RIPs

[Tombo]

/Simon Cowell buys the rights to Perfect Day for a Xmas release.

He already has a version in his "stable", done by Susan Boyle of all people.  So expect a release anytime now.

[Colin YNWA]

Well that's crap. Great talent gone.

[Zarjazzer]

Damn.

[JOE SOAP]

Even so, I know there's one particular piece of music he'd love to think of everyone listening to at this time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Vy4VRRO30

For all his turtle-headedness - and like all ginormous talents - he continued to pump out great tunes along with more wrong-headed efforts.

[Albion]

Really sad to hear about Lou Reed.
I went to a few of his gigs over the years and each one was very special.
His album, Magic & Loss, affects me emotionally like no other album I have ever heard. If you know the subject matter behind it you might understand why.
He also wrote my favourite song of all time, Perfect Day, as well as many, many classics. I've been a huge fan of his for years including his Velvet Underground years as well as his solo work. A true rock legend is lost.
Farewell Lou.

[Heath C Ackley]

Another rock legend gone. Reed' s work was sublime, pre-dating punk with his gritty and less than glamourous portrayals of late 60's/early 70's life in New York. Goodnight Ladies indeed.

[Old Tankie]

RIP Lou Reed.  Another boyhood hero gone.  Not many left now.  Keep breathing Bowie, keep breathing!!

[Richmond Clements]

RIP Lou Reed.  Another boyhood hero gone.  Not many left now.  Keep breathing Bowie, keep breathing!!

I don't even want to think about Dave passing...

[Tiplodocus]

The live versions of SWEET JANE and HEROIN are just about two of my favourite things ever.

Here's hoping that somebody does a celebration album for him that's as awesome as the one he and John Cale did for Warhol (SONGS FOR DRELLA).

Despite the fact it's not exactly world-changing, One of my favourite lyrics remains :

I took my GPZ out for a ride the engine felt good between my thighs
The air felt cool, it's was forty degrees outside
I rode to Pennsylvania near the Delaware Gap
Sometimes I got lost and had to check my map...

from New Sensations



Though I'm still annoyed that he once rhymed "blade" with "blade".

[TordelBack]

Caught between the twisted stars,
The plotted lines,
The faulty map,
That brought Columbus to New York,
Betwixt between the East and West
He calls on her wearing a leather vest
The earth squeals and shudders to a halt.

While I prefer other Reed stuff these days, and The Velvet Underground & Nico's 'Heroin' in particular, New York was about my favourite album of all time when I was 17, a C90 backed with Elvis Costello's Armed Forces endlessly re-wound with a biro as I sat in the park trying to teach myself to draw by sketching seagulls in flight, and barely audible above the industrial hoover as I worked my mind-numbing evening cleaning shift.

The perfume burned his eyes
Holding tightly to her thighs
And something flickered for a minute
And then it vanished and was gone.

[Toni Scandella]

New York remains a masterpiece, IMO.  that is not usually a popular thing to say.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Lou Reed died the day I was painting this on a pub window, so I gave him a headstone.  (It was a spur of the moment thing - it didn't occur to me till later not to put a cross on a Jewish guy's grave.)

[TordelBack]

Treat as a signature: "Jayzus was 'ere" sort of thing.  Very nice work, BTW.

[Link Prime]

That's pretty cool Jayses.
Where's the pub?

[JayzusB.Christ]

Thanks!  It's Lafayette in Dublin, where Westmoreland St in Dublin leads onto O'Connell Bridge.  Hope Lou doesn't mind the undead drinking and dancing on his Christian grave.

EDIT:  I've just got TB's joke   

EDIT 2:  You will see the Lord Weird Slough Feg pouring himself a glass of wine on the next window along.  I've name-checked the Biz on it; I'm not going to rip someone off without acknowledging the fact