Lou Reed [1942-2013]

Artist: Lou Reed

LP: Transformer

Song: "Goodnight Ladies"

[ listen ]

When I went to my friends' place yesterday afternoon to carve pumpkins with their family, they told me that Lou Reed had died. I'm embarrassed to admit that I first heard of Lou Reed when I bought his "My Love Is Chemical" single, which was featured in the movie WHITE NIGHTS. I was 16 years old and living in Yakima, Washington. Nobody there had ever heard of The Velvet Underground. I still don't think anyone there knows about them, except probably my friend Tiffany. It's also embarrassing to admit that I purchased Lou Reed's 1972 "Transformer" LP at a thrift store in Southern California while on my LDS mission primarily because of the photo on the back—the one of the guy with the French baguette stuffed down the front of his pants. Of course eventually I found out about The Velvet Underground, I learned that Lou Reed's music and his themes of sexual promiscuity and ambiguity had a profound influence on lots of other bands I liked, and I came to be extremely grateful that I happened across one of Lou Reed's early records at a California thrift shop, even if I did buy it mainly for the "art." You can read about Lou Reed's incredible life and career on Wikipedia here, and go here to read his obituary in the New York Times.

 [ Here's the jack-o-lantern I made the day Lou Reed died. ]

Lou Reed

[ March 2, 1942 — October 27, 2013 ]

We will miss you, Lou.