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Michael Ramirez

@weapons.etc

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The highest authority on all things Lou Reed
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“If you play the albums chronologically, there is a tale for everybody in case they want to know what they can do to survive the scenes. If you line the songs up and play them, you should be able to relate and not feel alone - I think it’s important that people don’t feel alone.” Lou Reed, 15 May 1971 CHANGES 🎥 R. Allen Kirkpatrick: Adrenaline Devours The Blood (1975). For Lou’s birthday I decided to share something really special from my collection - footage from his Felt Forum concert, taken 50 years ago next month. Independent filmmaker Allen Kirkpatrick taped Lou’s ‘74 and ‘75 NY shows and incorporated them into his movie Adrenalin. It’s pretty much everything you’d want from a 1970s NY independent film… it’s grimy. This is the first time this footage has ever been shown to the public. Enjoy. Love Lou, and I love you all too! ♥️
44
a year ago
“Lou’s next studio album, Coney Island Baby, apparently represents a return to pre-Sally Can’t Dance sleaze. If he can ever finish it, that is: sessions broke down completely when Lou fired producer Steve Katz, took over production himself, and completely confused the sidemen. According to one inside source, Lou was ‘so wired he’d change the rhythm every time we tried to lay down another take.” - @creemmag Feb. 1975 📷: Albert Gayol. London, April 1977 About a month ago I uploaded an unused take of “She’s My Best Friend” from the disastrous January 1975 sessions. In 2019 Michael Fonfara told me Lou’s idea was pop songs with a droning, heavily distorted guitar. The results are something like Coney Island Baby but with a Blue Mask approach. You can hear Metal Machine coming around the corner in Lou’s guitar here, too. Link in story. #loureed #rachelhumphreys #albertgayol #sallycantdance #metalmachinemusic #rocknrollanimal #coneyislandbaby #streethassle #protopunk #punk #glamrock #queermusic #andywarhol #thefactory #thevelvetunderground #velvetunderground #thevelvetundergroundandnico
39
2 years ago
“Mom and I were on vacation in Ibiza, in an old finca. I had salmonella and she took care of me like a real mother, cooking me rice and boiling fresh water. On July 13, she went down to town to go shopping and buy water. She pushed her bicycle 7km under the blazing July sun, with two ten-liter cans of drinking water, plus food and bread. I remember her arrival, I was sitting in the shade, very ill, she sank into the chair next to me, outside. On July 14 she typed the lyrics to her last song. For four days, she took great care of me, until the 18th when, like a ceremonial, in front of the Egyptian eye of Horus, giant and made of small square pieces of glass, arranged in a mosaic, she made herself beautiful and spent an hour wrapping her head in a black scarf. She asked me to reinflate the front tire of her bicycle. I tried but, seeing me staggering, she then said to me: ‘Go and lie down, darling.’ She inflated it herself. It was precisely one o’clock when she took the road for the last time. She wore her sunglasses, had a book by Mark Twain, Roughing It, in the pocket of her black coat, and enough money to buy a stick of hash and have a drink somewhere. My mother waved at me, saying, ‘See you later, darling.’ I saw her go down the rocky dirt path and disappear behind the pines.” Ari Päffgen, NICO: From Saeta to Neutrino (1998) 🎥 : The Squat Theater’s Mr. Dead and Mrs. Free
39
8 days ago
“I used to be so much into dancing that when I couldn’t do my pirouettes properly - I used to just faint, because they were too much. I used to get very tired of being on points, you know, on top of your foot. So I just abandoned being a dancer. And that’s one tragedy of mine that I’ll never get over, not to be a prima ballerina. And a trapeze artist, of course! At that age - eleven, twelve, thirteen - you want to be something unusual, something incredible. You want to dance on a tightrope.” Nico, 29 April 1978 Sounds 📷 29 January 1972 reunion of Lou/Nico/John at Le Bataclan, filmed for Pop Deux
50
25 days ago
Some more of the ABC’s “Get to Know” interview with Lou Reed from 1975 has surfaced on YouTube. Surely somewhere in an Australia the whole interview must be sitting and waiting for our eyes! Big thanks to peter2534 on YT for this
33
a month ago
“I lived through this period as a gay young man who was yet to come out, and Lou’s defiantly queer image was a huge inspiration - as was Bowie. They both did so much to empower timid young kids like me who loved their music and embraced their otherness through it. Lou and Bowie were instrumental in transforming many lives, including mine, by making us feel not despised or merely tolerated but seen, valued and celebrated for our differences and courage. Transformer was an aptly named album. That was a crucial moment that invited me to be my true self, joyous and without shame. His brilliant work with the Velvet Underground had already touched me deeply. But this was a further step forward. I was so incredibly lucky to have come of age at just that moment.” @marcolivingstone, personal interview April 2024 🎥 June 26th 1977 - at the 8th annual NYC Gay Pride Parade Lou asks folks to ‘walk on the wild side’ and makes clear his position against homophobia and right wingers like Anita Bryant. Lou is in Central Park in New York playing congas behind Patti Smith. Likely filmed for WNET but I cannot confirm this.
5
a month ago
“Lou Reed doesn’t just write about squalid characters, he allows them to leer and breathe in their own voices, and he colors familiar landscapes through their own eyes. In the process, Reed has created a body of music that comes as close to disclosing the parameters of human loss and recovery as we’re likely to find. That qualifies him, in my opinion, as one of the few real heroes rock & roll has raised.” @mikalgilmore, 22 Mar. 1979 Rolling Stone. 🎥: Lou Reed w. the Hunter/Wagner band, Paris 1973. Lou shimmies and shakes in his @leatheracci whip-stitched black leather stage suit
38
2 months ago
And here it is, via SFBATV: long lost footage of The Velvet Underground & Nico performing at the Fillmore in San Francisco, May 1966. If’s wild to see footage of the band in such great quality - sharp, clear, lovely color film. This was filmed by KRON for a news segment, so we get snippets of the band performing “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and “Venus in Furs.” Gerard and Mary can be seen writhing and dancing while the band plays their hypnotic tunes - Sterling, Nico and Lou clearly caught the attention of the cameramen as we see shots of them interspersed with the dancing audience. Oh, and the wacky disco ball that Andy and Paul brought with them. Amazing stuff!!! I can only wonder what was left on the cutting room floor… Link in story & bio for the full video, which included an interview with Bill Graham being very proud of himself and discussing the reasons he closed the Fillmore.
92
2 months ago
“Well, the thing about ‘Sweet Jane’ is that you have to understand what the song is all about or else it just becomes the basic riff. The song is actually a salute to nostalgia. The guy who is singing the song is in a rock ‘n’ roll band - that’s established in the first few lines - and the line ‘Jack is in his corset, Jane is in her vest’ - well that means Jack is a sissy, and Jane is butch. The sexual roles have changed, y’know? The times are changing.” Lou Reed, 21 Oct. 1972 Disc 🎥: Ancienne Belgique, Brussels 22 May 1974. Lou is playing with Michael Fonfara (keys), Danny Weis (guitar), Prakash John (bass), and Pentti Glan
22
2 months ago
“On stage Lou Reed rarely if ever talks. The day at Charlton was no exception. Occasionally he would lift or remove his sunglasses, his eyes staring out into the void of the day like a starving bat inquisitive to smell a world he has no part of. The blond hair happened the way appearance changes frequently for Lou - to stave off boredom. ‘It’s fabulous being a blond,’ drawls Lou in that lazy rasp of disinterest which rarely changes tones. ‘Especially when the dark roots start to show. It’s so trashy.’” Mick Rock, November 1974 Circus Raves 🎥 Lou at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, May 1974
42
2 months ago
“‘Heroin’ is a beautiful song too, possibly Reed’s greatest and a truthful one. It’s easy to rationalize about a song you like, but it should be pointed out that when Reed sings he’s only glamorizing heroin for people who want to die. The real damage, particularly in New York, has been done through the cult of personality. Rock fans have taken heroin thinking Lou took heroin, forgetting that the character in the song wasn’t necessarily Lou Reed.” Sterling Morrison, as printed in Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story (Bockris/Malanga, 1983) 🎥 LR in Houston, 1974; 📻 LR at WPIX-FM, February 1979
11
3 months ago
If you think the Australian interviews are ‘70s Lou Reed at his most extreme, get a load of this. Lou is in top form here - the poor journalist does not know what is going on at all! This interview is from March 22, 1977 at a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden. This interview tape comes from collector Gordon Lyon; it had some speed and pitch issues and it was professionally restored by @bigcloudstroud. It’s really through this form of goodwill and community that 90% of this history lives on. Enjoy! Interview tape is set to footage of Lou’s November 1976 show in Passaic, NJ courtesy Wolfgang’s Vault
18
4 months ago
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