Lou Reed dead at 71.

The Velvet Underground founder and solo artist dies at 71.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Because some of my friends' lives were interwoven with Lou Reed's, I feel his loss not in my own but theirs. He was not an interest so much as a sympathetic figure. I appreciated his decision to write songs about people who didn't seem to matter to anyone else, and I liked hearing friends' stories about going to his house and finding ordinary poor and working class people in his company -- bus drivers and bag ladies who told him about their day and knew their way to his fridge. Nelson Algren would have approved.

[Prestidigitweeze]

This is the kind of thing (and character) I mean:

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Because some of my friends' lives were interwoven with Lou Reed's, I feel his loss not in my own but theirs. He was not an interest so much as a sympathetic figure. I appreciated his decision to write songs about people who didn't seem to matter to anyone else, and I liked hearing friends' stories about going to his house and finding ordinary poor and working class people in his company -- bus drivers and bag ladies who told him about their day and knew their way to his fridge. Nelson Algren would have approved.

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

This is the kind of thing (and character) I mean:

Thanks, for that. Berlin was a great album though it was not a commercial success. Reed was not afraid to write about subjects people did not want to think about.

I was thinking about this film that I recalled seeing years ago. I found it on Youtube.