Search And Destroy: Lou Reed

good lord

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/10/lou-reed-was-a-monster.html

“Ah, I needed something to rhyme with train. So I had to take poetic license.”

Awesome.

"Ah, I needed to be a complete prick to my sister and her husband. So I had to take poetic license."

Not that Lou wasn't a prick, but Sounes' Dylan bio is terrible. I'm waiting for the Will Hermes Lou bio for the definitive take.

Is any of this really a surprise

^^^

I haven't even read the linked article but even the "nice" songwriter of the velvets was kind of a monster

I mean I love john cale and I can't for the life of me find my (signed!) copy of his book, and I mentioned this in some velvets thread or other to such little response/corroboration that I feel almost gaslighted, but I swear he flatly describes an incident as horrific as shithead racist nico's assault on a black woman

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/movies/laurie-anderson-is-telling-stories-hers-and-ours.html?_r=0

Along with her own work, she has a legacy to tend: 800 hours of Mr. Reed’s old recordings, which she wants to make available online, as well as unpublished plays and photographs. “You learn so much about people when they’re gone, when their life is complete. I’ve just realized, too, that Lou was in the process of becoming an ancestor from being a person,” she said.

“As a human companion he’s gone, and that I really miss,” she said. “That was a conversation that was nonstop for 21 years. But then, I think, don’t be so selfish. Things end, and that’s how it is.”

800 hours!

haha, yeah... i wonder if that was just like Laurie's way of saying "there's a lot!" or if it is literally 800 hours.

And all of it is Live: Take No Prisoners outtakes. He riffs on Christgau for seventeen straight hours.

would buy
i've said it before, but i'd love a complete take no prisoners box set, with every note played, a la miles' live at the plugged nickel

Rumor has it there is a 2-week version of Like a Possum in the archives.

siiiick

799 hrs are metallica riffs from lulu

but i'd love a complete take no prisoners box set

this is a v v niche item but fuck yes

would be a lot -- i think they taped like a whole week of two-sets-a-night shows, but i'd be down.

40 minutes of "is that annoying?"

"Is That Annoying?". That's the title of the boxset right there.

Godfrey Diamond, Reed’s producer on Coney Island Baby, remembers an exchange late in his career. “Lou, all I want you to do is give me another ‘Sweet Jane’. You’re the master of writing songs about people,” Diamond remembered. “He looks at me and goes, ‘Godfrey, I try to write ‘Sweet Jane’ every day,’ in this deep, awful, mean, aggravated, upset voice. Clearly, that wasn’t the thing to say.”

Well, duh?

haha "all i want you to do..." -- genius production advice.

"Sweet Jane" everyday

can't help hearing this in the voice of Nate Dogg singing "Smoke weed every day"

it is weird to me that people who've been listening to and loving lou for as long as I have...don't feel like they kinda have enough

like, at the peak of my fanhood, thirty years ago, I hungrily gobbled up every bootleg I could find, had whole shows from that Bottom Line residency, etc, but...idk not trying to insult anybody but how does this dude's stuff not wear thin for those of who, like me, first got into it like 30+ years ago?

oh here we go

ha, it's cool if it's wearing thin for you ... but i'm at around 25 years of heavy lou listening and i still enjoy hearing different stuff.

Lou's mercurial and combative nature are endlessly fascinating, his work is full of strange turns and almost non-sequitur digressions. He's a bit like Dylan in that respect, that combination of mystery and unpredictability. And a willingness (actually more like a stubborn insistence) to fail publicly and spectacularly, there's risk-taking in his work - and that's always interesting to grapple with and untangle.

agreed. his failures are sometimes as interesting as his successes.

I've been bored of the first VU album for years, possibly even decades, but could merrily listen to "Growing Up in Public" right now, if I had the facility to do so at hand. Figure that one out.

say what you like about the quality of Lou's total output, he sure didn't do the same thing over and over

This looks like it could be great

The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed, Saturday, July 30
To Highlight this Summer’s Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival

Curated and Produced by Laurie Anderson and Hal Willner, Celebration Includes Concerts, Films, a Sound Installation, Readings, and Other Events Across Lincoln Center’s Campus Culminating in
Damrosch Park Concert and Screening of the Film Berlin Directed by Julian Schnabel
All Free and Open to the Public

NEW YORK, NY (April 8, 2016)— Lincoln Center Out of Doors, New York City’s longest-running, free, outdoor summer festival, will celebrate the work and legacy of legendary musician and consummate New Yorker Lou Reed with a full day of free events on Saturday, July 30, encompassing a wide range of his interests and creative output. The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed is named for Reed’s iconic song “The Bells.”

Curated by Laurie Anderson and Reed’s friend and longtime producer Hal Willner, the day begins in the morning with group Tai Chi led by Reed’s teacher Master Ren Guangyi that is open to all (beginners welcome) on Josie Robertson Plaza and culminates in Damrosch Park with Lou Reed’s Love Songs, an evening concert featuring performances by a raft of artists across a range of music genres. The concert will be followed by a screening in the park of Julian Schnabel’s acclaimed 2008 film Berlin which captured Reed’s live, 2006 concert performances of the 1976 album of the same name.

In between is a wide array of events, including:

A sound installation Lou Reed: Drones created from six of Reed’s guitars and amps in a feedback loop to produce an
immersive sound environment

Screenings of films and documentaries at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

A demonstration by Tai Chi Master Ren Guangyi, to include his martial arts students

Readings from Reed’s collected lyrics by notable actors and artists

Afternoon musical performances

All-day marathon playing of Reed’s recordings

More information about participating artists, venues, event starting times, and other details will be announced at a later date. Watch for the May 4 announcement of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors schedule, featuring concerts and events from July 20?August 13. Visit LCOutofDoors.org.

Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson frequently attended Lincoln Center events and also performed here—separately and together—on several occasions. In November 2013, the only public event marking Lou Reed’s death—organized by family and friends—took place outdoors on Lincoln Center’s Hearst Plaza. There was no ceremony. No speeches. Just Reed’s music—selections of recordings spanning the last 45 years, from his Velvet Underground years, to his solo career—playing on loudspeakers for a gathering of several hundred people, alerted by a posting on his Facebook page. It was, as reported in the New Yorker, a “public memorial that celebrated Reed by filling the whole complex with his music, like church bells ringing in a town square.”

Now, for “The Bells,” musical collaborators and other artists gather to give voice to the singular legacy of the rock musician, cofounder with Andy Warhol of The Velvet Underground, progenitor of glam, punk, indie, new wave, and noise rock, poet, and activist who left an indelible mark on the music of the past 50 years and on the city that he called home.

Reviving as a reminder of that event---which reminds me that The Bells still seems like an undercelebrated album---not among albs as panel subjects here, for inst.----however!!! (more details than early announcement):
http://www.lcoutofdoors.org/events/the-bells-a-daylong-celebration-of-lou-reed

So far so good!!

http://livestream.com/LincolnCenter/a-tribute-to-lou-reed-part-1

So of course now there's buffering

"This live event has ended but you may continue watching in DVR mode as long as you please."

Part 2 tomorrow? Hope so.

Okay, here's some more live--"Jesus" at the moment---and video: http://www.stereogum.com/1891393/watch-anohni-lee-ranaldo-ira-kaplan-more-perform-at-lou-reed-tribute/video/

this is so good

Disco Mystic!!!!

second set way better than the first imho -- leans less heavily on velvets material, covers later albums more thoroughly.

Evening (second ) set was billed as ballads, while afternoon first set was billed as rock and roll. I was in NY visiting and caught some of the afternoon first set (couldn't make evening one)--fun seeing Renaldo and Shelley from Sonic Youth with Yo La Tengo folks up there together; I liked Lenny Kaye's tribute to Lou and to Sandy Pearlman--"I'm Set Free"... David Johansen was ok; part of Bush Tetras doing "Run, Run, Run," Don Fleming leading band through some bootleg track. Paul Simon's son Harper was not that impressive. Maria Muldaur's daughter Jenni was alright.

Also caught a few minutes of this-- A sound installation Lou Reed: Drones created from six of Reed’s guitars and amps in a feedback loop to produce an
immersive sound environment

enjoyable for a few minutes but after that I had enough

11:30 am to 2 or whatever first set didn't have that big of an audience. Sky was gloomy and it rained a bit plus I guess 20 & 30 somethings not that into the old folks paying tribute to Lou I guess?

Should be some posted here and there, now and then. I'd say look for xpost "Disco Mystic", esp. with the dayglo rainbow chorus line, chanting, "Di-isco, Dis-co Mystic", with various degrees of urgency, always firm about it---she's pointing at yew, citizen. Sax less prominent than original track, but ruggedly handsome guitar strata.
Yes, Lenny Kaye delivered, especially "Rock N Roll", with all hands on deck, incl. Laurie with the glancing bow. Her inflections and timing were perfect in "Andy's Dream." Ditto the man and woman reading transcript of a Lou interview from an Australian tour.
Also liked somebody reading "The Rock Minuet", if that's the title, and several other performers performing things I didn't recognize, which is good; as s.clover indicates, shouldn't just be the most obvious, VU etc. choices. Missed a lot, though; I'll have to look around.

I'd say look for xpost "Disco Mystic", esp. with the dayglo rainbow chorus line, chanting, "Di-isco, Dis-co Mystic", with various degrees of urgency, always firm about it---she's pointing at yew, citizen.

so bummed this hasn't gotten onto youtube yet cuz I really want my wife to see it, she would love it

looked like a fun event! i bet there'll be rips of everything sooner or later ...

x-post--

The Lincoln Center security guards sure looked confused by the Disco Mystic dancers in their see-through but brightly colored outfits

here's some of it---no time to watch yet, although I saw some of "Sister Ray" this weekend (didn't seem that hot, though I came in toward the end). Looks like a decent selection, though some are excerpts (and one's already been removed, or did it just stop functioning):
http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/watch-performances-lou-reed-tribute-concert-87565

Lou's Spotify playlists are kinda cool
https://open.spotify.com/user/loureedofficial/playlist/1Pjh3fIfbzCHtVQ505QwZ3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aNC8tcMBzA

You can get a NYC library card with Lou's Transformer image on it.

When it's scanned, it doesn't beep, it yells "Turn up the guitar!"