A Few Random Thoughts on Lou Reed

1. The first Velvet Underground record is not only the best debut album ever, but certainly the most fully-formed. Boom, here we are, this is us. I've always wondered if this was partly due to the fact that they were older than most "young" bands at the time. Reed was 25, Cale even older.

2. I Love You Suzanne is woefully overlooked. And it reminds me of '65 Love Affair, one of my oddly-hometown songs.

3. I don't wanna be pissing in the Cheerios here, but in all the books I've read about Lou Reed not once did anyone say anything other about his personality other than he was a complete asshole.

4. Is it even possible to be more New York than Lou Reed?

5. Maybe the most interesting thing about him is that when the final VU album came out he was working for his dad's accounting firm as a typist.

6. He's the single-greatest example of a dude who had grown up in sheltered suburbia demanding to see the darkest part of everything, including NYC.

7. From what I can tell, I'm the only person who ever lived in New York City for more than 30 seconds who didn't run into him on the street.

8. I'm pretty sure that the first time I heard Waiting for the Man as a 15 year-old I had no idea what the hell it was about. Even though I'd already heard Heroin.

9. Is REM covering Pale Blue Eyes, There She Goes Again and Femme Fatale the only example of one great band covering another great band and trumping them with each of their own versions of three already great songs?

10. Someone once told me the story of going to a Lou Reed record signing with a Lou Rawls record and asking him to sign it. He thought Lou would get a kick out of the "mistake." He did not.

11. The four just flat-out coolest motherfuckers ever hafta be Reed/Dylan/Lennon/Strummer. And only one's left. And he birthed us The Wallflowers. Which ain't cool.

12. I remember excitedly getting Magic and Loss. Don't think I ever made it through it.

13. But if I had a nickel for every time I listened to the first VU or New York, I'd be a dozenaire.

14. One of the reasons I liked Marah, the first new band in like 100 years I liked, was that they talked about the New York album and covered the fuck outta I Can't Stand It.


15. I remember passionately quoting him that "Rock & roll is so great, people should start dying for it" during one of the first times I hung out with a woman who I'd fallen hopelessly in love with. And believing it.

16. Of course now I feel like an idiot for doing so, but that's the beauty of youth. And rock & roll.

17. Lou would go on to make the world's greatest mix tape, given to that very girl. Congrats, Lou!

18. He had that same cool thing Lennon/Strummer/Dylan have in that even though you know 90% of what they're saying in any interview is complete bullshit made up to amuse themselves, but you still hang on every word.