27 October 2013
Rest In Peace Lou Reed
On my drive home this afternoon, I kept thinking of things I might like to write in memory of Lou Reed. But Sasha Frere-Jones pretty much summed it up perfectly, so there's not much more to say.
Except to reiterate how much Reed meant to me in my youth. He was cool, or at least cooler and different than the Grateful Dead and all the other stuff that seemed so boring at the time (no disrespect to the Dead). And he wrote about things I didn't know about or understand, like "Heroin", and "Some Kinda Love", and "Coney Island Babies"and "Dirty Boulevards", and domestic bliss, and death, and whatever the hell else was on his mind.
I still remember going to New York City on a high school trip and being so excited to find Velvet Underground cassettes(!) at Tower. So much of the music and art I listen to and appreciate today can be linked to discovering him and the Velvets as a teenager. Thank you Lou.