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                                       :'(

This is very sad.  He was a true original.

sh*t. This feels too weird. :(

Very tragic news. R.I.P. Lou.  :'(

Lou Reed was a revolutionary. I don't think there is a single artist out there today that is as brave as he was. His work as a solo artist and with the VU are true testaments to his talent. RIP Lou.

Damn you, world! He needed another decade or so.

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY, I'M NOT A YOUNG MAN ANYYYYYYYYYYYYYMOREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC3ZIfK5rto

What?! Oh wow... :(

God, what a shiity year for losing some of our icons. The Doors' Ray, Alvin Lee, JJ Cale, Lou. Now I read this morningrthat John Mcvie has cancer.

I've been out of the loop and just saw this headline. Damn sad. But unfortunately as all of these musicians we of a certain age grew up listening to and being influenced by start to reach senior citizen status, we'll unfortunately be faced with this on a more regular basis. It's like you know it's coming but still the shock of reading it brings it really close to home.

I'm trying to think of other musicians whose "aura" as a presence musically and personally was as strong as that of Lou Reed, where even the announcement he'd be sitting in on one song with a band would generate that buzz. And it's a very, very small list as of 2013.

And in a very bizarre or even absurd twist, has anyone been hearing Lou's "Perfect Day" in a recent television ad campaign? I wonder how many people knew that song without having to Google it.

RIP

 

RIP Lou, friend of many dark moments

Very, very sorry to hear about Lou's condition and passing.

RIP, Lou.

Is this some kind of dark joke, or is this true?
I just cannot believe it

R.I.P.

It certainly seems unreal.
Sadly, it is true.

The unreal thing actually happened just a week ago or so, there were reports and rumors circulating that he had died, now days later it comes true. That is bizarre.

Sunday morning and I'm falling
I've got a feeling I don't want to know
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It's all the streets you crossed
Not so long ago...

R.I.P. Lou

Hey folks, I suppose I should post this in this thread here.

Here is my reconstruction of the "lost fourth album" by The Velvet Underground, if you want to play some Lou right now (I know I do).

http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-velvet-underground-iv.html

It concludes with what I think is probably the best thing they've done, "Ride Into The Sun" which seems really appropriate right now.  :/

Ugh. Horrible day in the music biz. :(

For me, it was always the Beach Boys, the Kinks, and Lou/VU.  There is no understating the magnitude of his work and impact.  Lived a damn full life for sure, the last few decades clean and mostly happy it would seem.  But that sh*t will catch up to you...anyway, hope he's locking in with Sterling tonight....

What the f***? He just had a liver transplant and was supposedly doing better. Although, he did cancel a recent tour without an explanation. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to die.  :( I'll be playing Rock And Roll Animal tonight.

As mentioned previously all our heroes from the 1960s are now in their 70s and this sort of thing has to be expected. Still it doesn't make it any easier to accept when it does happen. I wasn't a huge Reed fan but I always admired how he totally did his own thing. A true original, R.I.P.

This is shocking.

He was as big as Dylan in my mind.  Been a fan since I can remember.  I always liked that he wasn't perfect, not a good singer, the banded sounded like they weren't good musicians -- yet his music was monumental.  It transcended music.  It was truly great art.

Always thought, had he died young... he would have been as iconic as Morrison and Hendrix.  He certainly deserves that status.  I think he has that status.

(http://www.thisisjanewayne.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/0000074091-194812-7421593-.jpg)

Lou's passing was the leadoff story all day on CBS Radio News in the US, so he did get recognition on a level I didn't quite expect. But then again apart from a few college stations, no stations were playing Reed/Velvets nonstop the way hundreds of 'em were playing Michael Jackson's records when he died.

Brian posted about Lou's death on Facebook. He said his fave song of his was...heavy-duty choice here...."Sad Song" from Berlin!

One of the commenters to the post quoted from a 1965 essay Lou wrote in which he expressed his admiration for Brian's work.

Easily the worst day in the world since Sterling Morrison died....

Words could never even begin to describe the invaluable eduction Lou gifted us all....

From Brian's facebook:


"Lou Reed was a great songwriter and story teller. I especially connected with his ballads. I think Sad Song was one of my favorites. He will truly be missed."

Hell, yeah Brian.  Pale Blue Eyes.  I can hear it now.  So sad.

Rock on Lou.

Brian and his band need to do the entire Street Hassle suite ;)

Soniclovenoize, your work has always impressed me greatly. I'd like to make one request.
Is there any way that you can reconstruct the Woodstock performance of Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows (AKA Jimi Hendrix)?
There have been many versions officially available, but they're horrible. The first one released in 1994 doesn't have the full performance at all, many of the songs missing. The second version released in 1999 was "one step forward and two steps back". They did include most of the performance, but they still got rid of the two Larry Lee songs, and unforgivably, they mixed out Lee, Sultan, and Velez!
Is it possible for you to make a definitive version with all songs and where you can actually hear Lee, Sultan and Velez?

What was wrong with his liver?

He was reported for years to have suffered from Heptatitis C though he never acknowledged having it.

I previously mentioned the 1966 article in which Lou sang Brian's praises - here it is:

http://ubu.com/aspen/aspen3/bandstand.html

I am making no definitive comments on Lou Reed's liver because I don't know anything specific.  However it is no big news that people who have abused alcohol and drugs to a great extent, like say a Greg Allman or David Crosby (both like Lou liver transplant recipients), can be more prone to liver disease.  Having Hepatitis C, high usage of other medications, are other common factors or co-factors -- I'm sure there are others I am not aware of.  It seems pretty clear that Lou drank heavily at certain times of his life as well as used a lot of speed.  Other substances I'm not aware of though he did write a song called "Heroin."  From what I've read he cleaned up before "The Blue Mask" (containing the telling song "Underneath the Bottle").  Personally I've known recovered addicts who paid the price down the road.  Anyway, Lou's transplant didn't do the trick -- sadly.

"There is no god and Brian Wilson is his son."

Of course "Sad Song."  BW is still hip.

As far as I know, he didn't write the song because he himself used the drug, he thought it would be an interesting topic to write about. Ya know, like "Venus in Furs" (although, I wouldn't be surprised....)

Apparently, people would actually start doing heroin during their concerts when the song was being played. Lou said it horrified him.

I was being a little cute there -- it is not in my memory seeing any references to him using smack.  The song is brilliant of course, and the desire to be obliterated in an effed up world can be related to fairly universally I'd think, if you are open minded enough to get past it being a "drug" song.

Yes!!  ;D The same goes for the four(or was that 6?) concerts the Jimi Hendrix Experience did at Winterland in October of 1968. On the box set, they deleted a full two minutes(!) of Are You Experienced?.

I've always loved Pale Blue Eyes. It's really a beautiful song. To me, it has a slight Otis Redding feel. I love the slightly dark twist in the last verse.  >:D

They still shouldn't have mixed out Lee, Sultan and Velez...

If you listen to the raw bootlegs of the Woodstock show, you can kind of understand why they were mixed down. They tended to get in the way in some songs. But the hardcore fan in me agrees with you about leaving the mix "as is", and not fooled around with. I always thought that the performance of the Gypsy Woman/Aware Of Love medley was one of the highlights of the show.

(http://images.dangerousminds.net/uploads/images/lourachel.jpg)

awwww

Or segue "Fun, Fun, Fun" into "Run Run Run"

If I recall correctly, he did use heroin before writing the song, but only a few times. But the way he describes the whole experience, as if he'd been a junkie for years...it's just mind-blowing. I read dozens of drug-addicts journals (I'm into that kind of stuff) and I've come to the conclusion that everything that you need to know about heroin is in that song. Add the fact that he wrote it in '64, when he was only 22 years old, and it should be enough to place him among the most brilliant pop/rock song-writers to ever walk on this planet.

This definitely leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Everything about that liver transplant sounded fishy and it didn't do much good in the end.

Who is the 20-year old, the 30-year old or even the 40-year old who is dead today because a rich 71-year old paid and bribed people for that liver?

Where did he stand politically? I know he desribed himself as aligned with democrats/liberals when U.S invaded Iraq in 2003/04.

This pic is of Lou in the mid 1970s with his Puerto Rican transvestite (or some say transsexual) girlfriend of the time, the mysterious Rachel. Mysterious because nothing was heard from her again after they broke up around 1977, although she'd been very visible by Lou's side before that. Lou never spoke about her since they split, and she was said by some to have died sometime in the 1990s but no one knows for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov6ZI58ozYE

Above, Lou's "Rock'n'Roll" as performed in 1971 by the legendary Mitch Ryder with his post-Detroit Wheels combo, simply called Detroit. When Lou heard this he got in touch with the track's producer, Bob Ezrin, who ended up making Berlin with him.  The lead guitarist on it, Steve Hunter, later teamed with Dick Wagner to form the scorching six-string duo on Lou's Rock'n'Roll Animal and Lou Reed Live albums. (And later Hunter and Wagner were the mainstays of Alice Cooper's post-1974 band.)

Come to think of it, this medley would really work with BAD/Beck.  Imagine Jeff laying into the Velvets tune with some of that Yardbirds-style feedback that inspired Lou back in the day. Full circle and all that.

(Plus, Jeff came pretty close to sharing a bill with the Velvets in the Yardbirds days - he left the band in Texas a few weeks before the two groups played the Michigan State Fair in '66.)

The backing vox would be wonderful!

I also had a terrifying vision of Brian foghorn slurring his way through Sunday Morning at a charity gig with Foskett chorusing it up. I picked a wrong week to quit laudanum.

Short of organized crime "organ harvesting", no one is murdered to donate a liver.  One is put on a list and when someone passes who has willed their organs for transplant and is compatible and your number is up then you are given that liver.  Various criteria go into your eligibility and it can be a long wait -- I had a friend die last year waiting for one.  I imagine money could move you up the list, unfortunately, but I don't know.

Anyway, your statement that Lou Reed bribed and someone was killed for a liver seems pretty irresponsible to me, to put it mildly.

Excuse me...I was not suggesting that Reed purchased a liver from China (that happens too btw) or ordered a hit on someone....I'm suggesting that he jumped the waiting list and that someone who really, really needed that liver....someone who had tens of years left to live, maybe 20, maybe 40 years left... that person really needed that liver.

But the rich 70-year old somehow, magically jumped the waiting list.

Again, where did Reed stand politically? I'm offended by this story.

Not the best way to make your return....

I hope you can understand why I misinterpreted your remarks because of how they were written -- jumping the waiting list is another matter.  As I mentioned I lost  a friend last year who was kept waiting.  Whether Lou Reed jumped the waiting list I have no idea, but of course it wouldn't surprise me.

Politically I have no idea where he was at -- On "Take No Prisoners" he says "give me an issue and I'll give you a tissue, and you can wipe my ass with it!"  Of course that was years ago.  I do know he seemed to get in bed with PBS a lot, whatever that could mean.

Again, goodbye to a great artist, not a perfect human being.

Steve Jobs did it, too. Not hard, just expensive. You get on the waiting list in multiple states.

I don't see what politics have to do with it, particularly. The urge to live transcends political leanings (ask Dick Cheney's new heart about that).

Really, that's the only thing you can think of? 'What a waste of a good liver?' Why bother, Cablegeddon?


I still can't believe he's gone. I never thought he'd die, in a strange way. It didn't seem possible. RIP.

she's pretty

Btw, does anyone notice that all the Lou Reed solo albums are out of stock on Amazon?

Isn't it true you can get a partial liver from a live donor who's willing to give you part of theirs (the liver grows back to full size after the transplant in both donor and recipient)? It's risky for the donor, as I understand, but it can be done.

It sounds like Lou waited too long to get one. A lot of people live a fairly normal lifespan, it seems, after getting the transplant. Either that, or he had a bad reaction to the anti-rejection drugs.

This article should answer your question.  He was a very smart man.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/176852/lou-reeds-more-perfect-union-politics

Lou Reed was about as liberal as you can get.

It's hard to believe it's been a week already since Lou passed peacefully....on a Sunday Morning. I spent most of the past week listening to Lou/VU songs, reading numerous tributes, watching YouTube videos, and thinking. I apologize in advance if these thoughts are boring....

In 1974-75, my turntable was occupied by the likes of KISS, Blue Oyster Cult, The Doors, Slade, and Sparks. That would soon change significantly, as Endless Summer was emanating from my sister's bedroom. And, every week I would ride my bike to the local magazine store to read the recent editions of Rolling Stone, Circus, Hit Parader, and Creem. Creem was my favorite because that's how I discovered the groups mentioned above - and it was the only magazine covering Ray Manzarek's solo career!

I finally broke down and subscribed to Creem, because every new subscription entitled you to KISS's new album - for free! So, a few weeks later the free album arrived in the cardboard mailer, only it wasn't KISS, it was Lou Reed Live. I was pissed; I felt had. Not only wasn't it my promised KISS album, it was friggin' Lou Reed, that freak. The enclosed letter merely mentioned that they were out of KISS, and....sorry. I was tempted to send the album right back, but I didn't. I listened to it once, not bad. Second time, even better. Third time, I was hooked. As eclectic as I thought my taste in music was, well, this was, um, different.

I didn't know what to make of Lou Reed. Never listened to anything by him, other than I remembered "Walk On The Wild Side" from the radio, and hated it. But, I liked Lou Reed Live so much that I sought out more of his stuff. I couldn't find The Velvet Underground in the record stores, but I found a couple of Lou Reed albums in the bargain bins. Eventually I got into The Velvets and some of Lou's later solo stuff. I consider myself a fan, but not a huge diehard. I'm embarrassed to say I did not keep up with every Lou Reed solo album. But, for some reason, his recent passing really shook me up. I feel the loss; I really do. And, after a lot of thought, I know why. I never knew why I liked Lou Reed so much. But now I do.

I wanted to look like Jim Morrison. No offense to Lou (I'm referring to the 1974-75 period), but I didn't want to look like him. I wanted to play guitar like Buck Dharma from BOC, but not really like Lou. I wanted to sing like Brian Wilson, certainly not like Lou Reed. I wanted to go on the rollicking road with Noddy & Company; Lou scared me. I wouldn't mind dressing like Gene Simmons did on stage, but Lou Reed?

So what about Lou appealed to me? Lou Reed represented a side of life that I couldn't even fathom. The places and the people and the lifestyle that Lou sang about were completely foreign to me. And I liked that! I never visited the streets that Lou roamed. I never met the people that Lou knew. I never lived the lifestyle that Lou lived. Frankly, I never even imagined those things. My upbringing and lifestyle and values were so different, that I would've been afraid to live a life like that. But it was sure fun listening to Lou singing about them. It was fascinating and exciting. I could go to those places through Lou's music anytime I wanted. It was different than imagining the California Feeling of Brian Wilson's music; I knew I could fit into that. There's no way I would ever survive in Lou Reed's or The Velvet Underground's world; it was too dangerous. But, damn, it was still fun to think about, that danger. I could experience it through Lou's music, if that makes sense.

I read that Lou passed away, in his home, peacefully. From what I read, Lou found happiness with Laurie in his later years. I'm glad. Thanks Lou, for sharing your world with us. I enjoyed hearing all about it, and in my own way, experiencing it.

I've been playing Magic and Loss all week. Aside from being a personal favourite it seems appropriate.  Boy, Lou knew how to record guitars! I'm missing him.

That just makes it all the worse. What a hypocrite. It was all fun and cool to hang with the Occupy wall street movement, he had fun with his self-rightous "I'm with the working class" sentiments....but in the end he was the rich old white male. He was with the elite. What are the odds that he left some 30 or 40 year old guy or woman for dead to get that liver?

most liver transplants are not from a live donor

Cabblegeddon, your outrage seems to be based on a complete lack of facts, you are jumping to huge conclusions. No, I don't know the facts either so I won't make any comments regarding this matter.

You act as if he went down to a hospital, found the liver transplant hallway, persisted to cut everyone in line while punching them all in the face, stuck his hand into the icebox, grabbed five livers, threw three on the floor, ate one, and demanded the other one be put inside of him, the whole while screaming "I'm richer than all of you! I deserve to live!"

I really miss Lou, you guys.

That's exactly what he probably did. A very Lou thing to do. I miss him too.

A tribute from John Cale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln77F25hXVQ#t=200 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln77F25hXVQ#t=200)

Good song, I'm glad John Cale is still with us and I hope he stays with us.  I've become a bigger fan of the Velvets and of Lou Reed since his death which just makes it sadder.  I've bought some of Lou's concert DVDs (Berlin Live, Live in Montreux, Spanish Fly, the Velvet Redux reunion), seeing what a great performer he was and it makes me regret that I'll never get a chance to see him live.

The New York album is 25 years old. It should have had an anniversary edition. Still time I guess.

They could release this on DVD.
http://www.discogs.com/Lou-Reed-The-New-York-Album/release/4822691

Yeah, it's a good one as I recall. I've not watched it in years since I binned the video recorder.