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Tag: Lou Reed

  • Lou Reed Inducted Into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Sister Sets the Record Straight

    Lou Reed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony this weekend and the singer’s younger sister, Merrill Reed Weiner, set the record straight about the famous rocker and their family.

    In an essay published in Medium magazine, Reed Weiner shared a plethora of family secrets with the hopes of providing “clarity and context” about her brother’s upbringing, which included allegations that her parents approved of him having electroshock therapy for purported psychological problems.

    Wiener told Billboard in an interview during Friday’s induction eve VIP party at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum that she wrote the essay not long after Lou Reed died in Oct. 2013.

    She told the magazine she “gave it to certain biographers and said, ‘Look, don’t misquote me now.’ I felt that depicting something as complicated as what actually happened in a cartoonish way, a sensationalized way, from lyrics and interpreting them as truth had reached a point with so many biographers circling around that I needed to make a statement. I was so enraged. There’s a book that came out by a guy named Jeremy Reed (Waiting For The Man: The Life and Career of Lou Reed) that says that my father beat my mother and a host of other things. It’s just so ludicrous, and for someone to be that facile in interpreting lyrics as truth is… I mean, do we take D.H. Lawrence and assume everything is authentic?”

    Reed Wiener said her intentions for penning the essay about Lou Reed was to get the truth out.

    “So I wrote it and then my son, the media savvy guy, said, ‘Mom, we can put it on the Internet.’ So I said, ‘Why not? Let’s set the record straight,’ and that’s what I endeavored to do and I feel like I did it. And I knew Lou always wanted me to do that.”

    Weiner said the honor of being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would have meant a great deal to brother Lou Reed.

    “For him to be honored by his peers in this kind of way, I know how much it would have meant to him — not that he would have let you know it,” said Weiner. “He wouldn’t be smiling quite the way I am, for sure. I think he would be amused. I think he would be sardonic and I think he’d be secretly delighted, really, really delighted. [Music] meant the world to him, and I wish he were here to see it. It’s amazing for him to be recognized in this way.”

    Patti Smith inducted Lou Reed into the Hall of Fame in a poignant speech.

  • Joan Jett Talks Rock Hall Induction

    Joan Jett Talks Rock Hall Induction

    Joan Jett and her band The Black Hearts will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This past April, she and her band played on stage during Nirvana’s induction at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

    “Maybe it reminded people I’m out there,” Jett said on Tuesday about the fact that she received her nomination shortly thereafter.

    “It’s a roiling pot of emotions,” Jett said during a recent interview with Billboard. “I’m amazed. I’m happy. I’m honored. I’m flabbergasted. It feels so surreal. It’s kind of still sinking in. When I think about all the musicians in the history of music that have been out there making records and touring, that I get chosen into this elite group of musicians is pretty incredible.”

    Joan Jett and her band have been on the ballot for nomination into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before, but this year they were finally voted in.

    “I think you don’t think about those things–at least I don’t,” she explains. “You just go out and do your job and make your records, and if something like those accolades get put onto you, then that’s an extra bonus. But I don’t know that you can set out to achieve that; I think it’s a gift, and I don’t think you can sort of expect it. So, no, when I was nominated before and didn’t get voted in, I took it with a grain of salt because that’s the way it is. I did not expect to have it handed to me on a golden platter.”

    It was back in 1980 when Joan Jett landed at the top of the record charts with her huge hit ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.’ She sees her impending induction as ‘a total career achievement and her impact in breaking down barriers for women in rock.’

    “Certainly I will take that with me to that ceremony,” she says. “I’ll take the view that it’s encompassing my early work with the Runaways, all the various incarnations of the Blackhearts…everything.”

    Joan Jett will officially become an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In addition to Joan and her band, the other inductees include Green Day, Bill Withers Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Lou Reed, and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

  • Lou Reed, Legendary Rock Musician, Dies At 71

    Lou Reed, the rock legend, passed away on Sunday, October 27. He was 71 years old, and known for his work with the band The Velvet Underground, as well as his hit song “Walk On The Wild Side.” It was revealed that he died of liver disease, after having liver transplant surgery in May of this year. He was treated for it again until just a few days ago.

    Reed was a very influential songwriter and guitarist, and was held in very high regard among musicians and fans all over the world. Although never achieving mainstream success, the album Velvet Underground and Nico has been viewed as one of the most influential rock albums of all time. Another popular album of theirs, “Loaded,” included the hits “Sweet Jane” and “Rock And Roll,” a single that the band Phish has been famously covering for a number of years.

    Lou Reed enjoyed great success with The Velvet Underground throughout the late 1960’s, and when he left the band in 1970, he ventured out to begin a solo career. His first solo album “Transformer” was produced by David Bowie, and featured his most famous song called “Walk On The Wild Side,” which was an ode to the odd and outrageous people that he met while hanging out with Andy Warhol, who produced The Velvet Underground’s first album.

    While Reed was famous for his sexual persona, and excessive drug use throughout the 60’s and 70’s, he has been sober since the 1980’s. He is also a practitioner of Tai Chi, and Dr. Charles Miller of the Cleveland clinic where he was treated stated that “He was doing his Tai Chi exercises within an hour of his death, trying to keep strong and keep fighting.”

    The rock legend was born in 1942 in Brooklyn, NY. He grew up and attended Syraucse University, where he took inspiration from the poet Delmore Schwartz. He was a very influential artist who helped shaped several new genres of the music industry, and according to Rolling Stone, glam, punk and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his regulatory example.

    Lou Reed will be remembered as one of the greatest and most influential rock and roll legends of all time. He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and will undoubtedly be a treasured member of the rock community for generations to come. Reed left behind his wife Laurie Anderson, a performance artist, and composer.

    Image via Youtube

  • Rock Legend Lou Reed Dies at Age 71

    Rock Legend Lou Reed Dies at Age 71

    Rock legend, Lou Reed, died Sunday morning, according to a report by Rolling Stone. The cause of his death has not yet been released, but it is known that the 71-year-old had a liver transplant back in May.

    Reed was one of the founders for “The Velvet Underground” in the late 60s. Their album, “The Velvet Underground & Nico”, has been called on of the “most influential rock albums of all time”. Reed was a famous song writer with his most popular songs being “Rock & Roll,” “Sweet Jane” and “Walk on the Wild Side”.

    Lewis (Lou) Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. At an early age, by listening to doo-wop and early rock and roll singers from the 1950s, he quickly developed a love for music. After college, in 1964, he hooked up with guitarist, Sterling Morrison, and drummer, Maureen Tucker, to form “Velvet Underground”. The group lasted until 1970, when they released their final album, “Loaded”.

    Reed later went solo and released his first solo album, “Transformer” in 1972. His song, “Walk on the Wild Side” from that album made it to number 16 on Billboard’s Hot 100 list.

    The “Violet Underground” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. However, Reed had not yet made it in on his solo endeavors. According to Rolling Stone, Reed “brought a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry and glam, punk and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his revelatory example”.

    Reed’s later work included his album “The Raven”, released in 2005, “Hudson River Win Meditations”, released in 2007, and a collaboration with Metallica on the album “Lulu” released in2011. Reed described all of his albums as chapters of a book of his life.

    “All through this, I’ve always thought that if you thought of all of it as a book then you have the Great American Novel, every record as a chapter,” he told Rolling Stone in 1987. “They’re all in chronological order. You take the whole thing, stack it and listen to it in order, there’s my Great American Novel.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons