The Velvet Forum

Still reeling from the news. I don't remember the stages of depression but I'm definitely still in denial so maybe for me there's only one stage?

One thing I have often wondered about is Bettye Kronstadt. I have read too many books about Lou and the VU and it seems the one constant is that whenever Lou's first wife is mentioned, the spelling of her name is sometimes different and also I have never seen a picture of her. Has there ever been a picture of her published in any books maybe in the one book I never got to read? Can anyone scan a picture? Thanks.

From the Victor Bockris 'Lou Reed The Biography'

it's interesting that many of the articles and obits I have seen don't even acknowledge that she existed!

Yesterday I read an article (which I cannot find any more) which initially published her name as Kronstadt and then published a correction to Kronsdat (I think!). It also corrected some details of the story, like when she and Lou first met, her job (a student, not a cocktail waitress!) and when they separated (after, not during the recording of Berlin).

Did anyone else see that article?

MeirRachel wrote:Still reeling from the news. I don't remember the stages of depression but I'm definitely still in denial so maybe for me there's only one stage?

One thing I have often wondered about is Bettye Kronstadt. I have read too many books about Lou and the VU and it seems the one constant is that whenever Lou's first wife is mentioned, the spelling of her name is sometimes different and also I have never seen a picture of her. Has there ever been a picture of her published in any books maybe in the one book I never got to read? Can anyone scan a picture? Thanks.

lurid wrote:Yesterday I read an article (which I cannot find any more) which initially published her name as Kronstadt and then published a correction to Kronsdat (I think!). It also corrected some details of the story, like when she and Lou first met, her job (a student, not a cocktail waitress!) and when they separated (after, not during the recording of Berlin).

Did anyone else see that article?

It was in the New York Times. They published a correction on Lou's obit:

New York Times wrote:An obituary on Monday about the singer, songwriter and guitarist Lou Reed contained several errors about Mr. Reed?s first wife. She is Bettye Kronstad, not Kronstadt. She was a student when they met, not a cocktail waitress. And their relationship ended after, not during, the making of Mr. Reed?s album ?Berlin.?

Update: Anyone seen this before: Bettye Kronstad on Lou Reed's Berlin ? Hate to bring it up at this moment in time - it was published in 2007 and is critical of Lou (or who he was then).

arjan wrote:Update: Anyone seen this before: Bettye Kronstad on Lou Reed's Berlin ? Hate to bring it up at this moment in time - it was published in 2007 and is critical of Lou (or who he was then).

Wow, I had never seen that before! What a bitter old wench!! She still doesn't see - after nearly 40 years - that Lou took characters in his life and molded/altered them for his songs. A life of bitterness is not a life.

MJG196 wrote:

arjan wrote:Update: Anyone seen this before: Bettye Kronstad on Lou Reed's Berlin ? Hate to bring it up at this moment in time - it was published in 2007 and is critical of Lou (or who he was then).

Wow, I had never seen that before! What a bitter old wench!! She still doesn't see - after nearly 40 years - that Lou took characters in his life and molded/altered them for his songs. A life of bitterness is not a life.

MJG. Sorry, but I don't read a sense of great bitterness into it. Just a need to get it off her chest. Nothing new in the showbiz world. She's recounting her part of the story and simply saying that Berlin was inspired by them and their lives together. Everyone knows Lou Reed was a complex person and at times had a turbulent personal life so I'm not shocked. It's actually quite touching to hear it. But bad timing to read about it now.

iaredatsun wrote:But bad timing to read about it now.

Indeed, which is why I was hesitant to bring it up. Perhaps I should've laid it aside for a while.

Wow. Painful stuff.

Just one thing though. There's an early version of The Kids on one of those 1971 Richard Robinson tapes, which suggests he didn't write the whole thing overnight in 1973. I also assumed that song was inspired (at least in part) by Darryl, a woman who both Reed and Cale were involved with in the mid '60s - the story is in What's Welsh for Zen.

I'm glad you brought it up - I had never seen anything from Bettye before. I didn't get the sense of bitterness, but I can imagine how pissed off I would be if the world (ie all Lou Reed fans) believed that I had tried to commit suicide when I hadn't...

I'm sure I'm not alone in having always thought that much of Berlin was (at least loosely) based on aspects of Lou and Bettye's marriage.

I'd forgotten that those pics of Bettye were credited to Barbara Wilkinson (= Barbara Fulk).I'm in touch with her - I'll ask her if she has any more. I recall she once told me that she had given a bunch of pics and other stuff to Diana Clapton but never got them back.

arjan wrote:

iaredatsun wrote:But bad timing to read about it now.

Indeed, which is why I was hesitant to bring it up. Perhaps I should've laid it aside for a while.

I don't mean to defend Lou, and a lot of this article has the ring of truth, but the one easily verifiable thing reported here, that Lou wrote Berlin in one night, is just untrue. As we know here, the Velvets did earlier versions of Oh Jim, Caroline Says (II) and Sad Song. And Berlin was on Lou's first solo album. I suppose it could be the case that Lou told Bettye that he wrote Berlin in one night and she believed him.