In August of 1970, a 28-year-old Lou Reed quit the Velvet Underground, moved home to Long Island, New York, and embarked on a fascinating alternate creative path: poetry. Spending months in relative isolation, the musician refashioned himself, publicly vowing to never again play rock and roll. Reed wrote verse and contributed his work to journals and small press publications. “I’m a poet,” he proclaimed from the stage of St. Mark’s Church in March 1971. Though his retirement from music wouldn’t last—only six months later he began recording his debut solo album—Reed’s passionate identification with the written word was solidified, and would last the rest of his life. Gathering poems, photographs and ephemera from this era and featuring a foreword by Anne Waldman and an afterword by Laurie Anderson, this book provides a window to a little-known chapter in the life of one of the most singular and uncompromising voices in American popular culture.
ForewordWe Are The People, 3Playing Music is Not Like Athletes, 5
Whiskey, 7This is Not The Age of Curtsy, Barely Civil Strangers Passing, 9Force It, 11He Thought of Love in the Lazy Darkness, 13Since Half of the World is H2O, 15Lipstick, 17A Bed Trip, 19Do Angels Need Haircuts?, 23Spirited Leaves of Autumn, 27The Murder Mystery, 31Archival Notes, 57Afterword, 67
Lou Reed was a musician, writer and icon of underground culture. The frontman and principal songwriter of the foundationally transcendent rock and roll band the Velvet Underground and a hugely influential solo artist, Reed’s career spanned five decades. He died in 2013, leaving behind an unfathomable legacy.
Anne Waldman is an American poet.
Laurie Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Laurie Anderson is the widow of Lou Reed.