Monday, November 4, 2013

You Never Know What Is Inside

I open up Time magazine this morning and go to Milestones.

I always go there first. It is Time's obituary section.

I read that Lou Reed died and had a powerful emotional reaction. So much so that I wondered "What the hell was that?"

I was never a huge Lou Reed fan. I have only one CD - The Velvet Underground and Nico - yeah, the banana album. Released in 1967. I have one cassette - Magic and Loss. Released in 1992. I haven't listened to either one very much over the years.

I realized it was what the man stood for. He was way out there. My gut has inside of it an appreciation of and a worship for those who are willing to do exactly what they want to do. Those who want to shock into life, those who experiment and question and put everything on the line to do it.

Those who do not give a damn what anybody else thinks.

That is what makes a free thinker. That is what makes an interesting human being. Somebody who fiercely expresses themself regardless of the consequences, regardless of the feedback.

I dug the banana album. The Magic and Loss album captured my imagination. When I first got it I listened to it over and over again.

It was a concept album inspired by the cancer deaths of two close friends - Doc Pomus and "Rita." It was done in a kind of spoken song kind of thing and it is very direct. It asks a lot of questions about life, makes a lot of observations and does not pretend to offer any answers.

It is not a collection of catchy tunes.

It has some great lines.

"There's a bit of magic in everything and then some loss to even things out."

The rawness is what got to me.

Straight ahead lyrics that deal with chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and physical deterioration.

There is a song on there called "Sword of Damocles:Externally" that deals with, as Rolling Stone's review at the time put it, "Reed's own vacillation between the crapshoot realities of chemotherapy and the vague possibility of a greater spiritual rationale for all this hurt."

One line all of us baby boomers should repeat every day because we have all had to deal with this: "I see you in the hospital, your humor is intact, I'm embarrassed by the strength I seem to lack."

The core of my response is in knowing that rebels like this are fading away. Wondering if there is anybody else out there with the power and the conviction and the belief to replace them.

I take comfort in imagining that Lou Reed is sitting with Jesus right now and teaching him the lyrics to "I'm Waiting For The Man."

Or "Take A Walk On The Wild Side."

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo

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