{"id":197,"date":"2013-10-31T17:32:57","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T04:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.exposures.co.nz\/?p=197"},"modified":"2019-08-25T15:19:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T03:19:19","slug":"vale-lou-reed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/?p=197","title":{"rendered":"Vale Lou Reed"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was 15 I used to work in the weekends picking tomatoes to earn pocket money. A day in the hothouses earned me $5 so every two weeks I could get on a bus and travel from suburban Mangere into Auckland City and buy a new record.<\/p>\n

I was just getting into buying records then. One of the first records I bought was David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust<\/a> album.<\/p>\n

Fuck.<\/p>\n

Everything changed.<\/p>\n

I went backwards through Bowie catalog to Hunky Dor<\/a>y and The Man Who Sold The World<\/a>. Then I heard he produced an album by Mott The Hoople<\/a>. I bought it.<\/p>\n

Then he produced Transformer <\/a>and I was introduced to Lou Reed.<\/p>\n

I went back through Lou Reed’s catalog and discovered The Velvet Underground.<\/p>\n

I bought a drum kit and formed a band.<\/p>\n

Right from the start we did Lou Reed covers. I still do Lou Reed covers.<\/p>\n

I have a concert at my farm every February. In 2011 my band was called Deja VU and Nico and we did only Lou Reed covers.<\/p>\n

I think I have everything the he released, including the crap<\/a>. That’s what you do when you are a fan. You even buy the crap.<\/p>\n

I saw Lou Reed live in concert twice, in 1975 and in 1978. I took a cassette deck in to the ’75 show and still have the tape. I listened to it again yesterday.<\/p>\n

This year’s father’s day I wrote a tribute to Lou Reed. He is the father of most of the songs I ever wrote. He was the one who gave me a voice and walked me through every step of the way. It’s simple. You play a chord, you say the line, you move down the page and you tell the story.<\/p>\n

I knew he was sick, but I started to think he was never going to die.<\/p>\n

But he died.<\/p>\n

Age 71.<\/p>\n

He leaves behind a body of work that is stunning in it’s depth and width.<\/p>\n

I don’t have a favorite song or album or era. I just have a favorite artist.<\/p>\n

Still.<\/p>\n

Vale Lou Reed.<\/p>\n

\"Lou

Lou Reed<\/p><\/div>\n