Lou Reed – gone but not forgotten
“I’m not a human jukebox, I’m a musician,” the late Lou Reed is quoted as saying after he was criticized for not playing any crowd pleasing older tracks at a gig in Toronto.
“Me, I think a real fan would be happy to hear whatever music you wanted to play, if they really cared about you,” he told the Toronto Star in a telephone interview in 2003. “If I went to see Al Green, I would be happy to hear Al read the phone book. That’s me.”
And while he may have a point, let’s face it most of us would still sympathize with those who turned up wanting to hear a few of their old favourites.
Lou Reed, who died aged 71 this week had an impressive back catalogue that he could have drawn from, should he have been so inclined. His hits were varied and some of them have become almost mainstream with popularity, such as “Perfect Day” and “Walk On The Wild Side” – despite the fact that he wrote about dark and seedy subjects such as drug abuse, sex and HIV. Perhaps because his simple melodies and softly drawled vocals seemed to tell their own stories to whoever listened and fell in love with them.
His early success with Velvet Underground was limited at the time but has also been massive over the years – as music producer Brian Eno once said: “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.”
Luckily as some of today’s jukeboxes, such as VenueHub, have access to over 7 million tracks, customers can still enjoy Lou Reed’s legacy both mainstream and obscure, whenever they want. Soundnet will also source and provide tracks for customers if they have any specific requests. If it is available in a recorded format we should be able to get our hands on it for you.
So, while in our opinion nothing could be as great as hearing Lou Reed play live – whatever tracks he chose to play – we know that his brilliant and subversive music will carry on influencing and entertaining way into the future.
Tagged in: Music News