Monday, October 28, 2013

Magic And Loss


We'd been remembering John, and I was remembering Dad, who died in May and would have been 90 yesterday; all these years and I never realised he shared a birthday with Roy Lichtenstein (to the day), Sylvia Plath and Dylan Thomas. Many thoughts of not going gentle into that good night, therefore. And then I wake from a post-lunch snooze and turn on the internets and hear about Lou.

Well, that was one I didn't expect. It always seemed like Lou would outlive us all.

And we've probably all got an opinion on him, and he hated to be pinned down. He was a curmudgeonly misanthrope, he was a romantic; he was a dark literato, he was a waspish doo-wop fan; he was an ex pop hack, he was an avant gardeist; he was New York City tough, he was a fucked up nice Jewish boy from the suburbs; he was a conceptualist, he was a three chord guitar player with his bullshit detector tuned.

He was REAL (maaan); he invented himself (in true Warhol style).

You pass through arrogance, you pass through hurt
You pass through an ever present past
And it's best not to wait for luck to save you
Pass through the fire to the light


He was Lou.

There's a bit of magic in everything
And then some loss to even things out


Lou Reed - 'Magic And Loss - The Summation' (1992)

9 comments:

  1. Sometimes the balancing act - "There's a bit of magic in everything
    And then some loss to even things out" - as I get older, really irks me ... yes ... one of the greats ... vale LR.

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  2. All very true Mr H. Cracking post.

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  3. Extremely well chosen words.

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  4. The best reference to Mr. Reed I've been reeding these days, Davy. Great compliment to your words.

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  5. Post lunch snooze Davy? xx Lila

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