Lou Reed RIP

For me, the first "VU" cover would be the Downliners Sect "Why don't you smile now", but that's a fairly obscure source song..

Ok now i have a strong urge to make a 60s VU covers comp. Any more good ones?

FEELIES

(i know they are not 60s but the passing of lou reed has led me into the welcoming and familiar arms of the feelies)

multiple x-post from that NYT backstage with the VU at Boston Teaparty article:

But Lou was gracious and kind, talking about everything from a weird diet he was thinking about — eating nothing but lettuce — to his love of Dion and his total dislike of Frank Zappa.

Long essay/letter just released by Joseph Arthur, who I guess was a good friend of Lou's. It ends with this:

Another story I have to share is walking with a group of us
including Lou in NYC
in the early evening
and passing an apartment where
I heard them playing “Pale Blue Eyes” on the stereo thru the window.

I stopped Lou and said, “Come here and listen”
We stood outside and listened to his, and perhaps anyone’s, most beautiful song.

Then I urged him to knock on the window
I said, “How funny would it be if you did that?”
He smiled
a smile that said,
“Not a chance”
and kept walking.

Zerberts VU listener on the belly: "No one will ever believe you."

xpost he could have signed a napkin...

Loureedia is a genus of velvet spiders that live underground...

Laurie Anderson's extended farewell

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

We made up ridiculous jokes; stopped smoking 20 times; fought; learned to hold our breath underwater; went to Africa; sang opera in elevators; made friends with unlikely people; followed each other on tour when we could; got a sweet piano-playing dog; shared a house that was separate from our own places; protected and loved each other.

jeez that made me cry all over again

^^
this

Me too. Since he died, I've only been listening to The Blue Mask, which I'd known for years, and Berlin, which I'd never heard before. I feel like I've gotten a perspective I never had before, something more intimate, by obsessively crawling through these records, and reading Laurie's remembrance just now hit me harder than the initial news of his passing.

fourthed

(the crying, that is)

fifthed

so beautifully written

Having watched my dad die (the literal moment of it) in hospice years ago I feel like I dimly dimly understand what she is saying about the numinousness of that moment even though I didn't and don't have the spiritual tools to apprehend it clearly

i need to take up meditation again ffs

Sounds like had a beautiful life together. I like that she is letting people in on what I imagine is only a tiny portion of that good feeling.

THEY had a beautiful life
i am too post hasty all the time

the last moments of my mother in law's life, her youngest son was holding her in his arms & her husband was holding her hand

laurie reminded me of how much love we witnessed & I feel v lucky in retrospect to have been a part of it

i am glad lou had that

yeah. what a way to live, what a way to go. holy shit.

Average Guy is a serious earworm, been in my head for days

man, that was really beautiful.

Another little thing i noticed relistening to Sister Ray - at around 13:00 when he slows down - "IIIIII couuuuuldn't hiiittt iiittt siiiiiideways" - oh look it's the Tall Dwarfs.

That's an amazing piece of writing.

Beautiful piece. I love that their first date was to an audio engineering trade show.

also her relative ignorance about the VU in '92

Might not have worked out otherwise.

Dave Marsh's Lou obit.

the not knowing about VU thing really puzzled me. and that the art/fashion/music worlds were so separate in nyc in the 90's. if ever there was a place where all worlds collide i would say it was new york. i mean you would have thought she would have known about VU just because of the nyc art world connection!

but i guess she keeps to herself. even though i have always thought of her as one of the most connected art/world/fashion new york people who has ever lived.

Wonder if Lou put on a British accent at first to keep her liking him.

I mean she was recording and hangin out with Burroughs in '84, you'd think there'd be some overlap.

When Alan Licht played Lou a track of Burroughs singing for an 'Invisible Jukebox' feature in the Wire a few years ago, Lou thought it was Lord Buckley

He'd have been a hoot in the 'next line' round...

Richie Unterberger's VU myth page points out that the Velvets only played in NYC a handful of times (only three documented instances) from '67-'70, so conceivably even Anderson's earliest NYC acquaintances wouldn't necessarily have had any first-hand connection/overlap with the Velvets.

Just read that Laurie Anderson piece; wow.

James Wolcott, 1976:

Lou Reed survived and parodied Death on the Installment Plan. “Heroin,” for example, was a song which was dropped from the Velvets repertoire for a while because too many people embraced it as being pro-smack, when in fact Reed intended the song as a sort of exorcism. Yet only a few years later Reed would not only perform “Heroin” in his solo act but would take out a syringe, wrap the microphone cord around his arm, pretend to shoot up, and hand the syringe to someone in the audience. When Cher said that the music of the Velvet Underground would replace nothing except suicide, she was unknowingly anticipating the rue-morgue antics of Lou Reed and his progeny. Just last week I heard one of New York’s underground bands, the Miamis, do a song glamorizing the La Guardia bombing incident, and at one point the lead singer proclaimed, “There’s no such thing as an innocent bystander!” Maybe he and Reed should take a ride in De Niro’s taxi. . . .

Where Lou Reed used to stare death down (particularly in the black-blooded “Berlin”), he now christens random violence. Small wonder, then, that his conversation ripples with offhanded brutality: though he probably couldn’t open a package of Twinkies without his hands trembling, he enjoys babbling threats of violence. One night, when a girl at C.B.G.B. clapped loudly (and out of beat) to a Television song, Reed threatened to knock “the cunt’s head off”; she blithely ignored him, and he finally got up and left. No one takes his bluster seriously; I even know women who find his steely bitterness sexy.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/doubleday/lou-reed-rising-dfcu

OK, that Dave Marsh piece hit the bullseye for me because
1) His Lou Reed is very similar to my Lou Reed
2) Perfect you-are-there-in-rock-and-roll-history moment featuring Mitch Ryder and Johnny B.

I have to say, I've been waiting for Marsh to weigh in, for a few reasons. I've read very little (or he's written very little) of his stuff about the Velvets, and the most extensive Reed piece of his I've read is what amounts to a takedown in the New Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983, blue cover). Highest rankings went to Rock and Roll Animal and Street Hassle (and maybe Coney Island Baby...or was it Rock & Roll Heart?), which got four stars each. Bewilderingly, Legendary Hearts and The Blue Mask got one or two stars each. Reading that obit, Marsh either changed his mind, or the star rankings in the book were a typo. He ends the RS piece saying Reed remains barely a minor artist. I think he meant to caution against overrating Lou, and wound up underrating him.

But then ("a commercial hustle", "not particularly witty") as now ("a hoax"), he's dead wrong about MMM.

Am I the only one who likes Legendary Hearts better than The Blue Mask? Despite being a Quine fan, just think the tunes are better on Legendary Hearts.

Somewhat surprised Marsh didn't bring up BRUUUUUUCCCCE's cameo on "Street Hassle".

He didn't want to overplay his hand.

He also didn't bring up any duets with Pete Townshend.

Ha, I remember thinking at the time, "Hm, wonder why Marsh thinks that's the lone bright spot in Lou's late 70s run?"

(the Townshend duets didn't happen until 2007)

Legendary Hearts IS a better song record but it's so austere about its flourishes it's downright Presbyterian; when a solo shows up on "Make Up My Mind" or "Home of the Brave" it's like a favorite aunt serving you wine.

wasn't quine on that but they took him off? if so, a shame. hate to think even a second of robert quine playing guitar didn't make it out. :(

He's mixed so low that Reed could be standing on him.

http://www.emusic.com/music-news/spotlight/lenny-kaye-remembers-lou-reed/