Arnold Zwicky's Blog

From the New Yorker on the 11th, a touching reminiscence of Lou Reed, who died on October 27th, by Patti Smith: “Mourning Lou Reed”:

I didn’t understand his erratic behavior or the intensity of his moods, which shifted, like his speech patterns, from speedy to laconic. But I understood his devotion to poetry and the transporting quality of his performances. He had black eyes, black T-shirt, pale skin. He was curious, sometimes suspicious, a voracious reader, and a sonic explorer. An obscure guitar pedal was for him another kind of poem. He was our connection to the infamous air of the Factory. He had made Edie Sedgwick dance. Andy Warhol whispered in his ear. Lou brought the sensibilities of art and literature into his music. He was our generation’s New York poet, championing its misfits as Whitman had championed its workingman and Lorca its persecuted.

First there was the Velvet Underground, then solo careers. And, eventually, marriage to Laurie Anderson.

Here are Smith and Reed in 1970, looking impossibly young and cool:

This entry was posted on November 17, 2013 at 6:26 am and is filed under Death notices, Music, Pop culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.