So Lou Reed was "The Worst Person Who Ever Lived?"

Disappointing.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/10/lou-reed-was-a-monster.html

Guess he really did take a walk on the wild side.

Yeesh. What a tool.

Hardly a surprise or a revelation. While people tend not to want to talk ill of the recently departed so comments at the time of his death were kind, this is very much in line with the reputation Reed had. There was a thread here about it around the time of his liver transplant, which I started based on an Onion piece, including a first hand report from our own Whatfrat. I will see if I can find the link.

https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/id/96479-New-Liver-Complains-Of-Difficulty-Working-With-Lou-Reed

Ha! Funny.

It also changes my view of Laurie Anderson, who I have always looked up to. What stay with that? And laud it?

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/read-laurie-andersons-moving-rock-hall-speech-for-lou-reed-20150419

From the article:

"...but he sure wrote some great songs.”

Worst person who ever lived? Possibly Hitler or Stalin?

Possibly Godfrey Diamond?

Godfrey Diamond, Reed’s producer on Coney Island Baby, remembers an exchange late in his career. “Lou, all I want you to do is give me another ‘Sweet Jane’. You’re the master of writing songs about people,” Diamond remembered. “He looks at me and goes, ‘Godfrey, I try to write ‘Sweet Jane’ every day,’ in this deep, awful, mean, aggravated, upset voice. Clearly, that wasn’t the thing to say.”

FilmCarp said:
Worst person who ever lived? Possibly Hitler or Stalin?

Don't be so literal!

largely a who cares for me re Reed and all artists/celebs who I don't know personally. Creative people are often screwed up. Unlike some who make a virtual second career of cultivating a saintly public image, Reed was pretty openly a crank and a nut job. The difference between Reed and the many people I've known personally (and you've known personally) who are insufferable is that Reed is a key figure in the history of rock music.

I think it's good for the private lives of celebrities to be described and analyzed, since we create such myths around their public personas. We learn through these bios that some are kind, some are nasty pricks, as Reed is described, many are lonely, suffering in various ways, all too human, with strengths and weaknesses.

The first article says he was bipolar and had at least two breakdowns. That explains a lot. He was a good musician, so enjoy his music and just be glad you did not have to live with him or depend on him for anything. Laurie Anderson obviously found some way to do that. Who knows how, but he was her monster.

Laughing at this part. Lou calls up his sister, Bunny, to warn her:

“This song’s coming out.” Lou recited the lyrics of “Kill Your Sons,” which described a sister who’d married a fat guy on Long Island who took the train to work and didn’t have a brain.

“Are you serious?” asked Bunny. “You wipe out my lifestyle and my husband in four phrases?”
“Ah, I needed something to rhyme with train. So I had to take poetic license.”

He left millions to Bunny, I read. Also to Laurie A. RIP, Lou. You were an authentic, one-of-a-kind, very American songwriter poet.

Most of the descriptions of his *****-ness seemed to be concentrated early in his career. Maybe, just maybe, he mellowed later in life.

Laurie Anderson's tribute was lovely. He can't have been all bad.

Ghost Lou haunts Laurie Anderson's movie "Heart of Dog," about to come out. They loved each other.

we were at this show at Joe's Pub a few years ago (if you look closely, you can spot us in the crowd shots ). My impression was that Lou was at best a cranky guy. And that was just from watching him walk on stage, sing a few songs, and then leave. I don't think he mellowed much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-7Mp41E5sw

I think sobriety may have mellowed him later in his life. I saw him read poetry at Summerstage in 1991, and he came across as introspective if not apologetic (and certainly not humble).

Patti Smith inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last spring, and in her speech she acknowledged that they had "a complex friendship, sometimes antagonistic and sometimes sweet."

She had the best description/explanation of him that I've read: He was the friend of New York.

Jasmo said:
some are nasty pricks, as Rawls is described

You may be thinking of a different Lou.

memorial said:

Jasmo said:
some are nasty pricks, as Rawls is described

You may be thinking of a different Lou.

Sorry, meant Lou Reed, corrected.

Of course it's a character, but in the largely improvised film "Blue in the Face," Reed shows a different side in a few short, wacky monologues. The film is a series of short vignettes based on Harvey Keitel's Brooklyn cigar store from "Smoke."

You can skip to the Reed parts which are funny not just for his wig and glasses. my other favorite segment has Jim Jarmusch and Keitel shooting the breeze as Jarmusch smokes his last Lucky Strike before quitting.

I suppose Lou chose to trash Bunny's family in the name of poetic license because rhyming trains with train a la Viscous doesn't work as well.

Kill Your Sons is Lou's story, and considering the horrors he suffered as a teen and young adult, the fact he could function as an independent and uniquely creative person is miraculous.

The song speaks of his stays at Creedmor and Paine Whitney, where he was given ECT to cure his various undiagnosed behavioral issues. His sister Merrill has put to rest the rumor his parents were motivated by a desire to cure Lou's homosexual urges. The treatment gave Lou the resolve to live as an outsider, and certainly contributed to his horrific behavior.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3222881/How-Lou-Reed-given-electroshock-therapy-aged-just-17-sexuality-New-York-psychiatric-hospital-described-hell-Queens.html

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/15/lou-reed-sister-mental-health-homosexuality-rumors

As others noted, these revelations aren't new, with a number of books over the past 10 years discussing his abuse of women and cruel treatment of most everyone. Bettye Kronstad attributes his violence to his alcoholism.

If Laurie is to be believed, he's been clean for 30 years. And I also can't see her tolerating what Bettye had to endure. Being they waited 16 years to marry, seems she was able to roll with whatever self he showed to her.

This just in: "Heart of a Dog" is at the Bow Tie/Claridge in Montclair tonight. Now's our chance.