Lou Reed, that magnificent bastard, is dead at 71,
I went through a serious Lou Reed/Velvet Underground phase in grad school, hoovering up every last cd I could find. The ardor, as always, cooled, but the affection remained.
Still, my real introduction to Lou Reed (not Lou, not Reed), was in the 1980s, when I read about him in either The Nation or Mother Jones, and when “Walk on the Wild Side” was used to pitch the Honda Spree. I get why musicians and fans might consider the sale of songs to corporations selling out (because it is), but that particular sale (along with Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” Volkswagon ad) introduced me to a fan-fucking-tastic artist.
Anyway, my first album of his was New Sensations, which is not bad, but not great. This the song that stuck with me:
Fly, baby, fly.
~~~
h/t (if you can believe it) Rod Dreher
AbsurdBeats 