Thank Lou! Thank Lou!
Lou Reed died a week ago and still thoughts of his tremendous musical contributions are like a New York telephone conversation rattling around in my head. Very few rock n’ roll figures of his importance and influence remain. Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Jagger-Richards… not many. I must admit that my first introduction to Reed’s music was probably on Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. It was a “hits” collection without any hits. Well… except for the title track which rode its pleasant horns to the top 20, despite lyrics about Warhol’s transsexual stars and back room BJ’s. That was the only true hit for an artist who was always more influential than popular. Not surprisingly, many of the tributes written for Lou Reed (the vast majority 140 characters or less) contained the words “walk on the wild side”. More interestingly, scores of posthumous headlines pointed out Reed’s legacy as the driving force behind The Velvet Underground.
If Reed had passed away in the 1970s it wouldn’t have been hard to imagine newspapers describing him only as the composer of “Walk on the Wild Side” and possibly a protégée of Andy Warhol or falsely David Bowie (yikes!) It is a credit to the enduring, everlasting beauty of the Velvets’ music that 45+ years after their first album and 40+ years after their last album The Velvet Underground continues to inspire so many lives.
The first time I heard The Velvets I was blown away! Once again, I discovered Lou Reed’s music through a popular source. The Doors: Original Soundtrack Recording from Oliver Stone’s mega-successful film was part of the early 90s Jim Morrison boom. At the time, there was renewed interest in all things Lizard King. However, the most compelling and poetic moments on that soundtrack came from a flat, yet passionate Noo Yawk voice riding over propulsive drums, guitar and electric viola while spitting lyrics like:
"Heroin, be the death of me Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life Because a mainer to my vein Leads to a center in my head And then I'm better off than dead Because when the smack begins to flow I really don't care anymore About all the Jim-Jim's in this town And all the politicians makin' crazy sounds And everybody puttin' everybody else down And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds"
It was months before I would buy a VU album of my own. I would simply get my “Heroin” fix from that Doors soundtrack. There was no way the Velvets had another song in the same league as that one. So, why waste my money? Except I kept reading that The Velvet Underground & Nico was a major influence on all these bands I loved. Then I watched an “Andy Warhol” film, Flesh for Frankenstein. Actually it was a Paul Morrissey film, but Warhol “produced” it. And it was a riot! “To know death, Otto, you have to f**k life... in the gall bladder!” proclaimed Udo Kier’s Dr. Frankenstein. It was camp at the highest level!
Shortly after this formative and educational experience, I was in a music store and saw the cover of The Velvet Underground & Nicowith Andy Warhol’s famous signed banana. I immediately grabbed it from the rack and read that Warhol “produced” most of the album. It was seconds before I was at the checkout and minutes before I was in my bedroom listening to the album. Unfortunately, I was initially disappointed. I didn’t know what to expect but the flat voices of Lou and Nico failed to touch me at first. Fortunately, with much great art it only takes that one moment of epiphany, maybe days… maybe weeks… maybe months down the line to truly appreciate the overwhelming genius that has entered your consciousness. This moment of epiphany happened for me with Exile on Main Street, London Calling, The Ramones and it happened again with The Velvet Underground & Nico. Suddenly, I could see Lou Reed’s kingdom beyond “Heroin”. “Sunday Morning” and “I’ll Be Your Mirror” are such beautiful songs… “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Venus in Furs” so dirty and matter-of-fact. What a wonderful contrarian was Lou Reed! One moment he could bring a tear to your eye with simple, heartfelt sentiment, the next he would shout out, “You better hit her!”
Much has been made of Lou Reed’s gritty, street-level observations. In fact, in many ways he was a book worm from the suburbs and probably a big film noir fan. Some of his most famous lyrics in “I’m Waiting for the Man” are inspired by William S. Burroughs’Naked Lunch and “Venus in Furs” was inspired by the book of the same name by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Even “Little Joe” Dallesandro from “Walk on the Wild Side” has commented that Reed’s lyrics about him in that song owe more to the film Trash directed by Paul Morrissey (and once again “produced” by Warhol) than anything that happened in real life. That’s fine with me, for Reed had the gift to take these cultural influences and create music that hurts, tickles, angers and spits in the face of convention. Oh, and the Velvet Underground’s Loaded and Lou Reed’s Transformer are the definition of rock n’ roll heaven!
Thank you, Lou!
