Big Fly Dropping

Lou Reed died this morning of liver disease. He had a transplant in May, obviously it wasn’t enough. At least Lou went out on a “Sunday Morning”.

Which was one of the best songs on the single best—and most shocking—rock album of all time—Velvet Underground and Nico. For some reason, I can’t remember why now, I had to wait weeks for it to show up at the Sam Goody shop in Willowbrook Mall. Some problem with the Andy Warhol cover, I’m guessing. Anyway. That record was so shocking I couldn’t stop listening to it. Plus, it was good for driving my father out of the living room late at night so I could have it myself.

To this day—and the album came out in 1967, when I was 14—I can list the way it changed my half-baked personality and shaky thought processes. Almost as much of an adolescent life sculptor as sex and drugs…maybe more.

PS—the regular “It Might Get Messy” entry for this week is immediately below. Suggest we all send Laurie Anderson our sympathies. And pull out all the Velvet Underground CDs we own.