The Velvet Forum

Doctor Bob wrote:Did enjoy seeing Lou destroy Sylvie Simmons some months ago though, then they tried to avenge her by publishing a crappy reader letter attacking Reed in their next issue.

Huh. Any chance of providing the text of the letter?

Personally, I love Lou's music but he is pretty pathetic in my view. You come out with an album or are going on tour, so you schedule some interviews...and what does he do? He refuses to answer questions and berates the interviewer! This aint the 70's anymore and he is well respected (if not feared) by the press, so why does he attack/ignore the interviewers? I think it's sad.

On Conan or Leno he is more than happy to chat it up a bit and deliver a one-liner or two, but those "interviews" don't require anything more than "yes" or "no" answers. There are a few interviews I have read that are very revealing and Lou seemed to really take to the journalist, but those are few and far between. (His interview in that Tai Chi magazine was excellent)

You can cut the pretention in the room with a dull blade it's so thick.

It's really pathetic that after all these years of making music and breaking ground he can't simply relax. I love it (hate it) when he starts talking about recording equipment and technology in an attempt to make the interviewer feel like a retarded toad. Regarding this, there is a great line in the new MOJO:

During a write up on Stephen Stills, Peter Doggett (no stranger to Lou), says, "[Stephen Stills] uses jargon about digital technology, room ambience, the comparative value of Neuman microphones - not as a debating tactic like Lou Reed, but because he's genuinely enthralled by the subject."

mg196 wrote:
Huh. Any chance of providing the text of the letter?

No, I just browsed it in a store at the time, but someone else might have it, you're not missing much though

Besides, the point is, this isn't Jagger or Bowie or Iggy or Paul Simon

This is Lou-f***-kin'-Reed!!! 8)

Hey Doc, what made you throw Paul Simon in there?!

mg196 wrote:Hey Doc, what made you throw Paul Simon in there?!

Doctor Bob wrote "Q are pathetic" and his diagnostic is correct but then Q have always been pathetic, the kind of musig mag Phil Collins fans would buy.
Back in high school I was a huge Mary Chain fan and there was that guy who kept telling me "the Reids have sold out, the Reids have sold out..." (That bastard was into The Fall and other bands who could never have sold out... they just weren't good enough)
So when the Darklands LP came out, I was delighted and all, but then it went Top 10 in Britain I understood I was open to a massive slagging from Mark E Smith's nephew. One morning, he brought to school "Q magazine" and waved it triumphantly under my nose: Q magazine loved Darklands, and they acknowledged the Jesus & Mary Chain as seriously brilliant stuff. I became all red in the face, didn't know what to do, just said "You're buying Q magazine...You should be ashamed of yourself..."
"My DAD buys it every month, you asshole" he replied.

In America, we have "SPIN" magazine, which is our best effort at a "Euro" music mag. Not much in the way of content with the word "f***" thrown in now and then to keep that "credibility" going. Rolling Stone is just top-40 shite. Be happy you guys overseas have so many options!! I have to go to bookstores to buy the import music mags like MOJO/UNCUT/etc.

To be fair, Q Magazine was the first colour monthly 'adult rock' mag and has been usurped in many ways by the superior Uncut and Mojo. You wouldn't think that the market could support all of them. By the way, no one has mentioned my own personal favourite 'Word' - the best of the bunch I think.

It does make me smile though, this obsession with lists. Top 50 this Top 20 that, what next I'm wondering? The Top 20 lists of all time?

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