Tonefiend Forum

Very sad to hear of Lou's passing earlier today. If anyone loved guitar, it was Lou, even if it did used to amuse me to see that he only used his first two fingers when playing solos. I'm sure you're pretty much all aware of his music, but some suggested listening if you don't know his playing would include the Velvet Undergrounds "I Heard Her Call My Name", and the great interplay he had with Robert Quine on "The Blue Mask" LP (especially the noisefest title track). I was lucky enough to catch a couple of shows on the recent(ish) "Berlin" tour, when he got back together with Steve Hunter, and again it was great to see them playing off each other. In fact it was a little incongruous to see them with huge grins on their faces, given that "Berlin" tells a pretty depressing story, but they were obviously enjoying playing with each other - sometimes teasing each other with little licks that the other would pick up on.

You are definitely not the only Lou Reed fan here. I bought the Velvet Underground's first album as soon as it hit my friends record store. The Velvet Underground was a huge inspiration for me. I was also a big fan of Lou's solo work I loved all his stuff I remember riding around in my buddy's car singing "Walk on the Wild Side" way to drunk for our own good, luckily it was during an ice storm so we only were a menace to parked cars (that was before DUI was enforced properly). I was probably the only one in my crowd that appreciated "Berlin" when it first came out until I drug them all to see the live show shortly after it's release. I saw Lou solo a few times after that as well and Lou was always very entertaining even when he could barely stand up. I will say that the "Songs for Drella" video was pretty uncomfortable to watch with the barely contained animus between John Cale and Lou Reed so evident ( I am also a huge John Cale fan). But all that being said the rock and roll community owes a great deal to Lou.