that sux. rip.
the 'intro/sweet jane' off of rock n' roll animal was one of my all-time favorites.
that sux. rip.
the 'intro/sweet jane' off of rock n' roll animal was one of my all-time favorites.
Transformer.
The older I get, the better I was.
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
I was at that show too (if it was the one at BAM - the only one, I think. Great show!)
I also always loved the song Waiting for the Man, though I was never too familiar with much other VU.
Just heard Perfect Day on Sirius XM Deep Tracks this morning - wasn't familiar with it - good song.
RIP Lou. I was never much familiar with much Lou Reed aside from what I mentioned above. One other thing - his role in the silly but fun movie "Get Crazy," about the last night of a classic venue like the Fillmore West - Lou Reed played a Bob Dylan-esque character but instead named Auden - ha-ha.
EDIT: My wife, being named Suzanne, was fond of his song "I Love You, Suzanne." I like that one too - very simple, but pretty sweet.
Last edited by JKL2000; 10-28-2013 at 10:44 AM.
Oh Lou, where have you gone?
We have lost a great artist
And I have lost my friend.
It was your words and your work with the Velvet Underground that inspired Vaclav Havel to name the Czech revolution, the Velvet Revolution. You brought a great novelist’s unswerving attention to the human psyche and soul and attached it to an electric guitar. That clarity and fierce honesty symbolized freedom, like nothing else.
You carried this honesty, purity and passion into whatever you did. Whether it was writers, amplifiers, artists, photography, tai chi, friendships, the glasses you designed or the journeys you had taken, anyone around you knew exactly what you were into; what you loved and hated.
You could be so difficult, narcissistic and intransigent, but anyone you allowed beyond that leather-jacketed protective and sometimes-poisonous veneer got to meet a special man that was sweet, tender and exceptionally loyal.
Watching you and Laurie finding each other was like watching teenage sweethearts (albeit super-smart). Everyone knew New York Lou, who could tell you all the ups and downs of the modern-day urban explorer, exploring drugs and sexual identity, but how many noticed the great romantic poet of the Power of the Heart that you wrote for Laurie. And what wry sharp intelligence you carried with you at all times, that could cut through any packaging and reveal the living and beating core.
It was always such a pleasure to eat and laugh with you and hear that high-pitched squeal of delight, echoing around the room and bursting out of nowhere.
Oh Lou, we’re going to miss you.
-Peter Gabriel
https://petergabriel.com/news/tumblr...have-you-gone/
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
"The news I feared the most, pales in comparison to the lump in my throat and the hollow in my stomach. Two kids have a chance meeting and 47 years later we fight and love the same way -- losing either one is incomprehensible. No replacement value, no digital or virtual fill...broken now, for all time. Unlike so many with similar stories - we have the best of our fury laid out on vinyl, for the world to catch a glimpse. The laughs we shared just a few weeks ago, will forever remind me of all that was good between us." - John Cale
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
Wow. Practically every hipster on my social media feed is in mourning. This really strikes a chord with them . It reminds me of the feeling I had when I found out that Johnny Smith passed away earlier this year.
Even if I don't place Reed in the same category as the "Segovia of the Electric Guitar", It reminds me how much we are affected when certain artists we hold in esteem pass away.
I've just spent the day listening to my Lou and Velvets albums on shuffle - all day. It is slowly dawning on me how much his music meant to me - even I was unaware. I bought all those 90s and 00s albums always hoping for another Velvets album or another Berlin or Rock n Roll Animal. Sure there were a few bright spots - Take No Prisoners is great, New York is stunning but most of them left me missing the Lou of old - just like I really miss the old New York I first came to in the mid 80s. I didn't know that was the beginning of the end of the golden age on New York scuzz - and I hated every Disney and Warner Brothers store which opened up where porn palaces once thrived. Imperious policemen as wide as they are tall, now own the street corners where shifty, toothless hustlers promised you the earth if you just step this way. I remember seeing a parade of scantily clad young-ish girls and red-faced gentlemen hurriedly fastening their falling business suit trousers as they were ushered out of a windowless store on 42nd St between 7th and 8th Avenue by a battalion of Giuliani's crusaders. It was 8 o'clock in the morning on a weekday. No-one raised an eyebrow - it was just New York. But it was also the death of New York. There is something very unsettling about walking down mid-town 8th Avenue with nothing to fear but treading on some yuppie's dog's shit. Where did all those scuzz-balls go? I guess when they left they took Lou's subject matter with them.
I miss them and I miss Lou.
Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?
Sad news indeed. Been playing his music all night and day. I saw the Rock and Roll Animal tour in 74-75 with Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner and the infamous Sweet Jane guitar intro(one of the best ever in my opinion) and it blew me away. Have been into his music since then. He was poetic much like Bob Dylan and Kevin Gilbert. His messages will be missed.
jake said
"There is something very unsettling about walking down mid-town 8th Avenue with nothing to fear but treading on some yuppie's dog's shit."
As a life long New Yorker I disagree. I'de rather worry about stepping in dog shit than having a piece of shit masquerading as a human being take my stuff at knife point. The NY of my youth was safe and fairly clean. You could ride the subway , walk on the street ,in Manhattan anyway , and feel safe. It got bad in te 70's. While it might be like being in a movie for some folks , living amoungst scuzzballs practicing thier craft is depressing .
I have to agree with Steve. When I grew up and then subsequently came back to NYC to live (1945-62, 1966-1970), there wasn't the wariness & caution that permeates the city that is instantly perceived by someone visiting who's lived there before.
I'm probably older by a bit or a bunch than the other NYC Steve, but in my youth there were street gangs, but they were mostly Caucasian/Hispanic, and wore satin colorful baseball (a/k/a "gang") jackets with the name of the gang on the back. In my Long Island City neighborhood, they didn't bother others unless they were offended by something said or done. There wasn't crack, Oxycontin & with very isolated exceptions, guns, back then.
That ain't true no' mo'.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
My wife spent her summers being a nanny in CT and NY, spent her days off in NYC. When we went to NYC a few years ago she was a little shocked to see how cleaned up it was, especially Times Square. When we were walking down to the subway there was a guy sleeping on the steps. And she said "there's the New York I knew".
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
proggeezer,
"I'm probably older by a bit or a bunch than the other NYC Steve"
Was born in '58 and Im remembering the 60's. I think things went south during the 70's when the drug use really took off.I didnt find urban rot in any way enjoyable. But I have to say I hate the Disney presense too. What I find attractive in NYC is that being old it has lots of history. Old buildings, infrastructure, atmosphere, not everywhere but its there if you want it. As far as hustlers and useless human parasites, you like them, welcome them to your town. We wont miss them.
I used to know this writer when he lived in Chicago. Perhaps a necessary antidote to Neil Gaiman's insufferable, pretentious Reed tribute in the Guardian.
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/29/i_lo...more_than_you/
"“Lou Reed is dead.”
“Oh Lou,” I said. “Oh God. Oh no.”
I took about 15 minutes to weep silently, mostly for myself, but also on behalf of all cultured people everywhere. Lou Reed’s music was too beautiful for this world, though rarely too beautiful for NPR. Now his music, and the feelings it swelled in the breasts of the educated, was no more.".....
"Now that most of my deadlines have passed, I weep afresh for the world’s loss. How could I not? The fabric of reality has been torn asunder. Because when you think of what Lou Reed meant to American culture, the meaning is really meaningful. He was our champion of the avant-garde, our greatest junkie bard, the ultimate maestro of the obtuse, and he looked good in leather for pretty much his entire life. Lou felt everything that true music fans feel, and he expressed that feeling times a thousand, on multiple instruments. He sang for all of us, especially for those of us who never took singing lessons. And if you’ve ever lived in New York — which I have, alone, in the same three-bedroom basement apartment since 1964, when I was 17 years old — he spoke of the city like no one else ever could, with authenticity, meaning, grit. His New York always had a needle in its arm and poetry in its soul."
"Especially for those of us who never took singing lessons".
This really saddens me. I'm huge fan of his and got to meet him once in Detroit. At least I'll have his music for the rest of my days. Rest In Power, Lou...
Laurie Anderson's obituary for Lou from the East Hampton Star.
"To our neighbors:
What a beautiful fall! Everything shimmering and golden and all that incredible soft light. Water surrounding us.
Lou and I have spent a lot of time here in the past few years, and even though we’re city people this is our spiritual home.
Last week I promised Lou to get him out of the hospital and come home to Springs. And we made it!
Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature. He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air.
Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us.
— Laurie Anderson
his loving wife and eternal friend"
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