WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.140 We're going to start with a sound. I want you 00:00:02.140 --> 00:00:07.240 to imagine a guitar, but not a guitar playing 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:10.800 a melody or a riff. Imagine a guitar where every 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:14.240 single string is tuned to the exact same note 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.660 and it's just being hammered over and over again 00:00:16.660 --> 00:00:21.539 until it creates this wall of drone that feels 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:25.079 less like music and more like an industrial machine. 00:00:25.339 --> 00:00:28.629 Okay, I'm with you. Now take that sound. and 00:00:28.629 --> 00:00:30.670 put it next to one of the most delicate, heartbreaking 00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:33.570 string arrangements ever written about a perfect 00:00:33.570 --> 00:00:36.270 day in the park. And somehow those two sounds 00:00:36.270 --> 00:00:38.929 came from the same person. Yeah, exactly. We 00:00:38.929 --> 00:00:41.369 are looking at Lewis Allen Reid. The world knows 00:00:41.369 --> 00:00:43.689 him as Lou Reed, the architect of alternative 00:00:43.689 --> 00:00:46.189 rock, the godfather of punk. All titles he probably 00:00:46.189 --> 00:00:47.469 would have hated, by the way. Oh, absolutely 00:00:47.469 --> 00:00:49.770 would have hated them. He spent 40 years trying 00:00:49.770 --> 00:00:52.070 to outrun any label anyone tried to stick on 00:00:52.070 --> 00:00:54.649 him. Yeah, that was his whole MO. And that's 00:00:54.649 --> 00:00:56.509 really the mission for this deep dive. We aren't 00:00:56.509 --> 00:00:58.329 just recounting the biography of a rock star. 00:00:58.490 --> 00:01:00.630 I mean, we have enough behind the music specials 00:01:00.630 --> 00:01:03.409 for that. We're trying to solve a specific puzzle. 00:01:04.049 --> 00:01:06.310 How does a creative writing student from Long 00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:09.530 Island who wanted to be a serious novelist end 00:01:09.530 --> 00:01:11.750 up becoming the god of rock and roll for the 00:01:11.750 --> 00:01:13.750 underground? And maybe more importantly, why 00:01:13.750 --> 00:01:16.780 did he spend his entire career... seemingly trying 00:01:16.780 --> 00:01:19.379 to sabotage his own success. Yes, that's the 00:01:19.379 --> 00:01:21.959 core of it. It's the central tension of his life. 00:01:22.219 --> 00:01:24.659 You look at the source material, the biographies, 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:28.959 the critical reception, his own notes, and you 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:32.719 see a man constantly oscillating between wanting 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:35.219 to be a pop star and wanting to be an avant -garde 00:01:35.219 --> 00:01:37.719 alien. Well, we have a lot to get through. We've 00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:40.680 got electroshock therapy controversies, a species 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:43.159 of underground spider named after him. What was 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:45.280 just fantastic? A fistfight with David Bowie. 00:01:45.290 --> 00:01:48.769 and a guitar tuning technique that really accidentally 00:01:48.769 --> 00:01:51.549 changed history. But let's start with the context. 00:01:51.750 --> 00:01:54.230 Because if you picture Lou Reed, you picture 00:01:54.230 --> 00:01:56.569 the leather jacket, the sunglasses, the cigarette, 00:01:56.769 --> 00:01:59.230 the deadpan scowl. The Phantom of Rock, that 00:01:59.230 --> 00:02:02.140 whole image. Right. But that image didn't just 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:05.159 appear out of nowhere. It was constructed. And 00:02:05.159 --> 00:02:07.540 underneath it was a kid named Louis from Freeport, 00:02:07.540 --> 00:02:10.159 Long Island, whose family name was Rabinowitz 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:13.379 and who really, really liked doo -wop. This is 00:02:13.379 --> 00:02:15.219 one of my favorite contradictions in the data. 00:02:15.379 --> 00:02:18.939 You listen to Venus and Furs or Heroin and it 00:02:18.939 --> 00:02:20.860 sounds like the end of the world. It's dark. 00:02:20.900 --> 00:02:23.500 It's confrontational. Totally. But Louis Reed's 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:27.479 first musical love wasn't noise. It was street 00:02:27.479 --> 00:02:29.960 corner harmony. He was in a group called the 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:32.379 Jades in the late 50s. And this wasn't just a 00:02:32.379 --> 00:02:34.099 high school hobby where they played the cafeteria. 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:37.039 I mean, they were in the system. They were a 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:40.139 real group. They were. In 1958, they recorded 00:02:40.139 --> 00:02:42.719 a single called So Blue. And you can go listen 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:45.599 to it. It's a standard, sweet, doo -wop track. 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:47.879 Nothing earth -shattering. But the personnel 00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:49.840 on that session is what's really important. It 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:52.319 is. The saxophonist on that record was King Curtis. 00:02:52.539 --> 00:02:55.340 Which is just insane context for a teenager. 00:02:55.659 --> 00:02:58.219 Yeah. King Curtis was the session guy. He played 00:02:58.219 --> 00:03:00.819 with everyone from the Coasters to, later on, 00:03:00.900 --> 00:03:03.699 Aretha Franklin. Right. So what this shows is 00:03:03.699 --> 00:03:05.780 that Reed, from the very beginning, was adjacent 00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:08.780 to greatness. He wasn't some total outsider looking 00:03:08.780 --> 00:03:11.020 in. He was inside the machinery of the music 00:03:11.020 --> 00:03:13.219 business before he was even 20. He saw how the 00:03:13.219 --> 00:03:15.780 sausage was made. Exactly. He saw the gap between 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:18.379 the feeling of the music and the commercial product 00:03:18.379 --> 00:03:21.060 you had to create. And I think that cynicism 00:03:21.060 --> 00:03:23.319 started really early for him. But while this 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:26.680 musical side was budding, his personal life was, 00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:31.889 well, let's say fracturing. We need to talk about 00:03:31.889 --> 00:03:35.090 the trauma at NYU. This is the origin story moment 00:03:35.090 --> 00:03:37.389 that gets cited in every article. But I feel 00:03:37.389 --> 00:03:39.289 like we need to unpack the nuance here because 00:03:39.289 --> 00:03:41.550 the narrative has shifted over the years. You're 00:03:41.550 --> 00:03:43.210 referring to the electroconvulsive therapy, the 00:03:43.210 --> 00:03:46.250 ECT. Right. So the short version is he has a 00:03:46.250 --> 00:03:48.909 breakdown at NYU, gets brought home, and his 00:03:48.909 --> 00:03:52.169 parents authorize shock therapy. Yeah. The legend, 00:03:52.270 --> 00:03:54.629 and this is the story Lou himself propagated 00:03:54.629 --> 00:03:57.069 for decades, was that this was basically conversion 00:03:57.069 --> 00:03:59.870 therapy. That his parents were trying to... zap 00:03:59.870 --> 00:04:02.590 the gay away it's a horrifying narrative and 00:04:02.590 --> 00:04:05.629 it fueled so much of his art you hear it so clearly 00:04:05.629 --> 00:04:08.729 in kill your sons which he released in 1974 oh 00:04:08.729 --> 00:04:11.889 it's brutal the lyrics are so explicit all your 00:04:11.889 --> 00:04:14.409 two -bit psychiatrists are giving you electric 00:04:14.409 --> 00:04:18.790 shocks he frames it as this war between a non 00:04:18.790 --> 00:04:21.269 -conformist child and parents who would rather 00:04:21.269 --> 00:04:23.980 destroy his brain than let him be different But 00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:26.060 the source material, especially since his death, 00:04:26.259 --> 00:04:28.339 suggests it wasn't quite that black and white. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:31.779 It rarely is. His sister, Meryl, has been very 00:04:31.779 --> 00:04:34.399 vocal about this. She's tried to, you know, set 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:36.399 the record straight from her perspective. And 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:38.860 what's her take on it? She paints a picture not 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:41.639 of homophobic parents, but of terrified parents. 00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:43.980 You have to put yourself in the sociological 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:47.759 context of the early 1960s. Their son is anxious. 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:50.300 He's socially unresponsive. He's acting out in 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:52.660 ways they just don't understand. And the doctors 00:04:52.660 --> 00:04:54.829 are the authority figures. The doctors are God, 00:04:55.050 --> 00:04:57.970 and they tell them, this is the treatment. This 00:04:57.970 --> 00:05:00.029 is what you do for these behavioral issues. If 00:05:00.029 --> 00:05:02.370 you don't do this, you are neglecting your child. 00:05:02.610 --> 00:05:05.149 So it's less about malice and maybe more about 00:05:05.149 --> 00:05:08.290 a tragic generational gap and, frankly, medical 00:05:08.290 --> 00:05:10.269 ignorance at the time. I think that's a fair 00:05:10.269 --> 00:05:12.550 assessment. But here's the key insight for us. 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:14.839 It doesn't really matter what the parents intended. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.139 It matters how Lou processed it. To him, it was 00:05:18.139 --> 00:05:20.519 a fundamental betrayal. He said it wiped out 00:05:20.519 --> 00:05:23.000 chunks of his memory. It established this core 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:26.699 belief that authority figures, parents, doctors, 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.079 and later record labels are out to destroy you. 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:32.279 That trauma is the engine of the Velvet Underground. 00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:35.079 Completely. It's why his music feels so paranoid 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:38.279 and defensive and, you know, on edge. So he carried 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:40.879 that scar with him to Syracuse University. And 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:43.189 this is where the big pivot happens. He stops 00:05:43.189 --> 00:05:45.629 being just a victim of the suburbs and starts 00:05:45.629 --> 00:05:48.490 consciously becoming an artist. And he meets 00:05:48.490 --> 00:05:51.149 Delmore Schwartz. The doomed poet. Schwartz is 00:05:51.149 --> 00:05:53.329 the absolute missing link between high literature 00:05:53.329 --> 00:05:56.050 and what Reed ended up doing with rock and roll. 00:05:56.449 --> 00:05:58.930 What was the specific philosophy Schwartz passed 00:05:58.930 --> 00:06:01.629 on to him? Because, you know, Reed wasn't writing 00:06:01.629 --> 00:06:04.490 sonnets. His lyrics are very direct. No, and 00:06:04.490 --> 00:06:06.290 that's the point. Schwartz's whole thing was 00:06:06.290 --> 00:06:08.850 that you didn't need flowery Victorian language 00:06:08.850 --> 00:06:11.790 to reach what he called astonishing heights. 00:06:12.029 --> 00:06:13.790 Okay. You could use the language of the street. 00:06:14.269 --> 00:06:18.910 Concrete mounds, a door, a glass, a dirty sidewalk. 00:06:19.829 --> 00:06:22.709 If you arrange simple words correctly, they can 00:06:22.709 --> 00:06:25.310 be more devastating than a Shakespearean soliloquy. 00:06:25.430 --> 00:06:28.350 That is the Lou Reed template right there. I'm 00:06:28.350 --> 00:06:31.490 waiting for the man, $26 in my hand. It's... 00:06:31.769 --> 00:06:35.170 it's journalism precisely reed famously said 00:06:35.170 --> 00:06:37.410 he wanted to bring the sensitivities of the novel 00:06:37.410 --> 00:06:39.410 to rock music he didn't want to write i want 00:06:39.410 --> 00:06:41.829 to hold your hand he wanted to write crime punishment 00:06:41.829 --> 00:06:44.209 or last exit to brooklyn but set it to a three 00:06:44.209 --> 00:06:46.670 -chord beat he realized that rock and roll was 00:06:46.670 --> 00:06:48.769 actually the perfect vehicle for this because 00:06:48.769 --> 00:06:51.250 rock is primal it's immediate it allowed him 00:06:51.250 --> 00:06:54.110 to sneak high art in through the back door he 00:06:54.110 --> 00:06:56.069 was also sneaking in a lot of attitudes yeah 00:06:56.069 --> 00:06:58.870 the stories from his syracuse days are just wild 00:06:58.870 --> 00:07:02.110 he got kicked out of rotc not for skipping drills, 00:07:02.310 --> 00:07:05.329 but for holding a gun to a superior's head. An 00:07:05.329 --> 00:07:08.350 unloaded gun, supposedly. But yes, it's like 00:07:08.350 --> 00:07:10.730 performance art as aggression. He was testing 00:07:10.730 --> 00:07:13.870 boundaries everywhere. He hosted a late night 00:07:13.870 --> 00:07:16.569 radio show called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail, 00:07:16.769 --> 00:07:19.769 where he'd play like free jazz and then immediately 00:07:19.769 --> 00:07:22.149 follow it with doo -wop just to mess with people. 00:07:22.970 --> 00:07:25.410 Of course he did. And he was routinely kicked 00:07:25.410 --> 00:07:27.709 out of parties for being insufferable. He was 00:07:27.709 --> 00:07:30.089 curating the persona of the difficult genius 00:07:30.089 --> 00:07:32.990 long before he had the genius work to back it 00:07:32.990 --> 00:07:35.970 up. So he graduates Kim Loud, amazingly enough, 00:07:36.149 --> 00:07:38.870 and heads to New York City. Now, if you're writing 00:07:38.870 --> 00:07:41.050 the movie script, this is where he joins the 00:07:41.050 --> 00:07:44.509 Warhol factory immediately. But reality is so 00:07:44.509 --> 00:07:47.060 much funnier. It really is. He gets a job at 00:07:47.060 --> 00:07:48.959 Pickwick Records writing knockoff pop songs. 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:51.740 It's the Brill Building model, but for like the 00:07:51.740 --> 00:07:53.959 bargain bin records you'd find at a Woolworths. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.560 Right. If surf music is hot, write a surf song. 00:07:56.660 --> 00:07:59.120 If hot rod culture is in, write a song about 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:01.540 cars. And he was just churning them out. Songs 00:08:01.540 --> 00:08:03.860 about dancing, about anything. But this leads 00:08:03.860 --> 00:08:06.259 to the ostrich moment. We tease this in the intro. 00:08:06.379 --> 00:08:09.160 Can you explain ostrich tuning to someone who 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:11.360 doesn't play guitar? What is actually happening 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:13.519 there technically? Okay, so normally a guitar 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:16.410 is tuned to different notes. E, A, D. D, G, B, 00:08:16.509 --> 00:08:18.470 E, so you can play chords, which are harmonies. 00:08:18.529 --> 00:08:21.470 Right. Reed took a cheap guitar and tuned every 00:08:21.470 --> 00:08:23.769 single one of the six strings to the exact same 00:08:23.769 --> 00:08:27.360 note, usually a D. So when you strum it... You 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:29.939 don't get a chord. You get a drone. It just vibrates 00:08:29.939 --> 00:08:32.480 on one single frequency. It sounds like a sitar 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:34.840 or a jet engine revving up. It totally removes 00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:36.940 the melody. It removes traditional Western harmony. 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.299 Yeah, it becomes purely rhythmic and textural. 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:42.019 And he wrote this parody dance song called The 00:08:42.019 --> 00:08:45.019 Ostrich using this tuning. The lyrics were a 00:08:45.019 --> 00:08:47.039 complete joke. Put your head on the floor and 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:49.960 have someone step on it. But the sound, that 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:52.379 was the breakthrough. And that sound is what 00:08:52.379 --> 00:08:54.899 attracted John Cale. John Cale is the other. 00:08:55.490 --> 00:08:57.509 indispensable half of the equation. He was a 00:08:57.509 --> 00:08:59.870 classically trained Welsh viola player, deeply 00:08:59.870 --> 00:09:02.389 embedded in the avant -garde scene. Very different 00:09:02.389 --> 00:09:04.370 world. Completely different. He was working with 00:09:04.370 --> 00:09:06.470 composers like Lamonta Young doing these endurance 00:09:06.470 --> 00:09:08.870 pieces where they'd hold a single note for hours 00:09:08.870 --> 00:09:12.110 on end. Cale hated rock and roll. He thought 00:09:12.110 --> 00:09:14.730 it was juvenile trash. Until he heard The Ostrich. 00:09:14.929 --> 00:09:17.889 Right. He was hired to play in a backing band 00:09:17.889 --> 00:09:20.909 for Reed to promote the stupid novelty single. 00:09:21.309 --> 00:09:24.809 But he heard the drone and he realized... Wait 00:09:24.809 --> 00:09:27.470 a minute. This guy is doing what we do in the 00:09:27.470 --> 00:09:30.169 high art minimalist scene, but he's doing it 00:09:30.169 --> 00:09:32.149 with a rock and roll backbeat. That was the lightning 00:09:32.149 --> 00:09:34.289 bolt. That was the whole thing. The fusion of 00:09:34.289 --> 00:09:36.990 high art minimalism and low art rock energy. 00:09:37.309 --> 00:09:39.250 That's the Velvet Underground in a nutshell. 00:09:39.490 --> 00:09:44.429 So they formed the band, Reed, Kale, Sterling 00:09:44.429 --> 00:09:47.549 Morrison on guitar, and eventually... Mo Tucker 00:09:47.549 --> 00:09:49.909 on drums. Yeah. And we have to give Mo Tucker 00:09:49.909 --> 00:09:52.190 her flowers here. She wasn't just the girl drummer. 00:09:52.370 --> 00:09:54.330 Oh, she was absolutely essential. She played 00:09:54.330 --> 00:09:56.409 standing up. She almost never used cymbals. She 00:09:56.409 --> 00:09:58.789 played with mallets sometimes. Yeah. She played 00:09:58.789 --> 00:10:02.029 this hypnotic, tribal heartbeat. It's often called 00:10:02.029 --> 00:10:04.409 a motoric beat, even before that term was really 00:10:04.409 --> 00:10:06.909 a thing. It grounded Reed's lyrics and Kale's 00:10:06.909 --> 00:10:09.370 screeching viola. It made the music feel both 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:11.710 primitive and futuristic at the same time. Okay, 00:10:11.750 --> 00:10:13.210 so the band is formed. They have this unique 00:10:13.210 --> 00:10:16.110 sound. Then comes the patron saint of weirdos. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:19.460 Andy Warhol. He sees them play, becomes their 00:10:19.460 --> 00:10:22.320 manager, and integrates them into his multimedia 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:26.299 shows. The exploding plastic, ineditable. Inevitable. 00:10:26.379 --> 00:10:28.659 Inevitable, right. And he forces the German singer 00:10:28.659 --> 00:10:32.350 Nico onto them. Which Lou Reed hated. Absolutely 00:10:32.350 --> 00:10:34.470 hated. He hated sharing the spotlight. He wanted 00:10:34.470 --> 00:10:36.769 to be the front man, the sole voice. But he was 00:10:36.769 --> 00:10:39.769 also pragmatic. He was ambitious. He knew Warhol 00:10:39.769 --> 00:10:41.769 was the key to the city. He was their ticket. 00:10:41.990 --> 00:10:45.149 He was. So he complained, but he did it. He wrote 00:10:45.149 --> 00:10:47.429 songs for her to sing, like Femme Fatale and 00:10:47.429 --> 00:10:50.090 All Tomorrow's Parties. And the tension, honestly, 00:10:50.330 --> 00:10:52.429 it helped the record. You have Reed's street 00:10:52.429 --> 00:10:55.710 rat growl next to Nico's icy, teutonic, almost 00:10:55.710 --> 00:10:58.370 flat delivery. It's this incredible contrast 00:10:58.370 --> 00:11:01.450 of fire and ice. So that brings us to the album. 00:11:01.789 --> 00:11:04.389 The Velvet Underground and Nico. The Banana Album, 00:11:04.450 --> 00:11:07.389 1967. It comes out right in the middle of the 00:11:07.389 --> 00:11:09.830 Summer of Love. And while everyone else is wearing 00:11:09.830 --> 00:11:12.169 flowers in their hair and singing about peace 00:11:12.169 --> 00:11:14.330 in San Francisco. Lou Reed is in New York City 00:11:14.330 --> 00:11:17.149 singing about shooting heroin and sadomasochism. 00:11:17.230 --> 00:11:19.629 It was the ultimate anti -hippie statement. It 00:11:19.629 --> 00:11:23.350 was urban, dark, cynical, and literate. And commercially, 00:11:23.509 --> 00:11:27.070 it was a total disaster. A complete flop. It 00:11:27.070 --> 00:11:30.970 peaked at number 171 on the Billboard charts. 00:11:31.070 --> 00:11:33.090 But this brings us to that famous Brian Eno quote. 00:11:33.389 --> 00:11:36.210 Right. Which is almost a cliche now, but we have 00:11:36.210 --> 00:11:38.409 to mention it. You have to. Only a few thousand 00:11:38.409 --> 00:11:41.269 people bought the album, but everyone who bought 00:11:41.269 --> 00:11:44.649 one formed a band. It's so true. David Bowie, 00:11:44.730 --> 00:11:47.990 Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols, R .E .M., Sonic 00:11:47.990 --> 00:11:52.860 Youth, Nirvana. The DNA of that album is in practically 00:11:52.860 --> 00:11:55.179 everything that came after it that we call alternative. 00:11:55.580 --> 00:11:57.980 But there's a deeper layer to its influence that 00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:00.080 often gets missed in the music nerd talk. The 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:02.279 political angle, you mean? Yeah. Yes. Václav 00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:04.820 Havel, the playwright who became the last president 00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:06.860 of Czechoslovakia and the first president of 00:12:06.860 --> 00:12:08.620 the Czech Republic. It's an incredible story. 00:12:08.860 --> 00:12:11.720 He credited the Velvet Underground and Nico as 00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:14.019 a major inspiration for the Velvet Revolution, 00:12:14.299 --> 00:12:16.440 which toppled the communist government there. 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:19.190 Oh. What was the connection? He bought the record 00:12:19.190 --> 00:12:21.309 while he was visiting the U .S. in the late 60s 00:12:21.309 --> 00:12:24.090 and took it back home. He said that music showed 00:12:24.090 --> 00:12:26.590 him that you could tell the truth, even if the 00:12:26.590 --> 00:12:30.049 truth was ugly, and that simply existing as your 00:12:30.049 --> 00:12:33.230 authentic self refusing to conform was a political 00:12:33.230 --> 00:12:35.970 act against a totalitarian regime that demanded 00:12:35.970 --> 00:12:39.529 conformity. That is just mind -blowing. Lou Reed 00:12:39.529 --> 00:12:41.370 just wanted to write about his weirdo friends 00:12:41.370 --> 00:12:45.149 in New York City. And he ends up helping to dismantle 00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:48.019 communism in Eastern Europe. Talk about the butterfly 00:12:48.019 --> 00:12:50.899 effect. It proves that the underground isn't 00:12:50.899 --> 00:12:53.440 just a style. It's a stance. It's an ethical 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:56.200 position. But back in the band, the stance was 00:12:56.200 --> 00:12:58.740 we can't stand each other. Yeah. The dynamic 00:12:58.740 --> 00:13:01.179 between Reed and Kale was just too combustible. 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:03.940 Yeah, two massive egos in a very small space. 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:06.620 Reed wanted to write more accessible pop songs, 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:09.460 and Kale wanted to push further into the experimental 00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:12.480 noise. So Reed forces Kale out. He actually had 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:14.720 Sterling Morrison do it for him. Classic. They 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:16.580 make a couple more albums moving toward a more 00:13:16.580 --> 00:13:18.879 pop -oriented sound. especially with Loaded, 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:22.019 which ironically has Sweet Jane and Rock and 00:13:22.019 --> 00:13:24.500 Roll, his most famous songs. Right. Songs that 00:13:24.500 --> 00:13:26.759 became classics. But at the time, the band was 00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:30.080 falling apart. And then in August 1970, Reed 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:33.379 quits. And this is the part that I still struggle 00:13:33.379 --> 00:13:35.899 to wrap my head around. He doesn't go start a 00:13:35.899 --> 00:13:39.340 solo career. He goes back to Long Island. To 00:13:39.340 --> 00:13:41.500 his parents' house. The scene of the crime, so 00:13:41.500 --> 00:13:44.179 to speak. The site of the trauma. And he takes 00:13:44.179 --> 00:13:46.399 a job as a typist at his dad's accounting firm. 00:13:46.679 --> 00:13:50.379 Earning $40 a week. I mean, does that sound like 00:13:50.379 --> 00:13:53.080 surrender to you? He's the coolest guy in New 00:13:53.080 --> 00:13:55.340 York, the leader of the most influential band 00:13:55.340 --> 00:13:57.360 on the planet, and suddenly he's copying tax 00:13:57.360 --> 00:13:59.809 returns. It looks like surrender on the surface, 00:13:59.909 --> 00:14:01.730 but I think it was exhaustion. You have to remember 00:14:01.730 --> 00:14:04.289 the intensity of those factory years, the drugs, 00:14:04.409 --> 00:14:08.289 the egos, the complete lack of money or recognition. 00:14:08.629 --> 00:14:11.289 I think he needed to touch ground. It was a strategic 00:14:11.289 --> 00:14:14.190 retreat. But it also highlights that duality 00:14:14.190 --> 00:14:16.149 we talked about at the start. Lou Reed could 00:14:16.149 --> 00:14:18.429 write heroin, but he was also a middle class 00:14:18.429 --> 00:14:20.470 Jewish kid from Long Island who knew the value 00:14:20.470 --> 00:14:22.870 of a day job. He contained both. Fortunately 00:14:22.870 --> 00:14:25.330 for music history, the typing gig didn't last. 00:14:25.929 --> 00:14:29.309 He gets signed as a solo artist to RCA. The first 00:14:29.309 --> 00:14:31.549 album is kind of a dud. It's mostly Velvet Underground 00:14:31.549 --> 00:14:33.669 leftovers. Yeah, it doesn't really land. And 00:14:33.669 --> 00:14:37.009 then the Starman lands. David Bowie comes into 00:14:37.009 --> 00:14:39.629 the picture. Bowie is crucial here. He idolized 00:14:39.629 --> 00:14:42.490 Reed. To Bowie, Reed was the authentic article 00:14:42.490 --> 00:14:44.909 that he, Bowie, was trying to emulate with his 00:14:44.909 --> 00:14:47.269 characters like Ziggy Stardust. So Bowie and 00:14:47.269 --> 00:14:50.110 his guitarist, Mick Ronson, they offer to produce 00:14:50.110 --> 00:14:53.049 Reed's next album. And they bring the glam rock 00:14:53.049 --> 00:14:56.580 sparkle. They take Reed's gritty, street -level 00:14:56.580 --> 00:14:59.980 stories and they coat them in glitter and beautiful 00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:03.840 string arrangements. The result is Transformer 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:07.080 in 1972. And we get Walking the Wild Side. Can 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:09.019 we just pause for a second on how bizarre it 00:15:09.019 --> 00:15:10.919 is that this song was a massive international 00:15:10.919 --> 00:15:13.799 radio hit? It's baffling. It really is. I mean, 00:15:13.820 --> 00:15:15.360 let's just break down the lyrics. The first verse 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:17.659 is about Hollywood Lon, a trans woman, talking 00:15:17.659 --> 00:15:19.440 about shaving her legs and hitchhiking across 00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:22.200 the USA. Plucked her eyebrows on the way, shaved 00:15:22.200 --> 00:15:25.000 her legs, and then he was a she. The second verse 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.460 is about Candy Darling, another trans icon from 00:15:27.460 --> 00:15:30.500 the factory. Then Little Joe D 'Alessandro, the 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:33.259 Hustler and Warhol film star. Then the Sugar 00:15:33.259 --> 00:15:35.690 Plum Fairy. Who is Joe Campbell, an actor who 00:15:35.690 --> 00:15:38.149 had a bit part in one of Warhol's films? Right. 00:15:38.250 --> 00:15:40.990 And the verse about him explicitly mentions looking 00:15:40.990 --> 00:15:43.570 for soul food and a place to eat, which was, 00:15:43.610 --> 00:15:46.129 you know, underground slang for seeking oral 00:15:46.129 --> 00:15:49.110 sex. And then there's the famous and the colored 00:15:49.110 --> 00:15:53.139 girls go. And somehow, radio censors in 1972 00:15:53.139 --> 00:15:56.620 let this play on daytime AM radio. How did that 00:15:56.620 --> 00:15:58.419 happen? I think it flew right over their heads. 00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:01.720 The production was so slick, that iconic sliding 00:16:01.720 --> 00:16:04.860 bass line by Herbie Flowers, the saxophone solo, 00:16:05.059 --> 00:16:07.480 it sounded like a sophisticated jazz pop tune. 00:16:07.860 --> 00:16:10.940 And Reed was using the specific argo, the slang 00:16:10.940 --> 00:16:13.590 of the New York underground. The censors in middle 00:16:13.590 --> 00:16:15.889 America just didn't know what giving head meant, 00:16:16.070 --> 00:16:17.950 or at least they could pretend they didn't. It's 00:16:17.950 --> 00:16:20.149 an incredible act of cultural smuggling. It really 00:16:20.149 --> 00:16:22.950 is. So Reed becomes a massive star. He's finally 00:16:22.950 --> 00:16:24.750 got the commercial success he wanted since the 00:16:24.750 --> 00:16:27.549 doo -wop days. And what does he do? Does he make 00:16:27.549 --> 00:16:31.409 Transformer 2? More wild sides. Laughs. Of course 00:16:31.409 --> 00:16:33.509 not. That would be too easy. That will be predictable. 00:16:33.830 --> 00:16:36.690 He does the exact opposite. He releases Berlin. 00:16:37.309 --> 00:16:40.269 a bleak depressing concept album about a couple 00:16:40.269 --> 00:16:43.789 of speed freaks in a foreign city who are tearing 00:16:43.789 --> 00:16:45.850 each other apart it is relentless it's about 00:16:45.850 --> 00:16:49.720 domestic violence drug addiction suicide There's 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:52.240 a track, The Kids, where the main character, 00:16:52.340 --> 00:16:55.000 Caroline, has her children taken away by social 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:57.320 services. And on the recording, you can actually 00:16:57.320 --> 00:16:59.919 hear children screaming and crying, Mommy, Mommy! 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:02.039 It's one of the most harrowing things ever put 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:03.779 on a rock record. And those were actually the 00:17:03.779 --> 00:17:06.279 producer Bob Ezrin's own kids. He reportedly 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:08.799 told them their mom had left and wasn't coming 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:11.240 home just to get that reaction out of them for 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:14.059 the tape. That is... Ethically dubious, to put 00:17:14.059 --> 00:17:16.519 it mildly. To say the least. But the critics 00:17:16.519 --> 00:17:18.940 at the time, they savaged the album. Rolling 00:17:18.940 --> 00:17:21.839 Stone called it a disaster. They basically said 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:24.599 Reed had lost his mind and was indulging in this 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:27.180 pointless, depressing wallow. But now it's considered 00:17:27.180 --> 00:17:30.200 a masterpiece. Now it is. It was a pivotal moment. 00:17:30.339 --> 00:17:32.240 It proved that Reed wasn't going to play the 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:34.420 game. He wasn't Bowie. He wasn't going to put 00:17:34.420 --> 00:17:36.799 on a glitter suit and just entertain you. He 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:38.559 was going to make you look at the ugliness of 00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:40.940 domestic abuse and addiction until you flinched. 00:17:41.150 --> 00:17:44.109 And if Berlin made people flinch, his next move 00:17:44.109 --> 00:17:46.690 made them get up and leave the room entirely. 00:17:46.849 --> 00:17:51.869 Oh, yeah. Metal machine music. 1975. The ultimate 00:17:51.869 --> 00:17:54.190 line in the sand. We mentioned the noise earlier, 00:17:54.349 --> 00:17:56.490 but let's be really specific. This is a double 00:17:56.490 --> 00:18:00.319 album. Four sides of vinyl. No songs, new drums, 00:18:00.539 --> 00:18:04.079 no vocals, just modulated guitar feedback. It's 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:06.559 electronic screeching and humming for over an 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:09.819 hour. Why? I mean, just why? Was it a contract 00:18:09.819 --> 00:18:11.839 dispute? Was he trying to get dropped by his 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:14.279 label RCA? That's the most popular theory. You 00:18:14.279 --> 00:18:16.079 want another album? Here's an hour of garbage. 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:17.759 Now let me out of my deal. And that's plausible. 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:20.019 Okay. Then there's the other theory that it was 00:18:20.019 --> 00:18:22.099 just a giant prank on his fans and the critics. 00:18:22.299 --> 00:18:24.920 He famously wrote in the liner notes, anyone 00:18:24.920 --> 00:18:28.390 who gets to side four is dumber than I am. Which 00:18:28.390 --> 00:18:30.170 is a fantastic line you have to give him that. 00:18:30.269 --> 00:18:32.750 But I think there's a third option, and it connects 00:18:32.750 --> 00:18:34.970 all the way back to his days with John Cale and 00:18:34.970 --> 00:18:38.109 Lamont Young. I think part of him genuinely believed 00:18:38.109 --> 00:18:41.349 this was modern classical music. He claimed there 00:18:41.349 --> 00:18:43.309 were hidden melodies buried in the frequencies 00:18:43.309 --> 00:18:45.690 if you listened hard enough. So he was serious 00:18:45.690 --> 00:18:48.259 about it. On some level. I think so. It was an 00:18:48.259 --> 00:18:51.200 act of aggression against the rock star myth 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:53.700 that Transformer had built. He was screaming, 00:18:53.799 --> 00:18:55.799 you think I'm the walk on the wild side guy? 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:58.900 No, I am this. Well, the public screamed back. 00:18:59.220 --> 00:19:02.599 It was returned to stores by the thousands. RCA 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:05.279 eventually pulled it after a few weeks. But again, 00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:07.589 you have to look at the long tail. Sonic Youth, 00:19:07.829 --> 00:19:11.269 Nine Inch Nails, Merzbo, entire genres of industrial 00:19:11.269 --> 00:19:14.049 music and noise music trace their lineage directly 00:19:14.049 --> 00:19:16.329 back to this quote unquote unlistenable album. 00:19:16.549 --> 00:19:18.809 He was wrong for the time, but right for history. 00:19:18.990 --> 00:19:20.650 That's a good way to put it. And while he was 00:19:20.650 --> 00:19:23.269 making this aggressive music, he was living an 00:19:23.269 --> 00:19:26.990 incredibly aggressive life. The mid 70s is what's 00:19:26.990 --> 00:19:29.970 known as the Dachau Panda era. Yeah. We need 00:19:29.970 --> 00:19:31.710 to address this because it's the darkest part 00:19:31.710 --> 00:19:34.519 of the biography. He was heavily, heavily addicted 00:19:34.519 --> 00:19:37.779 to methamphetamine and alcohol. And his appearance 00:19:37.779 --> 00:19:40.799 was shocking. He cut his hair short, bleached 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:43.319 it to blonde, and then painted these huge black 00:19:43.319 --> 00:19:46.319 circles under his eyes. He looked like a ghoul. 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:48.839 He looked ill. And acted like one, from all accounts. 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:51.319 Yes. The anecdotes from this period are rough. 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:53.579 He was reportedly physically and emotionally 00:19:53.579 --> 00:19:56.460 abusive to his partners. He was verbally vicious 00:19:56.460 --> 00:19:59.799 to journalists. He would use racial slurs just 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:02.279 for shock value. The story about him calling 00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:05.579 Bob Dylan a pretentious kike. It's just wild. 00:20:05.660 --> 00:20:08.099 Considering Reed himself was Jewish, it feels 00:20:08.099 --> 00:20:10.599 like he was testing people. How awful can I be 00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:13.039 and still have you worship me? Or maybe, how 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:14.839 awful can I be until you finally leave me alone? 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:17.599 That, too. It was self -destruction as a public 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:19.700 spectacle. He was playing the role of the rock 00:20:19.700 --> 00:20:22.339 and roll animal until it very nearly killed him. 00:20:22.460 --> 00:20:25.339 But he survived it. And the 1980s bring this 00:20:25.339 --> 00:20:28.299 massive shift in his life and his work. He gets 00:20:28.299 --> 00:20:30.980 sober. He does. He marries his first wife, Sylvia 00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:34.109 Morales. And the music changes. It stops being 00:20:34.109 --> 00:20:36.130 about me and my drug dealer and starts being 00:20:36.130 --> 00:20:38.390 about the world around him. This is the journalist 00:20:38.390 --> 00:20:40.869 phase resurfacing, right? The creative writing 00:20:40.869 --> 00:20:43.309 student from Syracuse finally grows up. I think 00:20:43.309 --> 00:20:46.890 so. He releases The Blue Mask in 1982, which 00:20:46.890 --> 00:20:49.650 is just this terrifyingly honest album about 00:20:49.650 --> 00:20:52.869 marriage, jealousy and sobriety. But the real 00:20:52.869 --> 00:20:57.000 peak of this era. is New York in 1989. Oh, New 00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:59.619 York is such a masterpiece. It's a concept album 00:20:59.619 --> 00:21:02.579 about the city in decay. It's dealing with AIDS, 00:21:02.859 --> 00:21:05.519 homelessness, racism, political corruption. And 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:07.460 the writing is just so sharp. You listen to a 00:21:07.460 --> 00:21:10.220 song like Dirty Blavity or Busload of Faith. 00:21:10.460 --> 00:21:12.059 He's not celebrating the underground anymore. 00:21:12.180 --> 00:21:14.019 He's reporting on the tragedy of it. He's angry, 00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:17.599 but it's a focused, sober anger. He's not a wasted 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:20.019 rock star anymore. He's a concerned citizen with 00:21:20.019 --> 00:21:22.859 a guitar. And this newfound maturity seems to 00:21:22.859 --> 00:21:26.059 lead him to the final. and most significant relationship 00:21:26.059 --> 00:21:28.759 of his life with Laurie Anderson. This is the 00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:30.400 happy ending. The story really didn't promise 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:32.480 us, you know. It really is. Laurie Anderson is 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:34.480 a giant of the avant -garde in her own right. 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:36.980 She wasn't a groupie or a muse in the traditional 00:21:36.980 --> 00:21:40.059 sense. She was his peer, his equal. And she seemed 00:21:40.059 --> 00:21:42.599 to tame the beast. Or maybe the beast just got 00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:44.859 tired of fighting. I think she understood him. 00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:47.119 She wrote after he died that he was a prince 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:50.490 and a fighter. And with her, he found a new spiritual 00:21:50.490 --> 00:21:54.009 practice. He got deeply, deeply into Tai Chi. 00:21:54.170 --> 00:21:58.029 That image is so incongruous to me. The guy who 00:21:58.029 --> 00:22:00.309 wrote White Light, White Heat, practicing these 00:22:00.309 --> 00:22:03.150 slow meditative movements with the Tibetan master. 00:22:03.470 --> 00:22:06.309 He took it incredibly seriously. He studied for 00:22:06.309 --> 00:22:09.250 years with a man named Master Ren Guanji. He 00:22:09.250 --> 00:22:11.609 would even bring his instructor on stage during 00:22:11.609 --> 00:22:14.009 his rock concerts to do Tai Chi forms while the 00:22:14.009 --> 00:22:16.450 band was playing intense, distorted music behind 00:22:16.450 --> 00:22:20.109 him. Laughs. That is so perfectly Lou Reed. I'm 00:22:20.109 --> 00:22:21.930 going to find inner peace, but I'm going to make 00:22:21.930 --> 00:22:24.069 it a confrontational performance art piece for 00:22:24.069 --> 00:22:25.869 you all to watch. It just shows that he never 00:22:25.869 --> 00:22:28.569 stopped seeking. He replaced the heroine with 00:22:28.569 --> 00:22:30.869 Tai Chi, but the intensity of the pursuit, the 00:22:30.869 --> 00:22:33.210 dedication was the same. He wasn't a dabbler 00:22:33.210 --> 00:22:35.930 in anything. Even in his later years, he kept 00:22:35.930 --> 00:22:39.009 finding ways to be weird and surprising. We have 00:22:39.009 --> 00:22:41.109 to talk about the video game, because when I 00:22:41.109 --> 00:22:42.670 saw this in the notes, I thought it had to be 00:22:42.670 --> 00:22:45.150 a hallucination. Ten and Tellers, Smoke and Mirrors. 00:22:45.250 --> 00:22:49.690 An unreleased Sega CD game from 1995. Yep. And 00:22:49.690 --> 00:22:52.950 in it, Lou Reed appears as an unbeatable boss 00:22:52.950 --> 00:22:55.789 character. How does that even work? If you select 00:22:55.789 --> 00:22:58.250 the impossible difficulty setting for one of 00:22:58.250 --> 00:23:00.750 the minigames, Lou Reed just walks onto the screen 00:23:00.750 --> 00:23:03.230 and kills you instantly with laser beams that 00:23:03.230 --> 00:23:06.390 shoot out of his eyes. No way. Yes. And he delivers 00:23:06.390 --> 00:23:09.349 this short monologue. He says, this is the impossible 00:23:09.349 --> 00:23:11.930 level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult. 00:23:12.329 --> 00:23:15.269 Very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize. Impossible 00:23:15.269 --> 00:23:18.250 is eating the sun. Impossible is eating the sun. 00:23:18.349 --> 00:23:20.690 It's a throwaway line in a joke game that never 00:23:20.690 --> 00:23:23.880 even came out, but it's also... it's strangely 00:23:23.880 --> 00:23:26.279 profound. It sums up his entire career. He was 00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:28.019 always trying to eat the sun. He was always trying 00:23:28.019 --> 00:23:29.819 to do things that shouldn't work. Like mixing 00:23:29.819 --> 00:23:32.380 doo -wop and feedback. Or poetry and punk rock. 00:23:32.500 --> 00:23:37.420 Or Metallica and spoken word. Ugh, yes. We have 00:23:37.420 --> 00:23:40.980 to mention Lulu. 2011. Just two years before 00:23:40.980 --> 00:23:43.799 he died. The final middle finger to the critics 00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:46.259 and to audience expectations. I think it's fair 00:23:46.259 --> 00:23:48.380 to say everyone hated it. It was universally 00:23:48.380 --> 00:23:51.039 panned. It's a double album based on these German 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:53.799 expressionist plays by Frank Whittakin, with 00:23:53.799 --> 00:23:56.579 Metallica playing these heavy thrash riffs and 00:23:56.579 --> 00:23:59.240 Lou just sort of rambling poetry over the top 00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:02.259 of it. It's dissonant and it's difficult. And 00:24:02.259 --> 00:24:04.559 what was Reed's reaction to that clash? It was 00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:07.259 classic, Lou. He joked that he had no fans left 00:24:07.259 --> 00:24:09.519 after Metal Machine Music anyway, so he had nothing 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:12.359 to lose. He stood by it completely. He told people 00:24:12.359 --> 00:24:14.259 he believed it was the best thing he ever did. 00:24:14.440 --> 00:24:17.500 That confidence is what I admire. Even if I can't 00:24:17.500 --> 00:24:19.119 physically listen to the record for more than 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:21.559 five minutes. It's the absolute refusal to compromise 00:24:21.559 --> 00:24:24.519 right to the very end. So he passes away in 2013 00:24:24.519 --> 00:24:27.640 from liver disease. Laurie Anderson wrote this. 00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:30.740 Beautiful, moving piece about his death, saying 00:24:30.740 --> 00:24:33.259 he was doing Tai Chi forms with his hands as 00:24:33.259 --> 00:24:35.660 he passed, looking at the trees in their backyard. 00:24:35.980 --> 00:24:39.279 A peaceful end for a famously chaotic life. And 00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:41.539 the legacy is secure. I mean, the accolades came 00:24:41.539 --> 00:24:43.740 pouring in after he was gone. He's got an asteroid 00:24:43.740 --> 00:24:46.880 named after him, 270553 Lared. Which is cool. 00:24:47.140 --> 00:24:49.380 And as we mentioned at the top, a spider. The 00:24:49.380 --> 00:24:53.180 Laredia, a species of velvet spider that lives 00:24:53.180 --> 00:24:56.109 underground. Scientists are fans, too, apparently. 00:24:56.369 --> 00:24:59.250 It's perfect. It's so perfect. So let's try and 00:24:59.250 --> 00:25:00.990 pull all this together. We've gone from the shock 00:25:00.990 --> 00:25:04.109 therapy to the Velvet Underground, from the Dachau 00:25:04.109 --> 00:25:07.069 Panda drug addiction to the Tai Chi master, from 00:25:07.069 --> 00:25:11.269 the $40 a week typist to the rock god. What is 00:25:11.269 --> 00:25:13.730 the through line? What's the lesson for the listener 00:25:13.730 --> 00:25:16.730 here? I think the lesson is about the value of 00:25:16.730 --> 00:25:18.750 being difficult. I mean, we live in a culture 00:25:18.750 --> 00:25:22.349 that rewards being. Agreeable, being brand friendly, 00:25:22.529 --> 00:25:25.210 fitting neatly into the algorithm, Lou Reed spent 00:25:25.210 --> 00:25:28.779 50 years refusing to fit. He actively dismantled 00:25:28.779 --> 00:25:30.619 his own myth every time it got too comfortable 00:25:30.619 --> 00:25:33.240 for him. Exactly. When they wanted pop, he gave 00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:35.579 them noise. When they finally got used to the 00:25:35.579 --> 00:25:38.160 noise, he gave them a tenor love song. He proved 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:40.019 that you don't have to be likable to be loved, 00:25:40.059 --> 00:25:41.799 and you certainly don't have to be perfect to 00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:44.099 be profound. And he proved that rock and roll 00:25:44.099 --> 00:25:47.059 could handle adult themes. That it wasn't just 00:25:47.059 --> 00:25:49.900 disposable music for teenagers. It could be literature. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:52.539 It could have weight. My God is rock and roll, 00:25:52.700 --> 00:25:55.839 he once said. And he was a faithful servant to 00:25:55.839 --> 00:25:59.160 that God. in his own prickly way until the very 00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:01.720 end. So here's a final question to leave you 00:26:01.720 --> 00:26:05.319 with. If Lou Reed had played it safe, if he had 00:26:05.319 --> 00:26:08.440 written Walk on the Wild Side Part 2 after Transformer 00:26:08.440 --> 00:26:11.900 and just coasted on that success, would we be 00:26:11.900 --> 00:26:14.099 sitting here talking about him today? I really 00:26:14.099 --> 00:26:16.180 doubt it. He'd be a footnote in the Glamrock 00:26:16.180 --> 00:26:18.519 story. It was the friction that made him matter. 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:21.119 He tried to eat the sun, and sometimes he got 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:23.579 badly burned, but he made sure that we all felt 00:26:23.579 --> 00:26:25.200 the heat. Couldn't have said it better myself. 00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:27.980 Thanks for diving deep with us. Go listen to 00:26:27.980 --> 00:26:30.420 The Velvet Underground and Nico. Maybe skip Metal 00:26:30.420 --> 00:26:32.259 Machine music, unless you're feeling particularly 00:26:32.259 --> 00:26:33.900 brave. We'll see you on the next one.