There was a time when I fell into the habit of writing in my mind to Lou Reed. The thought of him and his music quickened me to narrate to him and ask him questions. He had liked my writing and we had been put in touch, and I admitted all this to him, saying…
Lou Reed, rock & roll poet and founding member of the Velvet Underground, died on the same Sunday morning that he taught us all to love (“Sunday Morning.” 1966). As usual, Twitter was the first to know it. Here is how Jewish celebrities reacted: The one and only Lou Reed, died today at 71. ampmdash;…
Lou Reed — legendary rock iconoclast, gimlet-eyed poet laureate of the New York City streets, and one of the most important songwriters of the past fifty years — died yesterday at his Long Island home in Southampton, N.Y., following a long battle with liver disease. If it seems amazing that Reed lived to age 71,…
I first heard those eerie xylophone notes that open the Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning” when I was 14, sitting on the rug of my friend Mollie’s bedroom. A moment later, I heard Lou Reed’s voice for the first time, and everything changed. That day, we were two Upper West Side Jewish girls who showed up…
Lou Reed, the pioneering songwriter and musician behind the influential rock band Velvet Underground, which fused art and music in collaboration with artist Andy Warhol, died on Sunday at the age of 71, his literary agent said. Reed, best recognized by mainstream audiences for his 1972 solo hit “Walk on the Wild Side,” died at…
Rock legend Lou Reed is reportedly recovering from a life-saving liver transplant. Reed’s wife Laurie Anderson told the Times of London that the musician “was dying” before undergoing the operation at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic some weeks ago. According to the AP, Anderson praised the clinic’s work, saying that hospitals in her and Reed’s native New…
David Bowie died of cancer on Sunday after a glittering five-decade career in pop music. The rocker won millions of fans across several generations by constantly reinventing himself, but who knew he had such a strong link to the Tribe? Madonna had nothing on David Bowie when she came out as a devotee of Kabbalah…
Editor’s note: Lou Reed would have turned 79 on March 2, 2021. In honor of him and the upcoming holiday we have republished this piece, which first appeared in March of 2013, about the singer-songwriter’s historic “Downtown Seder.” Lou Reed is standing in front of a room full of Jews on Varick Street on a…
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