Lou Reed dead at 71

[beefheart]

A genius and a creep--

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYEC4TZsy-Y[/youtube]

-- he rates his own thread, Turd.

[beefheart]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkumhBVPGdg[/youtube]

[DARTH]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkumhBVPGdg[/youtube]

I love that song!

Learned to play it from the LP for Rock and Roll Animal when I was 16. One of the few songs I can play and sing at the same time without a drummer.

My Mom and Dad tell a story about going o see him in 72 when she was pregnant with me in Upstate ,NY.

There was a blizzard so hardly anyone showed and the Lou and the Band played a long set and then partied with everyone and then played some more. They both said Lou was totally cool and even talked to me through mom's belly.

[beefheart]

OK, apparent creep.

This is one of his lesser known songs but one of my favorites...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StfsHwWvleM[/youtube]

[Master_Blaster]

Fucking Sad man.... The great artists are on the way out.

[Bud Charniga's grape ape]

I met him once, a long time ago. I was doing sound at the Knitting Factory, back when it was on Leonard Street, the summer between my senior year in HS and college. He was somehow involved with one of the acts I was doing sound for, not playing, but he was some kind of manager/consigliere or something.

Nice guy, at least to me. He took the time to sit and explain how he wanted the band to sound, worked with me to set levels, shit like that. Keep in mind I was 17, and he probably could have had me killed and replaced with whoever he wanted.

[DARTH]

It's all context with a lot of famous people.

They get hounded and bombarded so much that when they are in character, so to speak before or after a show they get aloof. Some are dicks but many are just trying to keep themselves protected.

But if you get them in a more normal situation and everyone is not trying to suck their ass, they can relax and be who they really are.

I got a small idea of what it must be like after playing a big show, where I poured my heart and soul into the show and was rather fucked up afterwards. I mean everything those songs were about, I relived and then some that night and put it all into my performance. I had to be picked up at the end of it as I just collapsed when our set eneded

People kept coming up and telling me how great it was and all I wanted was to be left alone. I know it seems dickish and I tried hard to be appreciative of their enjoyment of our show and support but after an hour I could not take it and told some chick to get fucked. I slipped out of the club to take a walk for half an hour.

When I came back I was fine and up to the party and the "fans".

So I can imagine being Lou in the early 70's and everyone wants to hang out, everyone wants to be your friend or suck your dick but many of those people are drug addicts and sycophants and could give a rat's ass about the real you, just the idea of you.

[Turdacious]

-- he rates his own thread, Turd.

True, but I couldn't do his legacy the justice you can.

[beefheart]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_hRlWFY9gQ[/youtube]

[beefheart]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiT_O90jkUI[/youtube]

[Dan Martin]

He was a tortured fuck both mentally and physically. His parents did him ugly with electroshock therapy to curb his homosexual tendencies.

Lester Bangs wrote endlessly about Lou.

[beefheart]

He was a tortured fuck both mentally and physically. His parents did him ugly with electroshock therapy to curb his homosexual tendencies.

Lester Bangs wrote endlessly about Lou.

'Cause you know what they say about honey bears
When you shave off all their baby hair
You have a hairy minded pink bare bear

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEca5YGy2lE[/youtube]

[Blaidd Drwg]

Lou is the first artist we lost since Cash that really kinda knocked the wind out of me.

First one warrants a repeat. Near perfect songs.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYEC4TZsy-Y[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOmZimH00oo[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffr0opfm6I4[/youtube]

[Bud Charniga's grape ape]

Lou is the first artist we lost since Cash that really kinda knocked the wind out of me.

Cash dying nine months after Joe Strummer was...not a fun time.

[The Ginger Beard Man]

I was just a casual fan, but it's left me feeling wistful.
As a lifelong New Yorker, his death drives home he fact that a big part of the city itself is dying, or has died.
The great New York music, and the great movies, grew out of the seediness of the city. It's gone. This town is no longer a place to come and make your bones as an artist.

[Bud Charniga's grape ape]

I was just a casual fan, but it's left me feeling wistful.
As a lifelong New Yorker, his death drives home he fact that a big part of the city itself is dying, or has died.
The great New York music, and the great movies, grew out of the seediness of the city. It's gone. This town is no longer a place to come and make your bones as an artist.

I agree, and disagree. The city is definitely changing (disclosure, I was born in NYC, lived there until 2002 then moved away, but visit family once or twice a year). Ten years ago, could you have imagined fucking Times Square being a pedestrian mall? Or bike lanes going up all over the place? So yeah, I agree there.

But a lot of the energy that used to be in the Village, the LES, Chelsea, etc., is moving out to the outer boroughs. I know a lot of folks living in Carroll Gardens, or Greenpoint, places that used to be boring ethnic (Italian, Polish) residential neighborhoods, now those joints are popping. I'm no fan of hipsters, and no fan of a lot of the music and art they produce, but they're definitely producing it. It's just different.

[The Ginger Beard Man]

Very different.
I live in Brooklyn. I have a place in Bensonhurst, but basically live at my girlfriends place in Crown Heights.
The hipsters are just playing at artistry.
In a generation, we've gone from "Mean Streets" to "Girls".

[lasalle]

Lester Bangs wrote endlessly about Lou.

Lester Bangs was the man. I grew up on Lester and Creem Magazine...

[DARTH]

Lou is the first artist we lost since Cash that really kinda knocked the wind out of me.

Cash dying nine months after Joe Strummer was...not a fun time.

I agree with you both.

I lost it when I heard Joe died. I was listening to the Clash that morning and I went to put a differnt Clash CD in the stero of my truck and the news came on that he was dead.

I called into work and said I was sick, went home and got fucked up with a friend of mine as we listened to Sandinista, London Calling and From Here to Eternity.

Ray Manzarik, Stevie Ray Vaughn and George Harrison, that was too bad as well.

Shit, odds are I'll be alive when Paul Weller, Jimmy Page and the guys from Rush die. Darth will be a mess when those things happen. Well not a mess but it's not cool when someone who made art that really gets you in the heart goes.

Man when Cliff Burton died, if you were with me and my friends you would have saw a bunch of hard assed teen age thrashers crying like little girls.

[Protobuilder]

Should I know who this guy was?

[Blaidd Drwg]

Lou is the first artist we lost since Cash that really kinda knocked the wind out of me.

Cash dying nine months after Joe Strummer was...not a fun time.

I agree with you both.

I lost it when I heard Joe died. I was listening to the Clash that morning and I went to put a differnt Clash CD in the stero of my truck and the news came on that he was dead.

I called into work and said I was sick, went home and got fucked up with a friend of mine as we listened to Sandinista, London Calling and From Here to Eternity.

Ray Manzarik, Stevie Ray Vaughn and George Harrison, that was too bad as well.

Shit, odds are I'll be alive when Paul Weller, Jimmy Page and the guys from Rush die. Darth will be a mess when those things happen. Well not a mess but it's not cool when someone who made art that really gets you in the heart goes.

Man when Cliff Burton died, if you were with me and my friends you would have saw a bunch of hard assed teen age thrashers crying like little girls.

Strummer was a sad sad day....but I felt like I had an excuse as London Calling was probably the first album I bought and played until even my friends begged me turn on AM..anything but The Clash. The Velvet Underground was something my wife, then GF turned me on to and I assumed I wouldn't like it. Bitches be crazy and all,the wife certainly is but she has consistently liked better music than me.

[DARTH]

Strummer was a sad sad day....but I felt like I had an excuse as London Calling was probably the first album I bought and played until even my friends begged me turn on AM..anything but The Clash.

That was how my friends got with me about Motorhead.

"Jesus Dylan! Can we listen to anything except this English Biker shit! Slayer? Please! Man your a dick!" - My buddy Damon 1987 (He still plays in Hardcore bands!)

The Clash is like that though. They are one of those bands that at one point you really get into because there was so much to them to take in.

"The Card Cheat" fucking floors me!

[DARTH]

[qThe Velvet Underground was something my wife, then GF turned me on to and I assumed I wouldn't like it. Bitches be crazy and all,the wife certainly is but she has consistently liked better music than me.

I get that. Sometimes a woman can make you give something a chance you might not of and they open the door to a new world.

Pussy turned me on to The Pixies, Bauhaus, Jesus and Mary Chain and Ann Rice books

[tonkadtx]

I agree, and disagree. The city is definitely changing (disclosure, I was born in NYC, lived there until 2002 then moved away, but visit family once or twice a year). Ten years ago, could you have imagined fucking Times Square being a pedestrian mall? Or bike lanes going up all over the place? So yeah, I agree there.

But a lot of the energy that used to be in the Village, the LES, Chelsea, etc., is moving out to the outer boroughs. I know a lot of folks living in Carroll Gardens, or Greenpoint, places that used to be boring ethnic (Italian, Polish) residential neighborhoods, now those joints are popping. I'm no fan of hipsters, and no fan of a lot of the music and art they produce, but they're definitely producing it. It's just different.

I am basically a libertarian, so I try to adopt a "if what you are doing is not affecting me, I don't care" attitude. But holy fuck some of these hipsters can inspire some hatred. I was born and raised in the Astoria/LIC area and still live in Astoria and you see some infuriating shit. Like kids talking about the "gritty, street life" or being "entrepreneurs". They open an Artisenal Denim store or a Specialty Candy Shop; and your like; "how the fuck are these retards making money with no customers?" Then when you dig deeper you find out they have a trust fund from Grandpa or their folks are sending them 3 grand a month. I have to admit there is the teensiest bit of jealousy involved, I would love to organize my schedule into a life of leisure - I would love to sit on my stoop and drink craft beer with the fellas every night then get up at the crack of 10 and lift or run and cruise into judo in the evenings.

http://diehipster.wordpress.com/

[DARTH]

Become a musician!

I rose at the asscrack of noon, got stoned, played guitar all day, then went to practice. At that period I alos subsidised my income through the commerce of number 13. Mom and Dad were not a factor, I got kicked out at 17.

But when my band did the best is when I also worked 56 hours a week doing metal framing and I used to hate the yuppie kids in bands, who's parents paid for everything I killed myself to have. But they made fag music anyways. My stuff had soul and balls because I was living a lot of what we were playing.