Topic: Lou Reed passed away

[Pandora]

"Lou Reed, a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, died today. The cause of his death has not yet been released, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lou-reed-velvet-underground-leader-and-rock-pioneer-dead-at-71-20131027#ixzz2iwfyA06k

[IronDioPriest]

... and the colored girls go, "Doo do doo, doo, doo do doo doo, do doo, doo, doo do doo doo...."

RIP

[RickZ]

Someone whose music was a fundamental part of my upbringing.  See ya, Lou.

Best damn Lou Reed song off one of the better rock albums overall, especially live ones; I wore out my LP, then bought the cd.

Lou Reed - Sweet Jane from Rock n Roll Animal

Thanks for the tunes.  See ya on the flip wild side.

[ToddF]

This one hurts a little.  I became a fan with many others, 20 years after they broke up

Velvet Underground - I´m Waiting For The Man

Only tea partier Moe Tucker (drums) and John Cale (bass/violin) are the only ones left. 

[Libertas]

Never really caught on with me, know almost nothing about the guy...but if I had to guess perhaps that liver got hit with a bit of sauce...

But he wasn't a di...dis...disc....(still can't say that word!) guy so rock on in the other side.

[RickZ]

Never really caught on with me, no almost nothing about the guy...but if I had to guess perhaps that liver got hit with a bit of sauce...

Maybe, but not his vice of choice.

Lou Reed - Heroin

[Pablo de Fleurs]

"Perfect Day"  An allstar video of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" featuring 27 artists has made its debut on England's BBC TV Network.

The production includes Reed himself along with U2's Bono, Elton John, Dr. John, Tom Jones, Robert Cray, David Bowie, Emmy Lou Harris, Suede, Duran Duran, M People, Boyzone, the Lightening Seeds, opera diva Lesley Garrett, saxophonist Courtney Pine and the BBC Symphony Orchestra among others.et [many] al others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2JXy1Z9ovs

[Libertas]

Never really caught on with me, no almost nothing about the guy...but if I had to guess perhaps that liver got hit with a bit of sauce...

Maybe, but not his vice of choice.

Lou Reed - Heroin

Don't know if that is bad for liver...might just be bad for everything.

[ToddF]

I don't think they were a "heroine band."  Hell, they wouldn't have lived as long as they all did, if they were.  Lou Reed said it was an objective look at what it was, without taking sides.  I'll take him at his word on it.

Now, for another look at Moe Tucker.  What a feisty woman, who doesn't take crap from anybody. 

http://www.stereogum.com/550602/moe-tucker-explains-tea-party-affiliation/

No country can provide all things for all citizens. There comes a point where it just isn’t possible, and it’s proven to be a failure everywhere it’s been tried. I am not oblivious to the plight of the poor, but I don’t see any reason/sense to the idea that everyone has to have everything, especially when the economy is so bad. I see that philosophy as merely a ploy to control.

My family was damn poor when I was growing up on Long Island. There were no food stamps, no Medicaid, no welfare. If you were poor, you were poor. You didn’t have a TV, you didn’t have five pairs of shoes, you didn’t have Levi’s, you didn’t have a phone; you ate Spam, hot dogs and spaghetti. We all survived! I am not against food stamps, welfare or Medicaid, if only they would oversee these programs properly!

People who were strung out on heroine, don't come through with this much of a head on their shoulders.  Keep in mind, this is a woman who's career was over by 1970 and who's husband bailed on her and 5 kids by 1980.  What did she do?  Started over by working at bleeping WalMart!  Until the late 80's, when VU started getting the respect they deserved, and the music industry, and a VU reunion that was probably fairly lucrative, came calling again.

[RickZ]

Interesting.  Something I did not know about Reed:  He was born Jewish and was fiercely pro-Israel.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/362344/lou-reeds-stand-israel-and-against-anti-semitism-tom-gross#!

Lou Reed’s Stand for Israel and against Anti-Semitism

Perhaps even more than other American-Jewish rock stars such as Billy Joel and Bob Dylan, Lou Reed was fiercely proud of being Jewish — and included lyrics on behalf of Israel and against anti-Semitism in some of his songs.

I mention Reed’s Jewishness because not a single obituary I have read of him in the mainstream press mentions it, when for Reed it was an important factor.

Reed, who died yesterday of liver failure at the age of 71, was born Lewis Allan Reed to a Jewish family in Brooklyn. He said that while “he had no god apart from rock ‘n’ roll” his Jewish roots and standing up for Israel meant a lot to him. He was a frequent visitor to the country, last performing in Tel Aviv in 2008, and his aunt and many cousins live in Haifa and other Israeli towns.

Reed even had an Israeli spider named after him to thank him for his support for the country.

His connection to Israel and his distaste for anti-Semitism can be heard in his lyrics from the song “Good Evening Mr. Waldheim” on his 1989 solo album New York:


Good evening Mr. Waldheim [1]
 and Pontiff how are you?

 You have so much in common
 in the things you do

 And here comes Jesse Jackson
 He talks of Common Ground

 Does that Common Ground include me
 or is it just a sound

 A sound that shakes
 Oh Jesse, you must watch the sounds you make
 A sound that quakes
 There are fears that still reverberate
 

Jesse you say Common Ground [2]
 Does that include the PLO?

 What about people right here right now
 who fought for you not so long ago? [3]

 The words that flow so freely
 falling dancing from your lips

 I hope that you don’t cheapen them
 with a racist slip

 Oh Common Ground
 Is Common Ground a word or just a sound
 Common Ground—remember those civil rights workers buried in the ground

 If I ran for president and once was a member of the Klan
 Wouldn’t you call me on it
 The way I call you on Farrakhan [4]

 And Pontiff, pretty Pontiff
 Can anyone shake your hand?

 Or is it just that you like uniforms
 and someone kissing your hand

 Or is it true
 The Common Ground for me includes you too
 Oh is it true the Common Ground for me includes you too

 Good evening Mr. Waldheim
 Pontiff how are you

 As you both stroll through the woods at night
 I’m thinking thoughts of you

 And Jesse you’re inside my thoughts
 As the rhythmic words subside

 My Common Ground invites you in
 or do you prefer to wait outside

 Or is it true
 The Common Ground for me is without you

 Or is it true
 The Common Ground for me is without you
 Oh is it true

 There’s no Ground Common enough for me and you

 For younger readers, just in case you need an explanation as to the events in the 1980s:

[1] This is a reference to Kurt Waldheim, the Nazi SS officer, who went on to become U.N. secretary general, and was then elected president of Austria, even after he was proven to have helped kill tens of thousands of Jews from Greece and elsewhere.

[2] A reference to Jesse Jackson who at the time had made many anti-Semitic remarks including referring to New York as “Hymietown” and appeared to have sympathy for PLO terrorism.

[3] A reference to American Jews who had helped stand up for the civil rights of African Americans (and in some cases been killed for doing so).

[4] Louis Farrakhan is the notoriously anti-Semitic leader of the so-called Nation of Islam.

In his book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk, Steven Lee Beeber argued that there was a key Jewish element to the New York punk-rock movement that Reed was central to; other Jewish-born artists included Joey and Tommy Ramone, Patti Smith’s guitarist Lenny Kaye, Richard Hell, Jonathan Richman, and Blondie’s guitarist Chris Stein — not to mention Malcolm McLaren (who was fully Jewish but whose family changed their name to escape anti-Semitism) and who created the Sex Pistols.

Saul Austerlitz in a review of the book wrote, “The new punk Jew was inspired in equal parts by the warriors of the Israel Defense Forces, the comic-book superheroes scripted by an earlier generation of Jewish artists, and an instinctive revulsion at the musical excesses of contemporaries.”

[ToddF]

New York is the CD he released as he rose to new popularity, when alternative exploded and took a lot of acts riding in obscurity to new heights.  That was my first Reed CD and I have to say, still one of my favorites, no small part because of that very song.

Even at the time I thought it unusual for any rock star to be ragging on a paragon of the leftist community, but Jessie Jackson!