We lost Lou Reed

[jeremy c]

Music producer Brian Eno once summed up their influence by saying: "The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."

 

newspaper article

 

I was fortunate enough to see The Velvet Underground at the Boston Tea Party in 1968 or 1969. There has never been another band like that.

[jeremy c]

Here's one of the bands that was definitely formed because of The Velvet Underground: The Jim Carroll Band.

(Jim Carroll is better known for writing the book, The Basketball Diaries which was later made into a film).

 

I just was listening to this song as a tribute to Lou Reed.

[video:youtube]

[kenfxj]

After the Giants game yesterday I laid down on the couch and put on my headphones to listen to some Pandora. The second song to play was Rock & Roll by the Velvets.

 

Rock stars' reactions.

[_Sweet Willie_]

I saw Lou Reed and his band (including Rob Wasserman on bass) perform the New York album start to finish at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence RI. They also performed other classic Lou Reed and VU tunes.

 

This was one of the most memorable concerts I ever went to. It was surprisingly intimate, and I left feeling like Lou and the band had just played for me in my living room. He talked about each New York tune before playing it; many of those stories resonated with my own NYC experience.

 

What a loss.

 

Peace'n'luv,

--SW

 

[Basshappi]

Sadness.

The man was an icon.

R.I.P. Mr. Reed and thanks for all the great music.