0:00:06 > 0:00:09# It was good what we did yesterday
0:00:12 > 0:00:15# And I'd do it once again
0:00:17 > 0:00:20# The fact that you are married
0:00:22 > 0:00:27# Only proves you're my best friend
0:00:29 > 0:00:32# But it truly, truly is sin
0:00:36 > 0:00:40# Linger on
0:00:42 > 0:00:44# Your pale blue eyes
0:00:47 > 0:00:52# Linger on
0:00:52 > 0:00:54# Your pale blue eyes. #
0:01:04 > 0:01:07During a career lasting over five decades,
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Lou Reed transformed rock music.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12With his band, The Velvet Underground,
0:01:12 > 0:01:14he never achieved commercial success,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17but virtually invented the alternative rock scene.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21A solo artist, he never lost sight of his desire to disturb,
0:01:21 > 0:01:22shock and thrill.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27# What goes on in your mind?
0:01:27 > 0:01:30# I think that I am falling down... #
0:01:30 > 0:01:34Tonight, friends, colleagues, and fans remember him.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03Guitarist Lenny Kaye, who became part of the Patti Smith band,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06was one of the countless musicians inspired by the Velvet Underground
0:02:06 > 0:02:09during their now legendary summer-long residency
0:02:09 > 0:02:13at Max's Kansas City in 1970, shortly before Lou left.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Lou really had this romantic streak.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29He told me about a song by a group called Alicia & the Rockaways that
0:02:29 > 0:02:33was very close to him when he was growing up on Long Island,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35and over the next three years,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38I made it my point to search it out and find it for him.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44# Why can't I be loved?
0:02:44 > 0:02:48# Why doesn't someone take me?
0:02:51 > 0:02:53# If I've been asleep
0:02:53 > 0:02:58# Won't someone please come in and wake me? #
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Lou loved pop music, that was what his root was, in a sense.
0:03:04 > 0:03:10He loved a beautiful, simple lyric, a heartfelt emotion.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17He could push the limits of what was possible within rock'n'roll,
0:03:17 > 0:03:23sexually and pharmacologically, and sensually.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30But you could always feel his beating heart underneath that.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35His songs are so, so beautiful, you know?
0:03:35 > 0:03:39I'm Set Free and Pale Blue Eyes, I mean...
0:03:39 > 0:03:43these are songs that come from not something that wishes
0:03:43 > 0:03:46to confront, but something that wishes to heal.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Lou could be very prismatic.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00He liked creating alter egos to reflect different
0:04:00 > 0:04:05sides of his personality. Lisa says, you know, Jenny says.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12And yet, they were all resolutely him.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16# Candy says...
0:04:19 > 0:04:23# Caroline says that I'm just a toy...
0:04:26 > 0:04:28# Lisa says...
0:04:30 > 0:04:34- # Stephanie says - Stephanie says
0:04:34 > 0:04:36# When answering the phone...
0:04:36 > 0:04:38# Caroline says
0:04:42 > 0:04:46# As she gets up off the floor... #
0:04:48 > 0:04:55His solo career is really... It just keeps moving back and forth.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59# Last great American whale
0:05:01 > 0:05:03# Last great American whale... #
0:05:03 > 0:05:06And then, you know, in the glorious late '80s and '90s
0:05:06 > 0:05:10when he started doing those beautiful song cycles about his environment
0:05:10 > 0:05:13and his past in New York.
0:05:13 > 0:05:14# Last great American whale
0:05:16 > 0:05:19# Well, Americans don't care very much for anything
0:05:20 > 0:05:22# Land and water the least
0:05:27 > 0:05:30# Animal life is low on the totem pole
0:05:30 > 0:05:33# And human life is not worth much more than infected yeast
0:05:35 > 0:05:38# Well, Americans don't care too much for beauty
0:05:39 > 0:05:43# They'll shit in a river and dump battery acid in a stream
0:05:45 > 0:05:48# They'll watch dead rats wash up on the beaches
0:05:50 > 0:05:52# Complain if they can't swim... #
0:05:54 > 0:05:59His meditation with John Cale on Drella, Andy Warhol.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02He's getting more reflective.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04You could feel his questing mind.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07# There's only one good thing about a small town
0:06:07 > 0:06:09# There's only one good use for a small town
0:06:09 > 0:06:12# There's only one good thing about a small town
0:06:12 > 0:06:14# You know that you want to get out
0:06:14 > 0:06:17# When you're growing up in a small town, you know
0:06:17 > 0:06:19# You'll grow down in a small town
0:06:19 > 0:06:22# There's only one good use for a small town
0:06:22 > 0:06:25# You hate it, and you know you'll have to leave. #
0:06:26 > 0:06:30I think Lou understood that, as Lou Reed,
0:06:30 > 0:06:32he had a certain sense of power.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37But, at the end of the day, you've got to come home, close the door
0:06:37 > 0:06:42and live with your creation, your Frankenstein creation.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48I'll be your mirror, reflect what you are in case you don't know.
0:06:48 > 0:06:53You look at his work and what you're seeing as the Lou Reed
0:06:53 > 0:06:56you are seeing was really yourself.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Writer Victor Bockris worked for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine
0:07:04 > 0:07:05in the early '70s
0:07:05 > 0:07:07and went on to write books on The Velvet Underground,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11William Burroughs, Warhol himself, and John Cale.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17His first Lou Reed biography, Transformer, was published in 1995.
0:07:22 > 0:07:23I'll get back to you in a few minutes
0:07:23 > 0:07:26and let you know what else is going on.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29He's a poet, he was inspired by poets.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33He comes out of poetry, he comes out of Baudelaire and Poe
0:07:33 > 0:07:35and all that - Rimbaud.
0:07:35 > 0:07:40He saw that rock'n'roll was a totally adolescent musical form
0:07:40 > 0:07:41at that time.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45It was really written for adolescence and sold to adolescence and so on.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47And he made a conscious decision -
0:07:47 > 0:07:50how about making rock'n'roll for adults?
0:07:50 > 0:07:54Which is sort of like writing a more complex,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58existentialist novel, as opposed to an adventure story for kids.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01And so therefore, when you write War And Peace or whatever,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04of course there are great ecstasies and there are great depths.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08He really studied very hard the short story form,
0:08:08 > 0:08:13Raymond Chandler particularly, to see how to translate that into song
0:08:13 > 0:08:17lyrics, where you tell a story in a song, even though it's fragmented.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21Because Lou originally wanted to be a writer.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25When he went to college, he was a writer,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28he was writing short stories and things in college magazines.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31He actually published his own magazine.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34And when he had the electric shock treatments, he couldn't remember.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36He'd read something, and he couldn't remember what he'd read.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38He'd open a book and didn't know where he was,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42because it takes away your short-term memory for while, for a week.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46Plus, you have to remember his parents made him do this
0:08:46 > 0:08:48to cure him of homosexuality.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Can you imagine your parents... They took him there without telling him.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55They said, we're going to go to see a doctor. OK.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59You get there, and you're going to have shock treatments then and there.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01That is such an incredible betrayal.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06I think the betrayal of the parents, particularly the mother,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09was as shocking as the actual treatments themselves, you know?
0:09:09 > 0:09:10In terms of his whole psyche.
0:09:13 > 0:09:14Bob Quine told me,
0:09:14 > 0:09:18he said that all the time he hung out with Lou for a few years,
0:09:18 > 0:09:20one time - he only saw Lou frightened once.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23That was when they were walking up the street
0:09:23 > 0:09:25and they bumped into his parents.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Lou particularly was into amphetamines.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39His mind was full of images from his life, from his experiences,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42from literature and so one, and he's pouring it out.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45I don't think amphetamines or any drugs shape those images.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47These people were working very hard,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50these were very serious people doing something very serious.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55They weren't taking drugs just for fun. We all took drugs to work.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57That was the whole idea of drugs, originally.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02I think Lou had a wonderful, wonderful life.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06I think he loved all of it. He lived life...
0:10:06 > 0:10:09He said, "My week beats your year."
0:10:09 > 0:10:11I think he's absolutely correct.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15He experienced things and he really went into the depths of them
0:10:15 > 0:10:16and the heights of them.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19That's why I think we should celebrate Lou Reed,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22because he was one of those great explorers who went seeking
0:10:22 > 0:10:25and brought back the goods, he kept giving us music.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30It's very thrilling music, it's enthralling music, it's music that
0:10:30 > 0:10:34changes your life, music you keep in your heart and you don't forget.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38It becomes part of you. That's a great achievement, you know?
0:10:38 > 0:10:41That's why I love Lou Reed, and that's why I love his music.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Actor Mary Woronov was one of the Warhol crowd
0:10:53 > 0:10:55in the heyday of the Silver Factory.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01She first met Lou and The Velvet Underground there in 1966,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04when Andy was both their mentor and manager.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09The factory was silver wallpaper, black floors,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12silver couch full of come stains.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14It was very grim.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23The Velvets - first of all, they're dressed entirely in black.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25They're very strange looking.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27They seem to know what they're doing
0:11:27 > 0:11:30and completely never acknowledge any audience.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36They were using feedback,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39they were using this stuff that you couldn't call music.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42# Seasick Sarah had a golden nose
0:11:42 > 0:11:45# Hobnail boots wrapped round her toes... #
0:11:45 > 0:11:50I heard later on that they were going to play at this happening -
0:11:50 > 0:11:52they called them happenings then.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58Someone started dancing and then I started dancing
0:11:58 > 0:12:01and then other people sort of started to dance,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04but the music was so strange, it didn't have a beat or whatever.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08It had a strange beat, a strange, I don't know,
0:12:08 > 0:12:12echoey... It was just awesome, I'd never heard anything like it before.
0:12:17 > 0:12:18People were leaving in droves.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24The Velvets did not care, did not stop playing.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35They started playing Heroin, and this guy runs up
0:12:35 > 0:12:39and throws his works down on the floor and starts to shoot up.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Well, the cops came. It was awful.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47We were always having these major horror stories.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Nothing ever went right.
0:12:53 > 0:12:59Heroin was New York's answer to LA's The Doors' This Is The End.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04That's how powerful it was.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06And it was the answer,
0:13:06 > 0:13:08because they were all running around like hippies
0:13:08 > 0:13:09and we were in black and white.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13You know, they liked free love, we liked S&M.
0:13:13 > 0:13:19# Heroin
0:13:19 > 0:13:23# It's my wife and it's my life
0:13:24 > 0:13:28# Because a mainer to my vein
0:13:28 > 0:13:31# Leads to a centre in my head
0:13:31 > 0:13:34# And then I'm better off than dead... #
0:13:38 > 0:13:42Lou loved the transvestites, he loved the absurd humour.
0:13:42 > 0:13:48He loved the nightlife and the kinkiness of it. He just loved it.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53He was not interested in entertaining jack shit, he was interested
0:13:53 > 0:13:57in these bizarre things like Venus In Furs or like, you know, Heroin.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00And so he wrote about what interested him.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08It was just really entertaining and it was sexy and hot.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13And... You know, if you were high enough,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16I guess you could spend the whole night flirting with it.
0:14:16 > 0:14:22Also, Lou used to go, he would go all night also, and then call a cab
0:14:22 > 0:14:23and that would be that.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26And I would take the subway back to Brooklyn Heights
0:14:26 > 0:14:29cos I was still living with my parents, so there was one night when
0:14:29 > 0:14:34Lou couldn't get a cab, and he had to come with me to my parents' house.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42# Sunday morning
0:14:44 > 0:14:50# It's just the wasted years so close behind... #
0:14:54 > 0:14:57I put him on the couch and I went to my little room, you know, and
0:14:57 > 0:15:01then I heard my mother saying, "You have to get up, you have to get up."
0:15:01 > 0:15:03So I get up and I walk out,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06and there's my father at the breakfast table,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09and my mother is standing over the breakfast table, and there is Lou,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13having conversation with them in his leather jacket, you know, like this.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20And I sat down, you know, "Hi, Mom, hi, Dad.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24"Are you going to work yet so Lou can get some more sleep?"
0:15:24 > 0:15:27I don't know what to say to them.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29But it was stuff like that,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32everybody sort of didn't plan anything,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34or didn't have anything in mind.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36Things just happened.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44I think the real difference - besides the kind of music we played,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48which was a big difference - we were there with Andy Warhol.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51And all the attitudes that brought with it.
0:15:51 > 0:15:52And all the talent
0:15:52 > 0:15:57and incredible creative force that went along with Warhol.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04The nice thing about being with Andy is it made me brave.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Being mean to us or dismissing us didn't mean anything,
0:16:09 > 0:16:15no-one ever heard of us to dismiss us, so they would go after Andy.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19When we were going to record, he pulled me aside.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23His advice to me, he said, "Everything is really great,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27"make sure you keep the dirty words in."
0:16:27 > 0:16:28That was it.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32He meant, keep it rough.
0:16:33 > 0:16:38Don't let them turn it into this...
0:16:39 > 0:16:42This thing anyone else could do.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Don't let them tame it down, don't let them make it
0:16:45 > 0:16:49so it doesn't disturb anyone. Andy wanted to disturb people.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51And shake it up. So did we.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59Harvard graduate Andrew Wylie met Lou in 1972 in Max's Kansas City,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02where the Velvets had played regularly
0:17:02 > 0:17:05and where the Warhol crowd were still hanging out in the back room.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10It was an achievement to get into the back room.
0:17:10 > 0:17:18Usually, you would be hounded out if you didn't pass the depravity test.
0:17:20 > 0:17:21What's the depravity test?!
0:17:21 > 0:17:28You had to be fairly oblivious to odd behaviour.
0:17:28 > 0:17:34- You couldn't be too straight.- You got through, obviously, anyway.- Yup.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44He had I think Swastikas dyed on the side of his head,
0:17:44 > 0:17:48and he was fairly lean, I would say.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53He was dramatically interesting.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00Well, I think if you grow up in a middle-class setting -
0:18:00 > 0:18:03as he did - and you don't embrace it -
0:18:03 > 0:18:05and he didn't -
0:18:05 > 0:18:10then you can either head uptown or head downtown.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13And he headed downtown.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17# I'm waiting for my man
0:18:20 > 0:18:23# 26 in my hand... #
0:18:25 > 0:18:28Forgive me, but it's interesting on the wild side.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31# Up to Lexington 125... #
0:18:31 > 0:18:36Everyone assumes it's just about depravity, but it's not.
0:18:36 > 0:18:37It's interesting.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43Lou was particularly verbal.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46The most intelligent, verbally speaking,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49person I've met in rock'n'roll by miles.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51So I don't think he cared that
0:18:51 > 0:18:56other groups were more successful at all, actually.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00I think he knew how good he was.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05The most important thing about Lou is the writing.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10Lou's lyrics are really, really interesting to read,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12absent the music.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15He is comparable to Francois Villon.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18He's as good as they get on the page.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25This room costs 2,000 a month, you can believe it, baby, it's true.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30Somewhere there is a landlord laughing till he wets his pants.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33No-one dreams of being a doctor or a lawyer or anything.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36They just dream of dealing on the boulevard.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor, I'll piss on them.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43That's what the statue of bigotry says.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47Your poor huddled masses,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51why don't we just go club them to death, get it over with?
0:19:51 > 0:19:53Dump them on the boulevard.
0:19:53 > 0:19:54Get it out.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58# To the dirty boulevard I'm going down
0:20:00 > 0:20:02# To the dirty boulevard Get it out
0:20:04 > 0:20:06# To the dirty boulevard going down... #
0:20:08 > 0:20:12When he died, the first thing that passed through my mind
0:20:12 > 0:20:16and out of my mouth was he's as good as it gets.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21You don't get better than Lou as an artist.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24People don't get made better than that.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Lou's second album, Transformer, was released in 1972.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34It was a huge success,
0:20:34 > 0:20:38despite cataloguing the sexual shenanigans of Warhol's factory
0:20:38 > 0:20:40in the hit track Walk On The Wild Side,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43the hymn to Lou's fascination with the transvestite superstars
0:20:43 > 0:20:46Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis and Holly Woodlawn.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50My friends called me up and said, "Oh, turn on the radio.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54"Lou Reed just wrote a song about you."
0:20:54 > 0:20:57# Holly came from Miami FLA
0:20:59 > 0:21:02# Hitchhiked her way across the USA... #
0:21:03 > 0:21:07And then we went to a party and he was there
0:21:07 > 0:21:12and he was in the corner, a shy, quiet guy.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17So I asked him, how do you know so much about me?
0:21:17 > 0:21:21He said, "Holly, because you have a big mouth."
0:21:23 > 0:21:26What he said was the truth.
0:21:26 > 0:21:32I plucked my eyebrows and shaved my legs and became a she.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35# In the back room, she was everybody's darling... #
0:21:36 > 0:21:42He was surrounded by that, because of the factory, the Warhol crowd.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45So I think he was...
0:21:47 > 0:21:49..I want to say voyeuristic,
0:21:49 > 0:21:56but he just wrote songs about what he saw and knew.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59# Do, do-do, do-do, do-do-do-do do, do-do, do-do... #
0:21:59 > 0:22:06When Lou wrote Walk On The Wild Side, he made me immortal.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10So now, honey, whenever you...
0:22:11 > 0:22:15..drop a quarter in the jukebox
0:22:15 > 0:22:19and there's, "Holly came from Miami FLA."
0:22:27 > 0:22:30One of the things people forget about the songs is how
0:22:30 > 0:22:32compassionate they are.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37Irony, detachment, is just a method of telling a story, after all,
0:22:37 > 0:22:39and it doesn't mean you're not sincere.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41The fact that you have distance
0:22:41 > 0:22:44and aren't frothing all over yourself about something...
0:22:46 > 0:22:48..doesn't mean you're not sincere
0:22:48 > 0:22:51and doesn't mean the songs don't carry any emotional wallop.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54I think things sometimes carry more of an emotional wallop
0:22:54 > 0:22:57if when you tell it, you are a bit detached.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01You catch people a bit off guard, they're not looking for that.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06And I also think that it makes things sound true.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09Because you're not trying to impress somebody,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12you're not trying to make them cry, you're not trying to make them
0:23:12 > 0:23:14say it, you're not trying to make them scared.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17You are telling a story in a straightforward way.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28Photographer Mick Rock first met Lou in London in 1971,
0:23:28 > 0:23:33when Lou hadn't sold any records, as either the Velvets or a solo artist.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36They were introduced by
0:23:36 > 0:23:40one of Mick Rock's constant photographic subjects, David Bowie.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43That night, he took the pictures that were to fix Lou's image
0:23:43 > 0:23:45for years to come.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47The Transformer image.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53I went backstage to meet him.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56David took me back to say hello to him before the show
0:23:56 > 0:24:01and he was in a corner on his own, and it was kind of dim.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04There was something kind of bat-like about it.
0:24:04 > 0:24:11It did seem to confirm all of one's suspicions. Not exactly Nosferatu.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17It was very organic, the whole thing.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22There was no record label bungling in trying to control anything,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25because Lou would've bitten them if they'd tried to do that.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31He actually took the best photographs of me taken in the '70s.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35I remember staying up with him for two or three days once,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38and at some point, he said, "Give me the camera."
0:24:38 > 0:24:42They are actually all, for the most part, in focus.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47He'd come over, he would be on a tour, I would go
0:24:47 > 0:24:51and see the show, hang out with him a bit, and then just have a session.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57But they were very simple affairs. Lou was self-styled.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01I've got a lot of great pictures of him just laughing.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05I threatened to publish them too many times.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08I said, "I'm going to punk with your image, Lou, you know that?"
0:25:08 > 0:25:12# You do what you got to do You do what you can
0:25:14 > 0:25:19# You do what you want to do But I love you, Suzanne
0:25:19 > 0:25:22# You'll try anything once
0:25:22 > 0:25:25# Try anything twice
0:25:25 > 0:25:28# You do what you want to do
0:25:28 > 0:25:30# But I love you, Suzanne
0:25:31 > 0:25:35# I love you when you're good, honey I love you when you're bad
0:25:37 > 0:25:39# You do what you want to do
0:25:39 > 0:25:41# But I love you, Suzanne... #
0:25:41 > 0:25:45He wasn't really such a dark person as a human being.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47I mean, look at the beautiful love songs,
0:25:47 > 0:25:53and how, in a way, how simple they are, lyrically, how direct.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56Like Perfect Day. I mean...
0:25:57 > 0:26:00..my mother loves that - she's 93.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02He could touch many...
0:26:02 > 0:26:05And of course, I'll Be Your Mirror, which, I think
0:26:05 > 0:26:07he wrote that while he was in college.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10One of the most beautiful love songs ever written.
0:26:13 > 0:26:19What's curious about that is that he gave it to Nico to sing to him.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22While they were having their love affair.
0:26:23 > 0:26:29# I find it hard to believe you don't know the beauty you are
0:26:29 > 0:26:34# But if you don't Let me be your eyes
0:26:34 > 0:26:38# A hand in your darkness So you won't be afraid... #
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Lou wanted to plumb the depths and check it all out,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43and I understood that.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46We went to visit this mate of his.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50He lived in an apartment that was absolute chaos.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57Lou said he was the best B&E guy in New York.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59B&E is Breaking and Entering.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08I mean, you've got to remember how intelligent the guy was.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13This is a super intelligent, super cerebral, very informed guy.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23I mean, Lou was a born contrarian, you know?
0:27:23 > 0:27:26- Would you describe yourself as a decadent person?- No.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29- How would you describe yourself? - Average.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34No?
0:27:34 > 0:27:35I think so.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40If people were just talking very superficially to him,
0:27:40 > 0:27:42he would bite them.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44I thought I knew what I was saying,
0:27:44 > 0:27:46but if I listen to you much more, maybe I won't.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51He was always very sweet with me, but I saw him torture a few journalists.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53Tell me when the thing is running.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57Sometimes he did it just for the sport, I think.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00But once he got the reputation, he thought, "OK, I'm going
0:28:00 > 0:28:02"to live up to it."
0:28:02 > 0:28:08- Are you a transvestite or a homosexual?- Sometimes.- Which one?
0:28:10 > 0:28:15No. I'm not going to sit here and do the lecture circuit.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18My God.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22David, you should keep in mind I got a BA in English,
0:28:22 > 0:28:23I graduated college.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26I'm aware of irony and distance.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38I come from a middle-class background.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42So I'm street with a BA.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45You know, it's like an interesting combination,
0:28:45 > 0:28:49because it gave me the ability to phrase some of these things
0:28:49 > 0:28:52in something other than the vernacular of the street.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56So I wasn't just a one-trick pony.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58There were more sides to me than that.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12The Transformer album was Lou's brief glam period.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, its fusion of sex,
0:29:15 > 0:29:20drugs and glamorous androgyny became an inspiration to those who
0:29:20 > 0:29:22were anything but straight.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24For me, the most important thing about Lou Reed was what
0:29:24 > 0:29:28he did musically, and I think, you know, if you're a kid
0:29:28 > 0:29:31and you want to be cool, there's two albums,
0:29:31 > 0:29:34The Velvet Underground & Nico and Transformer.
0:29:34 > 0:29:39Those two records are so much part of the rock'n'roll rites of passage.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43You know, you can't really be considered credible or cool
0:29:43 > 0:29:45if you do not have those records.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52My first kind of experience of Lou Reed was Walk On The Wild Side,
0:29:52 > 0:29:58I think. That was the real beginning of my love affair with Lou Reed.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01You know, because that song I think was...
0:30:01 > 0:30:03If you were a little gay kid in suburbia,
0:30:03 > 0:30:05that song had you walking on invisible heels.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09It was just so otherworldly. Even more than Bowie
0:30:09 > 0:30:13because I think although Bowie was sexually ambiguous,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Lou Reed delivered it with a kind of "so what?" quality.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20It was almost like, who cares, you know?
0:30:20 > 0:30:23That's why I love the '70s, because the '70s, you know,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26a lot of stuff was just made up - Mick Jagger and Bowie in bed,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn having an affair.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31It was all great stuff but it probably wasn't true.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34But, you know, you don't really want like that to be true,
0:30:34 > 0:30:37you just want it to be glorious gossip.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49I had to see him and it was around the time of Rock'n'Roll Animal
0:30:49 > 0:30:52and Sally Can't Dance, the bleached hair.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Looking back, I think he was pretty wasted at that gig
0:30:55 > 0:30:58but I didn't notice. I just thought, "He's fantastic."
0:31:07 > 0:31:11I discovered recently that Lou Reed wasn't very fond of Transformer,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14which is really shocking. He didn't like it.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17He would never talk about it. So, it's one of those weird things.
0:31:17 > 0:31:23With certain rock stars, they embrace a kind of sexual ambiguousness
0:31:23 > 0:31:27but when they get sensible and marry, they want to just say,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30"Oh, no, that I don't want to talk about the camp bit."
0:31:30 > 0:31:32# What is in the mind... #
0:31:32 > 0:31:35If I was going to describe Lou Reed, I would say
0:31:35 > 0:31:38he was always effortlessly cool, even as an older man.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41# Caroline says... #
0:31:41 > 0:31:45I don't really think of Lou Reed as druggie, hard, brutal and savage.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49I think of things like Caroline Says or They're Taking Her Children Away.
0:31:51 > 0:31:56# You can hit me all you want to
0:31:58 > 0:32:02# But I don't love you any more... #
0:32:02 > 0:32:05If you are a kind of quirky kid in ten years' time,
0:32:05 > 0:32:07you probably will find Transformer.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10It might be in your dad's record collection
0:32:10 > 0:32:13or your grandfather's record collection, whatever.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16But I think if you've got an ear for music, you'll hear that
0:32:16 > 0:32:18and it will resonate with you.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21I think that's the power of all great music.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30The whole glam thing, like, was kind of great for me
0:32:30 > 0:32:33when I met Bowie and he was into that. So I got into that.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37All it was was, it was something I'd already seen...
0:32:40 > 0:32:41..with Warhol.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44But I hadn't done that thing so the '70s was like a chance for me
0:32:44 > 0:32:50to get in on it, in a sense, no-one knew me from Adam particularly.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52I could say I was anything, be anywhere.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55I mean that was one of the great things. You could...
0:32:55 > 0:32:58And I learned that from Andy. You could be anything.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07Perversely, Lou followed the hugely commercial Transformer
0:33:07 > 0:33:10with a disturbing concept album, a tale of drug addiction,
0:33:10 > 0:33:13domestic violence and suicide that is Berlin,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17produced by Bob Ezrin in London and released in 1973.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22Back home, Lou's personal life was crumbling.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28And his appetite for narcotics was keener than ever.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33# You were five foot ten inches tall
0:33:36 > 0:33:39# It was very nice
0:33:43 > 0:33:47# Candlelight and Dubonnet on ice... #
0:33:49 > 0:33:54He was an amazing combination of being slightly awkward
0:33:54 > 0:33:59within his own skin and yet being completely consumed with,
0:33:59 > 0:34:03and focused on, a particular idea.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06And so you put the two of them together
0:34:06 > 0:34:11and what you get is this kind of nervous determination.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16I felt really connected to Lou, emotionally,
0:34:16 > 0:34:21very sensitive to what he was going through and so I tried to...
0:34:23 > 0:34:29I tried to use his state of mind as an advantage, a resource,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33and I tried to get to him to see it as a resource.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36He doesn't come in and feel like I'm not in the mood today
0:34:36 > 0:34:39and I'm sorry and I'm letting you down.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42He would come in and say, "I'm not really in the mood today."
0:34:42 > 0:34:45And I would say, "You're not in the mood for that but wow,
0:34:45 > 0:34:46"what if we did this one?"
0:34:46 > 0:34:50And he'd think about it and go, "Yeah. I can do that one."
0:34:53 > 0:34:57# How do you think it feels
0:34:58 > 0:35:01# When you're speeding and lonely?
0:35:01 > 0:35:03# Come here, baby
0:35:03 > 0:35:08# How do you think it feels
0:35:08 > 0:35:12# When all you can say is if only? #
0:35:12 > 0:35:16You know, drugs were a big factor in what happened to all of us
0:35:16 > 0:35:18around the record.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22And at certain points during the day, it, I think...
0:35:24 > 0:35:28..stalled what we were doing but we quickly recover
0:35:28 > 0:35:30and then get back on track.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33Those musical moments, those things that
0:35:33 > 0:35:37happened in the performance, those were transcendent, clear-headed.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41They were above and beyond whatever substance
0:35:41 > 0:35:44we may have ingested four hours before. Do you know what I mean?
0:35:47 > 0:35:48I think on a certain level,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52I may have misjudged how London would affect Lou.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56People were surrounding him, pulling at him, outside of the sessions
0:35:56 > 0:36:00so there was a lot going on in his mind while we were making Berlin.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06When I delivered it to RCA, I said, "OK."
0:36:06 > 0:36:11Lou and Lou's manager at the time, I said, "Here we go. I got it.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13"We're going to deliver it." They said, "OK, let's go."
0:36:13 > 0:36:18We delivered it and I looked around and they were gone.
0:36:18 > 0:36:20They had left the building.
0:36:20 > 0:36:25# Mummy! Mummy! #
0:36:25 > 0:36:31The aftermath of Berlin, for Lou, was fairly devastating.
0:36:31 > 0:36:36It wasn't just a matter of the press writing crushing reviews about it.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38And they got really personal.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41I mean, they were very nasty and direct.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43But it wasn't even that.
0:36:43 > 0:36:48I think the whole experience of living in that dark place,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52you know, really, it's a place of this dissembling of the human being,
0:36:52 > 0:36:56ending up in suicide. You can't get darker than that.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Days were short and nights were long.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03It was raining and it was just sort of...
0:37:03 > 0:37:07It was an overall fairly depressive experience,
0:37:07 > 0:37:10while being artistically uplifting.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16He said he couldn't stand to listen to it.
0:37:16 > 0:37:17He locked it in the closet
0:37:17 > 0:37:21and didn't want to see it again for years, which is actually the truth.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24We didn't listen to it again for years.
0:37:24 > 0:37:29I, on the other hand, came off of it having had my first
0:37:29 > 0:37:33experiences with certain drugs and was just feeling like hell.
0:37:46 > 0:37:55In 1972, Berlin was one of the darkest experiences of our lives.
0:37:55 > 0:38:01In 2006, it was positively... uplifting.
0:38:02 > 0:38:09It was the most energetic, spiritual, beautiful experience,
0:38:09 > 0:38:14live on a stage, that I'd ever had and I think that Lou had ever had.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16# They are taking her children away
0:38:21 > 0:38:26# Because of the things she did in the streets, in the alleys
0:38:27 > 0:38:29# And the bars
0:38:29 > 0:38:35# She couldn't be beat That miserable, rotten slut
0:38:35 > 0:38:37# She couldn't turn anyone away... #
0:38:38 > 0:38:43Berlin was used in a lawsuit against me,
0:38:43 > 0:38:49by management, to show that I shouldn't be allowed to do
0:38:49 > 0:38:53projects on my own, with people of my own choosing,
0:38:53 > 0:38:57because if I did, this is the kind of album I would put out.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00Can you imagine this? It's a nightmare come true.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04I'm in court, having this baby that I love...
0:39:04 > 0:39:07Ezra and I killed ourselves over this album.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09We thought it was going to be like a cinematic experience,
0:39:09 > 0:39:14except on a record with strings, this real grandeur
0:39:14 > 0:39:18and there it is being used in court against me in a lawsuit where
0:39:18 > 0:39:21they are really, really trying to hurt me, make no mistake.
0:39:26 > 0:39:28Guitarist Steve Hunter played on the original
0:39:28 > 0:39:32Berlin recordings and became part of Lou's band for the subsequent
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Rock'n'Roll Animal tour.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37They were reunited in 2006
0:39:37 > 0:39:41when Lou played Berlin live for the first time.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46I wasn't a fan, until I heard Walk On The Wild Side.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50I couldn't believe he got away with saying some of the stuff
0:39:50 > 0:39:54he got away with and it was on top 40 radio we heard that.
0:39:54 > 0:39:56And I thought, "Now, that's a true rebel.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58"That's a guy who is pulling it off.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01"There were always other people who thought they were rebels
0:40:01 > 0:40:03"but this guy's getting away with it."
0:40:03 > 0:40:07"Even when she was giving head," that's on the radio?
0:40:07 > 0:40:08I couldn't believe it.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12I was completely shocked and I was secretly saying, "Yeah, Lou!"
0:40:12 > 0:40:16You know? That's way to go, man. I'm glad you got away with that.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18I think that's very cool.
0:40:18 > 0:40:23There was a side of Manhattan in those days that was just
0:40:23 > 0:40:28under the surface. It wasn't way down. It was just under the surface.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30So, when I would go to the studio,
0:40:30 > 0:40:34you would get out on a summer's day at ten o'clock at night...
0:40:35 > 0:40:40..and there would be people starting to coagulate around the area, you know?
0:40:40 > 0:40:43OK, what's going on? Is it a parade or something?
0:40:43 > 0:40:46I would come back out at two or three in the morning and there
0:40:46 > 0:40:49are hookers and drug dealers and all kinds of stuff going on out there.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53And here I am, this little skinny guy with a couple of guitars.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55I thought I was going to get killed.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02Any time you can meet a composer or even just a poet who doesn't
0:41:02 > 0:41:06mind stripping away and looking at the ugly side
0:41:06 > 0:41:10and making you see the ugly side as maybe not so ugly,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13it's like driving by an accident - you have to look.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15And I think Lou made you look.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20When I heard some of the lyrics of Berlin, I was completely
0:41:20 > 0:41:24blown away, that he was talking about a side of drugs
0:41:24 > 0:41:28and drug usage that people who were doing drugs
0:41:28 > 0:41:30didn't want to hear about.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32I don't want to hear the ugly stuff of drugs.
0:41:32 > 0:41:33I want to hear how cool it is.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39# The rich son waits for his father to die
0:41:42 > 0:41:45# The poor just drink and cry
0:41:47 > 0:41:49# And me
0:41:51 > 0:41:55# I just don't care at all... #
0:41:57 > 0:42:00I would never have wanted to get into a fight with him, ever,
0:42:00 > 0:42:01because I don't care how big...
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Somehow I get the feeling he would tear things off of me
0:42:04 > 0:42:07that I don't want torn off, you know?
0:42:07 > 0:42:12Lou is a street New York guy and a survivor,
0:42:12 > 0:42:16so whatever it took him to survive, he could do that.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Lou reminds me a lot of Edgar Allan Poe.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25I read The Pit And The Pendulum and was just...
0:42:25 > 0:42:27I couldn't believe someone could write
0:42:27 > 0:42:30a story like that in eight pages or however long it is,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33that had me scared to death, just reading the words.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37But then Poe would turn around and do Annabel Lee,
0:42:37 > 0:42:41this incredibly romantic, beautiful poem, to a cousin or something.
0:42:41 > 0:42:46He was just as weird and quirky and looked at the dark side of life, like Lou.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50They both were able to be dark and romantic at the same time.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03# On Avenue B, someone cruised him one night
0:43:04 > 0:43:08# He took him in an alley and then he pulled a knife
0:43:10 > 0:43:16# And he thought of his father as he cut his windpipe
0:43:17 > 0:43:22# And finally danced to the rock minuet... #
0:43:22 > 0:43:27I think New York lost its best reporter because he was
0:43:27 > 0:43:31so observant, so keen, so gentle
0:43:31 > 0:43:35and hard at the same time.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37And it was always so heartfelt.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43I don't know if you've ever heard a song called Rock'n'roll Minuet...
0:43:45 > 0:43:49But that song, you can't listen to that song and not feel something.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00# Paralysed by hatred and a piss ugly soul
0:44:02 > 0:44:07# If he murdered his father he thought he'd become whole
0:44:08 > 0:44:15# While listening at night to an old radio
0:44:15 > 0:44:19# Where they danced to the rock minuet... #
0:44:56 > 0:45:00Lou's passion for sonic terrorism and the avant-garde inspired
0:45:00 > 0:45:03Thurston Moore and the music of Sonic Youth.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Moore treasures Lou's double album Metal Machine Music,
0:45:06 > 0:45:08released in 1974.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11Despite being comprised of nothing but feedback
0:45:11 > 0:45:14and guitar effects, Lou toured it in 2010.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25I figured that nobody would really talk about Metal Machine Music
0:45:25 > 0:45:28and how significant that record was.
0:45:28 > 0:45:33To me, that record... was completely fantastic.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36I mean, there was no such thing as a noise record
0:45:36 > 0:45:39and that was the first noise record I ever heard and it
0:45:39 > 0:45:42was by Lou Reed, who was supposed to be doing Sally Can't Dance part two.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44It certainly wasn't that.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01'Sing along with Lou Reed on his new Reed, Sally Can't Dance
0:46:01 > 0:46:03'on RCA records and tape.'
0:46:03 > 0:46:07I just figured it was going to sound like the way it looked.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11You know, which was this bad ass kind of like glitter rock Lou Reed
0:46:11 > 0:46:15on the cover with his leather jacket. That cover is just beautiful.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19And the liner notes were just so striking and kind of just,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22"My week beats your year," he ends those liner notes.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25What a thing to say.
0:46:25 > 0:46:31And then, the review of Metal Machine Music just had the word "no",
0:46:31 > 0:46:35written like 100 times.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40You know, I was talking to someone from Rolling Stone recently
0:46:40 > 0:46:44about Metal Machine Music and the journalist was...
0:46:44 > 0:46:46Like, well, you know,
0:46:46 > 0:46:48"Nobody's ever listen to that record all the way through."
0:46:48 > 0:46:51I was like, "Oh, I have, numerous times."
0:46:51 > 0:46:53In fact, I still do.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57I actually had it on quad. I had a quadraphonic version.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59I had it on quad eight-track tape.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02I have all variants of Metal Machine Music.
0:47:02 > 0:47:07It's one of the most important records in the my life.
0:47:07 > 0:47:09SONG PLAYS
0:47:25 > 0:47:27It was inevitable that sooner or later, Lou should bump into
0:47:27 > 0:47:31novelist Paul Auster, another writer dedicated in his own way
0:47:31 > 0:47:34to the dramas, dropouts and dangerous delights
0:47:34 > 0:47:39of a New York City that by now, in the 1990s, was fast disappearing.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42# Life's like a mayonnaise soda
0:47:42 > 0:47:45# And life's like space without room
0:47:46 > 0:47:50# And life's like bacon and ice cream
0:47:50 > 0:47:53# That's what life's like without you... #
0:47:53 > 0:47:56I remember there was a moment when, the time when
0:47:56 > 0:47:59we were closest and seeing each other fairly often,
0:47:59 > 0:48:03he told me that he wanted to write a novel. He had figured out a plot.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08He wanted to write a crime novel. And I said, "Well, good luck, Lou."
0:48:08 > 0:48:12And a few months later, he said, "You know, it's damn hard. I can't do it.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16"I don't have the ability to make a big story."
0:48:16 > 0:48:21So, I think his form was the short lyric and he did brilliantly.
0:48:21 > 0:48:26His songs ARE the words. I mean, Lou was not a singer.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30He was able to present his songs in a brilliant way, but it's
0:48:30 > 0:48:33the combination of the personality coming through the voice.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37I remember a very amusing song, I think it was
0:48:37 > 0:48:43a song about Laurie Anderson and their love for each other and...
0:48:43 > 0:48:46The song had to do with all her ex-lovers.
0:48:46 > 0:48:52He wants to throw them off the roof of her loft and see them
0:48:52 > 0:48:54run over by cars on Canal Street.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00I thought this was hilarious and so vivid.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04Some of his songs are very funny, too. They are not all grim.
0:49:08 > 0:49:09We worked on two films together.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12The first one is called Blue In The Face,
0:49:12 > 0:49:15and Lou has a prominent role in the film.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19He is Lou Reed, the resident philosopher
0:49:19 > 0:49:22of the Brooklyn Cigar Company, sitting behind the counter
0:49:22 > 0:49:27and I was the one off-camera, throwing questions at him.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30I'm scared in my own apartment. I'm, I'm...
0:49:30 > 0:49:34You know, I'm scared 24 hours a day, but not necessarily in New York.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39I actually feel pretty comfortable in New York.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41I get scared like in Sweden.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45Each one of his comments is hilarious.
0:49:45 > 0:49:51You know, it's kind of empty. They are all drunk. Everything works.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54Acerbic, strange, unpredictable.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56You go to the medicine cabinet, open it up
0:49:56 > 0:50:00and there's little poster saying, "In case of suicide, call..."
0:50:00 > 0:50:05You turn on the TV, there's an ear operation. These things scare me.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07New York, no.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09I really think in a way, he steals the movie.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12He's the heart of the movie and he's not doing anything,
0:50:12 > 0:50:14just sitting there and talking.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18My childhood was so unpleasant that I absolutely don't think
0:50:18 > 0:50:21I remember anything I think before...age 31.
0:50:21 > 0:50:27I don't follow the world of pop music that closely
0:50:27 > 0:50:30but I can tell you that I look out at the scene,
0:50:30 > 0:50:33what I know of it, and I don't see anyone like him.
0:50:36 > 0:50:38There is no-one doing what he did
0:50:38 > 0:50:41and so in a sense he's irreplaceable.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46That is why, I think, we are going to keep needing him in the future.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50I think his stuff is going to go on being listened to for a long,
0:50:50 > 0:50:51long time.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55One, two, three...
0:50:55 > 0:50:58# If you are close the door
0:50:58 > 0:51:01# I never have to see the day again... #
0:51:06 > 0:51:10In 1993, the original Velvet Underground reformed.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13Their music was as unrepentant as ever,
0:51:13 > 0:51:18driven once more by their proto-punk drummer, Maureen Tucker.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21If Lou had resented the lack of recognition for the band
0:51:21 > 0:51:22first time around,
0:51:22 > 0:51:27now was the time to remind everyone just how influential they had been.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30We are looking forward very much to playing for people who have
0:51:30 > 0:51:33always said, "I wish I could have seen a Velvet Underground show."
0:51:33 > 0:51:35Well, now you can,
0:51:35 > 0:51:41with the original four members, in great shape, up and barking.
0:51:43 > 0:51:45Our reunion tour was like a dream come true.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49That was really, really exciting, for me to be playing with them
0:51:49 > 0:51:51again. It's really, really was.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58Lou changing in those 30 years almost...
0:51:58 > 0:52:01I would say, the major thing, the only thing really,
0:52:01 > 0:52:02I guess that I noticed is that...
0:52:04 > 0:52:08..in 1993, he was a big deal.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12And in 1968, he wasn't.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15# Na, na, na, na, na, na
0:52:15 > 0:52:17# Na, na, na, na, na
0:52:18 > 0:52:20# Na, na, na, na, na, na
0:52:20 > 0:52:22# Na, na, na, na, na... #
0:52:22 > 0:52:25We had a sound check one night for six hours.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31And that was being pretty darn picky about how your guitar sounds.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45The first time I saw Lou play in a long, long time, I think
0:52:45 > 0:52:52it was 1986 or '87 or something, in Atlanta, and it was the first
0:52:52 > 0:52:57time I had seen him play to a big audience, and I cried. I truly did.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01I was not hysterical but tears coming down.
0:53:01 > 0:53:03I was so excited for him.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08I always had a special...not a concern, I don't want to say
0:53:08 > 0:53:13I was always worried about Lou. I don't mean that but...
0:53:13 > 0:53:18Later on, after the Velvets, I would often really worry about him.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21I don't want it to sound like more than it was.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29# Some kinds of love
0:53:29 > 0:53:32# Margarita told Tom
0:53:34 > 0:53:37# Between thought and expression
0:53:38 > 0:53:40# Lies a lifetime
0:53:42 > 0:53:45# And some kinds of love
0:53:47 > 0:53:49# Possibilities end
0:53:50 > 0:53:53# Oh, if only to miss one
0:53:55 > 0:53:57# Would seem to be groundless
0:53:57 > 0:53:59# My body, ta ta ta... #
0:54:03 > 0:54:05My friend Lou...
0:54:05 > 0:54:09I miss knowing he's out there, knowing he's happy
0:54:09 > 0:54:12and playing music and is out there in the world.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16When the people who made up your life,
0:54:16 > 0:54:21especially your young life, die... And I don't mean just your friends
0:54:21 > 0:54:25or your relatives but the people who made
0:54:25 > 0:54:29up your world - the actors who are big at the time, the musicians,
0:54:29 > 0:54:34the politicians - when they start dying, that's scary.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36It starts getting kind of scary.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40But...when it's someone...
0:54:41 > 0:54:43..you've just loved for so long
0:54:43 > 0:54:47and he's always been out there doing his thing
0:54:47 > 0:54:51and you just know he's out there in the world,
0:54:51 > 0:54:53that was very difficult.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57That was really, and still is, I'm still feeling really weird about it.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16But you have to understand what a nice, sweet guy he must have been
0:55:16 > 0:55:19because he married Laurie Anderson and that was it.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22That was a love affair. That was the love of his life.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26It's hard to believe he's gone. I mean it just...
0:55:28 > 0:55:30Thank God he had Laurie with him, to...
0:55:33 > 0:55:36..you know, make it go gently.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40Yeah, I cried. I cried.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45He was a gladiator and he...
0:55:45 > 0:55:50You know, he was an amazing artist.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54He was an exceptional human being by any standards.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05I carry Lou Reed with me, in a way,
0:56:05 > 0:56:08like I carry my family,
0:56:08 > 0:56:14and losing him was surprisingly one of the biggest blows of my life.
0:56:19 > 0:56:25Lou voiced those things that his entire generation was feeling
0:56:25 > 0:56:28and generations after, too,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31but when he said, "My life was saved by rock'n'roll,"
0:56:31 > 0:56:33he was talking for me.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38The thing I'd like to add is I'm going to miss that guy.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43You know, he was always... good for a nice hug.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48The guy I got to know riding a motorcycle through
0:56:48 > 0:56:50the wilds of Pennsylvania...
0:56:50 > 0:56:53You know, he's in front and I'm on the back
0:56:53 > 0:56:56and we're both kind of... We're hardly Hells Angels.
0:56:56 > 0:57:03And he's like, waggling his bike like that and we scoot along...
0:57:05 > 0:57:10It was just kind of a normal day, in a weird way, I have you think,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13yeah, it was a perfect day and I'm glad I spent it with Lou.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17Pff...
0:57:17 > 0:57:21Erm... When he was sick before he died,
0:57:21 > 0:57:25I went to see him in Southampton, in the hospital.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28And...
0:57:30 > 0:57:32He... Urgh.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35He reached up and...
0:57:35 > 0:57:40we held hands and I kissed him and he was crying
0:57:40 > 0:57:45and it was just awful, awful.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51Erm... I'll miss everything he was -
0:57:51 > 0:57:56funny, brilliant, gifted.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01There won't be another one like him.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17# You're going to reap just what you sow
0:58:22 > 0:58:27# You're going to reap just what you sow
0:58:32 > 0:58:37# You're going to reap just what you sow. #