Lou Rees passed today at the age of 71. For those of you who don't know, Lou Reed was the front man and primary songwriter for The Velvet Underground. He also had a long and prodigious solo career. His most successful song was "Take A Walk on the Wild Side." The first time I listened to The Velvet Underground, I was a young teenager and it opened my mind. It was deep, sometimes catchy and other times alienating. It was honest, brutal and achingly beautiful. Most of all, it's timeless. You can put on any Velvet song and it could just as easily come out today, yesterday or tomorrow. The world has lost one of the finest lyricists, guitarists and performers to have lived. I doubt this will be a popular forum, but for anyone out there who knows and admires Lou, please post any reminisces or thoughts.
I've never heard of him, his band, or that song. But hopefully he lived a happy, fulfilling live. R.I.P.
NOOOOOOOOOO I was literally listening to the VU and some solo stuff just last night. I first discovered the Velvet Underground in highschool, and holy crap it changed my life. I only listened to those 4 albums for an entire year. It opened up a whole new bizarre and riveting underground music world. Literally in tears :'(
It's unfortunate that it seems youth today don't care about the music that came before. R.I.P. Lou you will be missed by many, the world lost a good one today.
My first memories of Lou Reed's music are faint, but I remember my dad (an avid music fan) listening to Velvet Underground records when I was growing up. As a little girl, I would put on my ballet tutu and spin around in circles in our living room. Like The Beatles and The Smiths, his various projects were influential to just about every modern musician close to my heart. I just found out about his passing from my friend Ceeho above, and immediately had to listen to "Perfect Day"--I listened to the Trainspotting soundtrack regularly throughout college. That song alone helped me survive so many bad days, and good ones too. ?I feel like I could say more, but I am still processing this news. RIP Lou Reed Thank you for making this thread.
I could just picture you twirling about to All Tomorrow's Parties I grew up shackled to arena rock where the edgiest band was Led Zeppelin. So to me, finding Reed's music was eye opening. It was from there that I could find The Smiths, Joy Division, Captain Beefheart, Pere Ubu, etc. I don't think RussianVixen was saying that just because youths don't know Lou Reed that means they aren't interested in the past. But the defiant and puerile ignorance displayed by Peeta is the core of a kind of myopia where life is only what is right in front of you. I couldn't imagine living a life that was closed to the full scope and history of human expression. To only listen to what industry wants you to hear, watch only what Hollywood wants you to watch, to live in the perpetual moment as a capitalist zombie eating the manufactured mediocrity. Why deliberately put on blinders? Seems silly to me.
i discovered lou via lori anderson and her performance art..there is a bowie exhibit in my city and to know he was friends and inspired by lou and his music and his friends made the evolotion of music more present and substantial now that i can draw a line to lou..cheers to you and a life well lived
OMG? are you kidding me?? i just finished studying a chapter about the velvet underground a few hours ago.. and on that source thingy it was still like "Lou Reed IS an american......" now it says "...WAS..."!! this feels really really weird.??