Rock & Roll Heart
When a legend checks out, the universe weeps for the loss but the legacy of a great artist always remains. Itʼs in the breeze, on the airwaves, enshrined in vinyl, woven into the fabric of those who cherish.
In a moving elegy, Lou Reedʼs wife, Laurie Anderson, commented:
"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."
Hailing from the generation who sought salvation in rock music, the character of ʽJennyʼ in Reedʼs superlative number ʽRock ʽnʼ Rollʼ had a particularly personal resonance: ʽOne fine morning, she put on a New York station and she couldnʼt believe what she heard at all. She started dancing to that fine, fine music ahh, her life was saved by rock ʽnʼ roll.ʼ
Amen.
Reed sang out for and captured the lives of outsiders, the aesthetically disenfranchised. One of societyʼs great dissidents, Lou broadcast beautifully crafted street missives from a dazzling if sometimes bleak anti-world.
The starting point was ʽThe Velvet Underground & Nicoʼ. Released in 1967 and scarcely co—produced with Andy Warhol. The Velvetʼs debut was a dislocated rhythmic melee that chronicled hitherto taboo subjects in pop music including heroin and S&M.
Lifeʼs seamier side was already a growing tradition in literature from Nelson Algren to William S. Burroughs but Lou Reed fearlessly crossed the territories between page and performance, dedicating ʽEuropean Sonʼ, the last track on the VUʼs inaugural platter to his former Syracuse University tutor, the poet Delmore Schwartz.
From his work with the Velvet Underground to his solo output, musical vision, and numerous creative reincarnations, Louʼs lyricism maintained an astute minimalistic grace.
In a 1987 Rolling Stone interview, Reed compared his albums to chapters which when stacked together, comprised ʽMy great American Novelʼ. I canʼt pretend to have read all the chapters in so prolific a career but his influence remains an indelible one.
Of Edgar Allen Poe, to whom he paid tribute on 2003ʼs ʽThe Ravenʼ, Reed noted in typically understated fashion "Edgar Allan Poe: Not exactly the boy next door."
And neither was Lou.Published: In Print Issue Nº 02—2014
In a moving elegy, Lou Reedʼs wife, Laurie Anderson, commented:
"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."
Hailing from the generation who sought salvation in rock music, the character of ʽJennyʼ in Reedʼs superlative number ʽRock ʽnʼ Rollʼ had a particularly personal resonance: ʽOne fine morning, she put on a New York station and she couldnʼt believe what she heard at all. She started dancing to that fine, fine music ahh, her life was saved by rock ʽnʼ roll.ʼ
Amen.
Reed sang out for and captured the lives of outsiders, the aesthetically disenfranchised. One of societyʼs great dissidents, Lou broadcast beautifully crafted street missives from a dazzling if sometimes bleak anti-world.
The starting point was ʽThe Velvet Underground & Nicoʼ. Released in 1967 and scarcely co—produced with Andy Warhol. The Velvetʼs debut was a dislocated rhythmic melee that chronicled hitherto taboo subjects in pop music including heroin and S&M.
Lifeʼs seamier side was already a growing tradition in literature from Nelson Algren to William S. Burroughs but Lou Reed fearlessly crossed the territories between page and performance, dedicating ʽEuropean Sonʼ, the last track on the VUʼs inaugural platter to his former Syracuse University tutor, the poet Delmore Schwartz.
From his work with the Velvet Underground to his solo output, musical vision, and numerous creative reincarnations, Louʼs lyricism maintained an astute minimalistic grace.
In a 1987 Rolling Stone interview, Reed compared his albums to chapters which when stacked together, comprised ʽMy great American Novelʼ. I canʼt pretend to have read all the chapters in so prolific a career but his influence remains an indelible one.
Of Edgar Allen Poe, to whom he paid tribute on 2003ʼs ʽThe Ravenʼ, Reed noted in typically understated fashion "Edgar Allan Poe: Not exactly the boy next door."
And neither was Lou.