Every group needs a voice. As poet / singer / songwriters go, Lou Reed was to city dwelling junkies, hustlers, and misfits what Merle Haggard is to rural working people. Very few albums have ever hit me on a more visceral level than Lous Rock and Roll Animal. I was lucky enough to see Mr. Reed several times during and after the pinnacle of his commercial popularity. (This was the time frame in which David Bowie had taken it upon himself to simultaneously promote artists like Lou, Iggy, the New Your Dolls, etc., while usurping their individual and collective talents to formulate his own made-for-media Ziggy Stardust character.) For me, the most memorable show was at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. I believe he was touring to support Sally Cant Dance. In the middle of Heroin, the entire hall went black except a white-hot spotlight on Lou, whose skin was as pale as an albinos ashes in an ivory urn. The drum roll started, softly at first, as he used his microphone cord to tie off his arm in a ritual every junkie knows all too well. The drum roll swelled...louder....louder......louder. Then CRACK!!! BOOM!!! The spike in his right hand hit the crook of his left elbow in a manner that let us all know that -- simulated or not -- this was a ceremonial rite which hed spent his entire life perfecting. The lights came up suddenly and the room was filled with a maelstrom of loud guitars, a storm of lights, and a chaotic energy palpable to even the most timid of teetotalers. He had managed to take an entire audience with him to the loneliest place on earth -- a place where isolation is a warm cloak and ideas are wings. A place only junkies can know. As the music built to a crescendo, filling the room with an energy that could not be ignored, every fiber of Lous being was RIGHT THERE, in the moment... Wow, that heroin is in my blood And the blood is in my head Yeah, thank God that Im good as dead Ooohhh, thank your God that Im not aware And thank God that I just dont care And I guess I just dont know And I guess I just dont know Rest in peace, Lou. You gave an air of dignity to the low life.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 19:59:08 +0000
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