Loaded, which is one of the best albums in my collection. I think the Velvets' first album is wildly overrated, and one of the worst examples of Jann Wenner-ism, but I know many disagree.

His solo career was fascinating. Some of it great, some of it shit, but true to the man.

RIP to an artist in the truest sense of the word.

 

Completely agree here -- his best stuff was brilliant, but he also wasn't afraid to be completely awful. He was artistically fearless. The only other artist I can think of who has a similar approach is Neil Young, and Lou was willing to go much farther out there.

 

You sound like someone who doesn't think Mick Jagger's solo albums are the best things ever created.

 

The new movie about CBGBs has a bit part where some young journalists try to interview him at the bar. The guy they got to play him looks absolutely nothing like him. I can't remember a more inaccurate casting choice.

Also, Lester Bangs did some of the finest criticism on Lou Reed (especially the shitty stuff).

http://www.rocknroll.net/loureed/articles/mmmbangs.html

 

The Velvet Underground and Nico is better than anything Bubbler has done or will do with his life.

It's also my favorite Lou Reed album. All four of his Velvet Underground albums top his solo stuff, though Berlin is a beautiful mess and Transformer has some career highs.

 

'Busload of Faith' has always been a favorite of mine and entire New York LP created an image in my head, long before I ever went there, of what that city and its neighborhoods and its machinations were like.

Rest in Peace, Brother Lou.
Gone too, too soon.
Rock On!

 

What is wrong with you?

Anyway, Lou was amazing.