http://everythingloureed.tumblr.com/post/47843543499/punk-magazine-interviews-lou-issue-1------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 15:53:19 -0400> From: [log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Excellent Lou Reed rememberance> To: [log in to unmask]> > OK, given the list name, I have to chime in a collector story ...> > I got wind of a record store in the northwestern NJ suburbs. The place was described as "jam-packed" > and "cluttered," but was well-liked by people who post to various record collecting places on the > interwebs. I figured, what the heck, I'll waste some time and gasoline and check it out for an > afternoon. Scooped up one of my LP collector buddies and headed down there.> > The descriptions did not do this place justice. It was filthy, smelled like cat piss, the owner was > surly and reaked of the all-the-fixin's Big Mac he was stuffing into his piehole. We flipped through > stacks of filthy junk (filthy as in our hands quickly turned black). Then I found a box tucked in a > corner and in one fell swoop I got minty MONO originals of the VU & Nico, the first two Hendrix > albums and all of the early Who albums, all for a few bucks each. The double bonus was that the Who > albums are mono British imports, so they were really special. The VU is typical USA mid-60's vinyl, > but it spent little or no time on a record-wrecker. I also found an original still-wrapped LP of > "New York," which I didn't even know was released on LP. I wouldn't make eye contact with the owner, > fearing he'd raise the prices before money was exchanged.> > -- Tom Fine> > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Brennan, Jared (Library)" <[log in to unmask]>> To: <[log in to unmask]>> Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:05 PM> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Excellent Lou Reed rememberance> > > > Nice work Dave! I've never heard the VU/punk correlation before, that's wild.> >> > The Krefting remembrance is also brilliant.> >> > Here's my ripple in the swell of response to Lou's passing-> >> > My catharsis was instigated by European Son's presence on a mix-tape from a high school friend. In > > my immediate quest for more, I lucked out and found a used copy of the Peel Slowly And See box set > > for 30$ (a great deal considering it was the year the set came out). These CDs were of the few > > that accompanied me for several pre-mp3 player bohemian years, the music of which became (and > > remains) so personally significant I am at a loss for words to try and better explain the affect. > > It might seem misaligned, but driving through the moonscapes of the Alcan highway listening to > > these records is a very unique experience.> >> > While on the one hand I've always thought it an amazing defiance of biology that Lou Reed lived > > beyond his 30's, on the other hand- hearing the news the other day hit me in the same way as > > losing a friend or relative. Resonance of the VU and Reed in music since the record button was > > first pressed cannot be understated; I'd go so far as to say each individual song on the Velvet > > Underground & Nico record have authored what's emerged as distinctive genres amidst the > > independent rock sphere.> >> > A quick semi-digression before I sign off, my above and beyond most incredible record-collection > > story involves the holy grail Velvet Underground & Nico LP:> >> > A couple years ago I was running late to meet up with some friends, and happen to park in front of > > a house in Missoula, MT that was having a yard sale. Though a yard sale attic, given my lateness I > > would have passed on this one except I notice the lone crate of records, and at the front of it I > > can make out a banana. At this point I'm thinking you've got to be shitting me as it was day 2 of > > the yard sale in a college town with plenty of collectors. The woman who sold it to me for a buck > > was in her early 50's and she said this record belonged to her Mom who had recently passed, so I > > do the math and get to thinking that this could be a pretty early pressing. Sho' nuff it turns out > > to be a near-mint first pressing!> >> > They sure don't make 'em like they used to.> >> > RIP Mr. Reed> >> > Jared Brennan> > Nashville Public Library | Special Collections> > 615 Church Street| Nashville TN | 37219> > 615.862.5782 | http://www.library.nashville.org> >> > -----Original Message-----> > From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf > > Of David Lewis> > Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 9:13 PM> > To: [log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Excellent Lou Reed rememberance> >> > My summary of Lou Reed's solo work, which was published on facebook but is either downloadable > > here or you can read it in the box.net preview pane:> >> > https://app.box.com/s/rorfm8r6dexnpnpkysko> >> > Uncle Dave Lewis> > Lebanon, OH> >> >> > On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 3:20 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>wrote:> >> >> And the following was in today's Wall Street Journal:> >>> >> ------------------------------**------------------------------**> >> ------------------------------**------> >> The United States of Lou ReedThe United States of Lou Reed> >>> >> Sometimes rock 'n' roll can accomplish more to promote freedom than> >> translating the Federalist Papers.> >>> >> By David Feith, And Bari Weiss> >>> >> It is somehow fitting that rock star Lou Reed died Sunday, in this> >> season of American national angst over government shutdowns, mounting> >> debt and declining influence abroad. That's because the Velvet> >> Underground frontman not only motivated Václav Havel and the> >> Czechoslovak dissidents who challenged their Communist rulers and helped bring down the Soviet > >> Union.> >> He also demonstrated why, for all we hear about Washington's> >> sclerosis, it is still smart to bet on America in this century as in the last.> >>> >> Not that Reed himself would have put it this way. Starting in the> >> mid-1960s, his lyrics about urban life, drugs and sexuality made him> >> one of rock's leading transgressives. Later he lambasted the concept> >> of the American dream ("Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor> >> I'll piss on 'em/That's what the Statue of Bigotry says") and railed> >> against New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the religious right. In> >> recent years, he supported Occupy Wall Street and performed in Israel,> >> even as some of his left-wing contemporaries boycotted the Jewish state.> >>> >> But whatever his personal politics, Reed's music took on a life of its> >> own behind the Iron Curtain. In the 1970s Czechoslovakia's> >> anti-Communist movement coalesced around a Velvet Underground-inspired> >> rock group called the Plastic People of the Universe. The Communist> >> government branded the rockers enemies of the state for their long> >> hair, crazy outfits, secret concerts and anti-authority lyrics.> >>> >> Playwright Václav Havel documented their trial and imprisonment in> >> 1976, then published the "Charter 77" human-rights manifesto and> >> eventually led the Velvet Revolution against Communism in 1989. The> >> name derived partly from Reed's band, Havel later said. And when the> >> two men met in 1990, Havel told him, "Do you know I am president because of you?"> >>> >> As far as we know, Lou Reed didn't get up in the morning thinking> >> about how he could overthrow the Soviet Union. But his story reminds> >> us that rock 'n' roll can sometimes inadvertently accomplish more to> >> promote freedom than translating the Federalist Papers. In unfree> >> societies, free expression-whether from Lou Reed or Lady Gaga-is subversive in itself.> >>> >> Consider apartheid South Africa and the unlikely story of Rodriguez,> >> an early-1970s folk singer in Detroit who achieved no fame in the U.S.> >> but immense popularity among white, anti-apartheid activists thousands> >> of miles away. His blunt lyrics about sex won him young South African> >> listeners, as did his claim that "This system's gonna fall soon, to an> >> angry young tune/And that's a concrete cold fact." The system that> >> fell was South Africa's, where the government tried to keep> >> Rodriguez's music off the radio and out of stores, with official> >> censors sometimes scratching his LPs by hand.> >>> >> The music of Reed and Rodriguez reinforced an appreciation for the> >> critical divide between closed and open societies. Free societies like> >> the United States-where one can write songs such as "The Establishment Blues"> >> or even "F*** tha Police" without fear of hearing a knock on the door> >> in the dead of night-create an endless stream of material that can> >> wield outsize power in rigid, unfree countries.> >>> >> When the Soviets sent tanks to crush the "Prague Spring" in August> >> 1968, they couldn't have imagined that the crackdown would spur the> >> formation of an absurdist rock band capable of stoking two decades of> >> popular political protest. But Communist leaders knew that their hold> >> on power was always tenuous. Otherwise they wouldn't have built a> >> police state to monitor and restrain their people.> >>> >> So it is today, as regimes try to tamp down the contemporary analogues> >> to the Plastic People of the Universe. In Vladimir Putin's Russia, two> >> members of the punk-rock collective Pussy Riot now sit in prison,> >> guilty of "hooliganism." In Turkmenistan, the popular singer Maksat> >> Kakabaev, known as Maro, served in a penal colony for two years. In> >> Belarus, Europe's last dictatorship, the rocker Miron was accused of> >> creating political unrest and forced into military service. And in> >> Iran, "Samira," a female rapper,> >> sings: "Captive and prisoners behind the dark walls/ We know our> >> destiny to freedom."> >>> >> In July, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari> >> pointed to the Internet, movies and satellite TV as "tools" of the West's "soft war"> >> against the Islamic Republic. Last month, the Revolutionary Guard took> >> his cue, rounding up hundreds of satellite dishes in the city of> >> Shiraz and crushing them with a tank. On some, the regime had written> >> "satellite dishes are treason."> >>> >> No matter how many satellite dishes the ayatollahs confiscate, or how> >> many Internet connections they jam, as Lou Reed put it in a 1987 song,> >> just two years before the Velvet Revolution: "I hear the voices of> >> freedom from the left/ I hear the voices of freedom from the right/I> >> hear the voices of freedom, babe, from all over this world."> >> ------------------------------**------------------------------**> >> ------------------------------**------> >>> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Justin Lemons" <> >> [log in to unmask]>> >> To: <[log in to unmask]>> >> Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 2:43 PM> >>> >> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Excellent Lou Reed rememberance> >>> >>> >> This is without a doubt the best obituary I have read for him so far.> >>> Thank you.> >>>> >>>> >>> On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 1:07 PM, Aaron L. Rosenblum> >>> <[log in to unmask]> >>> >wrote:> >>>> >>> A quick addendum (sorry to clog your inboxes) - the previously> >>> linked> >>>> post> >>>> about Lou Reed has been picked up by Huffington Post, if you prefer> >>>> to read it in the "legit" (?!?) media.> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/**matt-krefting/lou-reed_b_**> >>>> 4178090.html?utm_hp_ref=**entertainment<http://www.huffingtonpost.co> >>>> m/matt-krefting/lou-reed_b_4178090.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment>> >>>>> >>>> Okay, done talking about Lou...for now!> >>>>> >>>> Aaron> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 1:25 PM, Aaron L. Rosenblum <> >>>> [log in to unmask]> >>>> >wrote:> >>>>> >>>> > Another terrific remembrance from music writer and Lou fanatic> >>>> > Matt Krefting. Okay, he's also a lifelong friend and bandmate of> >>>> > mine, but I stand by his piece quite apart from any of that:> >>>> >> >>>> >> >>>> >> >>>> http://kreftingmoondawn.**wordpress.com/2013/10/29/how-**> >>>> do-you-think-it-feels-and-**when-do-you-think-it-stops/<http://kreft> >>>> ingmoondawn.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/how-do-you-think-it-feels-and-w> >>>> hen-do-you-think-it-stops/>> >>>> >> >>>> > Aaron> >>>> >> >>>> > Aaron L. Rosenblum> >>>> >> >>>> > Assistant Curator of Special Collections> >>>> >> >>>> > The *Filson* Historical Society> >>>> >> >>>> > 1310 South Third Street> >>>> >> >>>> > Louisville, KY 40208> >>>> >> >>>> > 502.635.5083 x 269 (phone)> >>>> >> >>>> > 502.635.5086 (fax)> >>>> >> >>>> > [log in to unmask]**org> >>>> > <[log in to unmask]>> >>>> >> >>>> > www.filsonhistorical.org> >>>> >> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> >> >
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