In the week that Lou Reed died
“...I hope it's true what
my wife said to me,
She says 'Lou it's the
beginning of a great adventure,
Lou, Lou, Lou, beginning
of a great adventure”
I can't remember ever falling out of
love with music. I can't remember a time when the first thing I've
wanted to do anytime, anywhere, is to get something playing. Often
it's a need more than a want. Unless and until there's some music on,
I'm in a total funk, unable to function, in a sort of panic. On the
cricket tour, as soon as I'd got into my room in the hotel, I was
scrambling about for the mini speakers to hook up to the netbook, and
I'd already slipped the iPod from the rucksack and plugged in the
earpieces. Into the car: music on. Into the office: music on before
normal hours when the phone starts ringing. In the kitchen: stereo
playing. It started a long, long, time ago, and has been constant.
“...but remember that the city is
a funny place
Something like a circus or a sewer
And just remember different people
have peculiar tastes
and the -
- Glory of love, the glory of love
the glory of love, might see you
through”
Of the first Velvet Underground album,
The Velvet Underground and Nico, the one with the Andy Warhol
banana on the cover, Brian Eno said something like: “only about
30,000 people bought a copy when it was originally released, but
every one of those people formed a band.” Influence that it is
impossible to underestimate.
“I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake
me
Different colours made of tears”
Apparently, on that album, on certain
songs John Cale was playing a viola fitted with guitar strings, they
used 'ostrich' guitars, with all the strings tuned to the same note,
and Cale had guitars tuned down a scale for a meatier, lower,
growlier sound he described as 'more sexy'.
“Give your hungry, your tired,
your poor
I'll piss on 'em
That's what the statue of bigotry
says”
Reed majored in English, I don't know
whether he completed his studies, but the writers cited as his
favourites come through in the lyrics of his songs: Hubert Selby Jr,
William S Burroughs, Chandler, and there must be a huge dollop of
Bukowski in there too. People with smart, sharp mouths often write
the sharpest, funniest lines.
“There's a girl from Soho with a
teeshirt saying "I Blow"
She's with the "jive five 2
plus 3"
And the girls for pay dates are
giving cut rates
Or else doing it for free
The past keeps knock knock knocking
on my door
And I don't want to hear it anymore”
Rock 'n' roll heart. That's what you
need. There's no 'new' rock 'n' roll, not business, not politics,
none of those ridiculous claims:
I refer you to Lou Reed,
for all the evidence you could ever
need.
