Lou Reed
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14. “Methedrine Machine Music”: Kaye, “Lou Reed.”
15. “All the specs were a lie”: Reed, Metal Machine Music: Performed by Zeitkratzer Live.
16. “This record is not for parties/dancing/background/romance” and following: Lou Reed, liner notes, Metal Machine Music (RCA, 1975).
17. “a try at a Warholian soundbyte”: Reed, Metal Machine Music: Performed by Zeitkratzer Live.
18. “onstage image of off-the-wall instability” and following: John Rockwell, “The Pop Life: Lou Reed Turns Up the Volume,” the New York Times, June 20, 1975.
19. “What’s most distressing is the possibility”: James Wolcott, review of Metal Machine Music, Rolling Stone, August 14, 1975.
20. “In time… it will prove itself”: Mikal Gilmore, “Lou Reed’s Heart of Darkness,” Rolling Stone, March 22, 1979.
21. “I run into different musicians”: Fricke, Metal Machine Music reissue.
22. “as an underground artist again”: Kaye, “Lou Reed.”
Chapter 11. A Speed-Addled, Leather-Clad Virgil
1. “what made it special?”: Author interview, Clive Davis.
2. “I saw them the way they wanted to see themselves” and following: Author interview, Mick Rock.
3. “Rock’s educated, but I am, too”: Mark Beaumont, “Lou Reed: The Last Interview, New Musical Express, November 9, 2013.
4. “I had been around interesting clubs in London” and following: Author interview, Mick Rock.
5. “It’s very buttoned-up”: Author interview, Erin Clermont.
6. “I’d been up for days, as usual”: Marc Campbell, “Rachel: Lou Reed’s Transsexual Muse,” dangerousminds.net, February 6, 2013, http://dangerousminds.net/comments/rachel_lou_reeds_transsexual_muse.
7. “a strange, somewhat female thing” and following: Lester Bangs, “Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves, or How I Slugged It Out with Lou Reed and Stayed Awake,” Creem, March 1975.
8. “Do you understand, Quine? This is a person I was close to”: Jim DeRogatis, “Robert Quine: Such a Lovable Genius,” Perfect Sound Forever, http://www.furious.com/perfect/Quine/quinederogatis.html.
9. “Lou’s babysitter” and following: Bangs, “Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves.”
10. “She took care of things for him” and following: Author interview, Erin Clermont.
11. “When Lou walked into a room”: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
12. “It was an amazing picture”: Author interview, Clive Davis.
13. “using those kinds of pop doo-wop phrases”: Rob Bowman, liner notes, Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology (RCA).
14. “a tall, exotic person with cascading hair”: Caroline Coon, “Lou Reed: How Lou Saw the White Light,” Melody Maker, December 18, 1976.
15. “Saying ‘I’m a Coney Island baby’ at the end of that song”: Mikal Gilmore, “Lou Reed’s Heart of Darkness,” Rolling Stone, March 22, 1979.
16. “made it that much harder for Coney Island Baby”: Lenny Kaye, “Lou Reed,” New Musical Express, January 24, 1976.
17. “best album in years”: John Rockwell, “Lou Reed: Commercial or Defiant,” the New York Times, February 4, 1976.
18. “he is expressing the profound dream of the damned”: Paul Nelson, review of Coney Island Baby, Rolling Stone, March 23, 1976.
Chapter 12. This Gender Business
1. “complained vituperatively” and following: John Rockwell, “Lou Reed: Commercial or Defiant,” the New York Times, February 4, 1976.
2. “a chain of racist and anti-Semitic remarks”: Timothy Ferris, “Lou Reed’s Degenerate Regeneration,” Rolling Stone, April 8, 1976.
3. “nigger comb”: Ed McCormack, “A Last Waltz on the Wild Side,” Vanity Fair, January 13, 2014.
4. “nigger music—pardon me”: John Morthland, “Lou Reed: Say It Again, Lou,” Creem, December 1976.
5. “live-in boyfriend” and following: Ferris, “Lou Reed’s Degenerate Regeneration.”
6. “with similar characters, and those do not get published”: Author interview, Mick Rock.
7. “glass-coffee-table queen” and following: Ferris, “Lou Reed’s Degenerate Regeneration.”
8. “You’re going to get interviewed”: Author interview, Jeffrey Ross.
9. “The critics think I’m that tape”: Ferris, “Lou Reed’s Degenerate Regeneration.”
10. “Well, look, why don’t you come back to my hotel with me?” and following: Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (Grove Press, 1996), pp. 97–98.
11. “You want me to tell you my real feelings?” and following: Author interview, Jonny Podell.
12. “one had to wonder if his very public relationship with Rachel”: McCormack, “A Last Waltz on the Wild Side.”
13. “I always thought one way kids had of getting back at their parents”: David Fricke, “Lou Reed,” Rolling Stone, November 5–December 10, 1987.
14. “I never regard other people’s relationships as being my business”: Author interview, Mick Rock.
15. “We used to have this joke going” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
16. “very stoned,” “beat up and locked out”: Author interview, Richard Sassin.
17. “Lou Reed called and that was the drama of the day”: Entry for December 19, 1976, The Andy Warhol Diaries, edited by Pat Hackett (Warner Books, 1989).
18. “I have these pictures of Lou holding this puppy”: Author interview, Mick Rock.
19. “couldn’t cook. She tried desperately”: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
20. “I was walking along the shore with my husband”: Author interview, Susan Blond.
21. “a marriage made in the emergency room”: Author interview, Jonny Podell.
22. “an elegant glass coffee table” and following: Ed McCormack, “A Last Waltz on the Wild Side.”
23. “S and M following” and following: Binky Philips, “I Ignore Lou Reed, but My Friend Charlie Winds Up in Lou’s Apartment,” the Huffington Post, November 1, 2013.
24. “infected lung” and following: Caroline Coon, “Lou Reed: How Lou Saw the White Light,” Melody Maker, December 18, 1976.
25. “as soon as you met Rachel/Richard” and following: Author interview, Jeffrey Ross.
26. “We’ll listen to music, we’ll relax”: Author interview, Clive Davis.
27. “There was just me and Rachel… living at the fucking Gramercy Park Hotel”: Mikal Gilmore, “Lou Reed’s Heart of Darkness,” Rolling Stone, March 22, 1979.
28. “Lou doesn’t sell albums, but Clive believes in him”: Peter Silverton, “Lou Reed in Cloning Sensation,” Sounds, May 6, 1978.
29. “I didn’t make a record because I couldn’t have it my way”: Coon, “Lou Reed: How Lou Saw the White Light.”
30. “Lou had relevance. He wanted mass popularity”: Author interview, Jonny Podell.
31. “good ears” and following: Rob Bowman, liner notes, Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology (RCA).
32. “Clive is a genius” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
33. “Every once in a while… Lou would say”: Bowman, Between Thought and Expression.
34. “If I were a painter” and following: Author interview, Clive Davis.
35. “very danceable, the kind of thing that, if you were sitting in a bar”: John Morthland, “Lou Reed Bangs Drum Slowly,” Rolling Stone, September 23, 1976.
36. “Mr. Reed had paid his debts to Mr. Davis” and following: John Rockwell, “The Pop Life: Review of Rock and Roll Heart,” the New York Times, November 12, 1976.
Chapter 13. Fucking Faggot Junkie
1. “There weren’t sound systems”: Gavin Martin, “Lou Reed: ‘I’ve Lied So Much About the Past That I Can’t Tell What Is True Anymore,” Uncut, March 2003.
2. “Lou always had lots of issues on the road”: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
3.
“You said a little while ago that you sing mainly about drugs” and following: Lou Reed press conference, Sydney, Australia, August 19, 1974.
4. “In the middle of that tour, Lou decided”: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
5. “Lou was smashing things”: Author interview, Suzanne Vega.
6. “If he didn’t do too much, he’d be right on the money” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
7. “a very, very personal problem that should never have damned well happened”: Liam Hyslop, “Top 10 Worst New Zealand Concerts,” Stuff, February 20, 2015, http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/66436599/top-10-worst-new-zealand-concerts.
8. “at Tom Jones’s shows would throw roses, panties, and hotel room keys”: Author interview, Eric Andersen.
9. “For the most part, the audiences were terrific” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
10. “the mood was only enhanced” and following: John Rockwell, “Spark Lacking for Lou Reed at Palladium,” the New York Times, November 14, 1976.
11. “We’re playing the Anaheim Convention Center” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
12. “He was like some ghost”: Rob Bowman, liner notes, Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology (RCA).
13. “Lou’s very, very smart”: Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (Grove Press, 1996), p. 285.
14. “She was very smart, and she knew when not to talk” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
15. “I was walking across the street”: Author interview, Jeffrey Ross.
16. “The detail was as precise as possible”: Bowman, Between Thought and Expression.
17. “They’re crazy!” and following: Charles Curkin, “He Was Present at the Birth of Punk, and He Took Notes,” the New York Times, December 26, 2014.
18. “what the Ramones should do”: John Morthland, “Lou Reed Bangs Drum Slowly,” Rolling Stone, September 23, 1976.
19. “Shakespeare had a phrase for that”: Mikal Gilmore, “Lou Reed’s Heart of Darkness,” Rolling Stone, March 22, 1979.
20. “The kid adopted me”: Author interview, Camille O’Grady.
21. “No more bullshit, dyed hair, faggot junkie trip”: Lenny Kaye, “Lou Reed,” New Musical Express, January 24, 1976.
22. “What would happen if Raymond Chandler wrote a rock-and-roll song?”: “Radio with Pictures: Lou Reed,” TVNZ interview with Lou Reed, 1985, available through NZONSCREEN, https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/radio-with-pictures---lou-reed-1985.
23. “come out funny. And when he did it, it sounded real”: David Fricke, “Lou Reed: The Rolling Stone Interview,” May 4, 1989.
24. “There are some severe little tangent things” and following: Gilmore, “Lou Reed’s Heart of Darkness.”
25. “as if Mr. Reed were finally beginning to make some sort of productive synthesis”: John Rockwell, “Three Faces of New York Rock,” the New York Times, April 16, 1978.
26. “a stunning incandescent triumph”: Tom Carson, “Lou Reed Fights the Law and Wins,” Rolling Stone, April 6, 1978.
27. “After all this time, he still cares”: Carson, “Lou Reed Fights the Law and Wins.”
28. “I thought I had a killer group”: David Fricke, liner notes, Take No Prisoners reissue (Arista/BMG, 2000).
29. “I thank Lou for pronouncing my name right”: Robert Christgau, Consumer Guide review of Take No Prisoners, 1978, https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=7622.
30. “I thought he was too drunk” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
31. “When we were in Montreal”: Bowman, Between Thought and Expression.
32. “I wanted to make a record that wouldn’t give an inch”: Gilmore, “Lou Reed’s Heart of Darkness.”
33. “Everybody said, ‘You don’t talk enough onstage’”: Fricke, Take No Prisoners.
34. “a barrage of invective”: Ken Tucker, review of Take No Prisoners, Rolling Stone, February 8, 1979.
35. “I always think of the audiences in New York as friends”: Fricke, Take No Prisoners reissue (2000).
36. “Why did I do it? Who knows?”: Fricke, Take No Prisoners.
37. “If you can’t play rock and you can’t play jazz”: Timothy and Karin Greenfield-Sanders, liner notes, The Bells reissue (Buddha/Arista/BMG, 2000).
38. “It was released and dropped into a dark well”: Bowman, Between Thought and Expression.
39. “Where’s the money, Clive?”: Clive Davis with Anthony DeCurtis, The Soundtrack of My Life (Simon and Schuster, 2013), p. 223.
40. “I’ve always loved Clive”: Davis with DeCurtis, The Soundtrack of My Life, p. 223.
41. “first-class mail correspondence”: Greenfield-Sanders, The Bells.
42. “I had rented a fifteen-foot gong”: Bowman, Between Thought and Expression.
43. “It was a spontaneous piece”: Bowman, Between Thought and Expression.
44. “Love and the desire for transcendence”: Lou Reed, Pass Through Fire: The Collected Lyrics (Da Capo Press, 2000), p. xxv.
45. “If he didn’t seem so genuinely confused a person”: John Rockwell, “More from Patti Smith and Lou Reed,” the New York Times, May 13, 1979.
46. “the likely keynote for the final year of the seventies”: Jon Savage, “Lou Reed: The Bells,” Melody Maker, May 5, 1979.
47. “The Bells isn’t merely Lou Reed’s best solo LP”: Lester Bangs, “Lou Reed’s Act of Love,” review of The Bells, Rolling Stone, June 14, 1979.
Chapter 14. Growing Up in Public
1. “I was pleased with that album” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
2. “I got off on the Beatles”: Mikal Gilmore, “Lou Reed’s Heart of Darkness,” Rolling Stone, March 22, 1979.
3. “I never liked the Beatles”: “Lou Reed: On Guns and Ammo,” Blank on Blank, March 20, 1987, http://blankonblank.org/interviews/lou-reed-guns-ammo-the-velvet-underground.
4. “Lou and George got along perfectly”: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
5. “Growing Up in Public is one of the great drinking records of all time”: Rob Bowman, liner notes, Between Thought and Expression (RCA).
6. “This was a studio where they had waiters come by” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
7. “When I met Lou, he was living with Rachel” and following: Author interview, Sylvia Morales.
8. “Look at that cover”: Author interview, Mick Rock.
9. “You do interviews and what they want to know is”: Author interview, Lou Reed.
10. “Most of [my] major mistakes were in public”: David Fricke, “Lou Reed: The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone, May 4, 1989.
11. “Well, actually, my mother’s not dead”: Dave DiMartino, “Lou Reed Tilts the Machine,” Creem, September 1980.
12. “I wrote that song specifically for Sylvia”: DiMartino, “Lou Reed Tilts the Machine.”
13. “I think of the whole thing as being on a very up note”: DiMartino, “Lou Reed Tilts the Machine.”
14. “I thought it was a good idea”: DiMartino, “Lou Reed Tilts the Machine.”
Chapter 15. Just an Average Guy
1. “It happened more than once”: “Lou Reed: A Radio Interview,” The Blue Mask, track by track promotional interview (RCA), 1982.
2. “You have to be as close as I’ve been to the drug scene” and following: David Fricke, “A Refugee from Rock’s Dark Side, Lou Reed Says Goodbye Excess, Hello New Jersey,” People, March 30, 1981.
3. “There were a lot of drugs going on during that period”: Rob Bowman, liner notes, Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology (RCA).
4. “He set me up as a gatekeeper”: Author interview, Sylvia Morales.
5. “I can’t have another drink or do another shot of speed” and following: Author interview, Michael Fonfara.
6. “Lou Reed became such a big influence on my pla
ying”: Robert Quine, from November 1983 Guitar World interview, quoted in Bowman, Between Thought and Expression.
7. “I bullied him into playing guitar”: Jim DeRogatis, “Robert Quine: Such a Lovable Genius,” Perfect Sound Forever, http://www.furious.com/perfect/Quine/quinederogatis.html.
8. “For the last few years, I was working with musicians”: Robert Palmer, “The Pop Life,” the New York Times, March 10, 1982.
9. “When I first heard Fernando play”: Vic Garbarini, “Lou Reed: Waiting for the Muse,” Musician, July 1, 1986.
10. “We did The Blue Mask under very unusual circumstances”: Quine, quoted in Bowman, Between Thought and Expression.
11. “Jackie Kennedy trying to claw her way out of that car”: Lou Reed, Between Thought and Expression: Selected Lyrics of Lou Reed (Hyperion, 1991), p. 79.
12. “overwhelmingly intense desire for this woman”: “Lou Reed: A Radio Interview.”
13. “‘The Blue Mask’ as a song is really devastating”: “Lou Reed: A Radio Interview.”
14. “Some people like to think I’m just this black-leather-clad person in sunglasses”: Palmer, “The Pop Life.”
15. “I think of myself as a writer. I operate through a rock-and-roll format”: Scott Isler, “Lou Reed: A Reluctant Legend Doffs His Mask—Briefly,” Musician, 1984.
16. “I took a major in English and a minor in philosophy”: Palmer, “The Pop Life.”
17. “a kind of national anthem in homosexual circles”: Palmer, “The Pop Life.”
18. “I really have no feeling about politics one way or the other” and following: Palmer, “The Pop Life.”
19. “the most outstanding rock album of 1982”: Robert Palmer, “The Pop Life,” review of The Blue Mask, the New York Times, December 22, 1982.
20. “the best album of 1982”: Brian Cullman, review of The Blue Mask, Musician, April 1, 1982.
21. “most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album”: Robert Christgau, Consumer Guide review of The Blue Mask, 1982, https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=2150.
22. “Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record”: Tom Carson, “Lou Reed Uncorks a Great One,” Rolling Stone, April 15, 1982.