Monday, October 28, 2013

His Life Was Changed By Rock 'n' Roll: Lou Reed 1942 -- 2013

I am deeply saddened by Lou's death, and I will have more to say about him -- including a great me and Lou story (hey, who doesn't have one?) -- upon my return from the land of the Ignoble Frog.

But in the meantime, I gotta say -- I've always loved "Your Love," the 1962 single in which he did business as Lewis Reed and tried to market himself as the next...well, I'm not sure who, actually. Some teenage idol, I suppose.




Hard to believe that the same guy who made the first Velvet Underground LP four or five years later -- probably the most avant-garde album ever released by a major pop music record label -- was already a seasoned Brill Building type music biz hustler before he was even out of high school.

I should also add that the old reprobate actually outlived Lester Bangs by more than two decades. And who the hell saw THAT coming?




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I expected there would be some shocking revelations after Lou's demise, but nothing like this!
Of course the biggest shock of all is the fact of his dying: he always seemed way too cool to do something so ordinary.
C'est la vie.

Noam Sane said...

He was a big Dion fan, of course...

steve simels said...

As are all right thinking Americans.
:-)

Dave said...

This song is cool and I've never heard it. Thanks.

I like when Lou Reed threw curveballs. And this song is the spiritual grandparent of "I Love You Suzanne," where Lou as much as confessed that he wished he could be a conventional pop-rock star, and ended up rocking in the process. RIP.

Alzo said...

Lou Reed was the evil twin of Neil Diamond. Which made him far more interesting, of course.