Appendix A
When Michael Jackson died, I found myself crying in a supermarket—and I wasn’t even a fan. Rock stars touch us on so many emotional levels. After all, rock is the most emotional music that a large global audience prays with every day. When Lou Reed died, rather than crying, I found myself exulting over the fact that he looked so richly content in the first post-death photographs we saw of Lou with Laurie Anderson.
After Lou died in October 2013, I bought everything he had produced from 1994—when this book was first published—onwards. I read in the introduction to his updated book of lyrics, Pass Thru Fire, “Love and desire for transcendence run through these songs. The characters are always moving towards something; there is conflict, and they try to deal with it. They understand the desire to hear the announcement of transcendence and freedom. And that’s what all the lyrics are about.”
Lou had always said that each of his albums was a chapter in the novel of his life. The lyrics take us through the transformations by which Lou counted out his life. As I immersed myself in reading the new albums, from Set the Twilight Reeling to Lulu, I discovered a life that Lou had recorded in intimate detail.
I also made a point of buying and reading everything Laurie Anderson had put out at the same time. It soon emerged that during his years with Laurie, Lou went through a transformation, which would be unimaginable to those who only know him up to this point. Reed and Anderson had indeed made the “Lou and Laurie music” he had predicted. Except that they didn’t record albums together—they made parallel albums over twenty years on which they conducted a series of revealing conversations.
Some key steps of Lou Reed’s last transformation can be seen in the achievements he exhibited alongside the music, such as his collaborations on three plays and his four books of photographs.
LOU REED’S INVENTORY OF WORK, 1994–2013
“In Our Sleep” (first single, Reed duets with Laurie Anderson from her Bright Red album) 1994
Peel Slowly and See (official VU box set) 1995
The Best of Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground (compilation) 1995
Set the Twilight Reeling (studio album) 1996
“Hang On to Your Emotions” (single, duet with Laurie Anderson) from Set the Twilight Reeling 1996, video format 1997
Time Rocker (songs for Robert Wilson play) 1996
Different Times (Lou Reed compilation) 1996
Live in Concert (re-release of Lou Reed’s Live in Italy record) 1996
Trainspotting (film soundtrack, includes “Perfect Day”) 1996
“Perfect Day” (celebrity charity single, including Laurie Anderson) 1997
A Retrospective (Lou Reed compilation) 1998
A Perfect Night in London (live album, including booklet by Reed) 1998
American Masters: Lou Reed: Rock & Roll Heart (TV documentary) 1998
The Definitive Collection (Lou Reed compilation) 1999
Ecstasy (studio album) 2000
The Very Best of Lou Reed (Lou Reed compilation) 2000
Best of The Velvet Underground Millennium Collection (VU compilation) 2000
Pass Thru Fire: The Collected Lyrics 2000
The Bootleg Series Volume One: The Quine Tapes: VU Live (1969) (VU live album) 2001
American Poet (Lou Reed compilation) 2001
Rock and Roll: An Introduction to The Velvet Underground (VU compilation) 2001
“Laurie Sadly Listening,” New York Times, November 11, 2001
Legendary Lou Reed (Lou Reed compilation) 2002
The Velvet Underground & Nico (Deluxe Edition) 2002
The Raven (studio album) 2003
“Call On Me” (single, duet with Laurie Anderson from The Raven) 2003
Emotions in Action (photographs) 2003
The Very Best of The Velvet Underground (VU compilation) 2003
NYC Man (Lou Reed compilation) 2004
Le Bataclan ’72 (Lou Reed, John Cale, and Nico live album, 1972) 2004
Animal Serenade (live album from The Raven tour, 2003) 2004
“Satellite of Love ’04” (single) 2004
Gold (VU compilation) 2005
Lou Reed’s New York (photographs) 2006
Hudson River Wind Meditations (studio album) 2007
Berlin: Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse (Julian Schnabel’s concert film, and live album) 2008
The Creation of the Universe (Metal Machine Trio) 2008
The Stone: Issue Three (Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, and John Zorn live album) 2008
Pass Thru Fire: The Collected Lyrics (updated edition) 2008
The Velvet Underground Playlist Plus (VU and Nico compilation)2008
Romanticism (photographs) 2009
Red Shirley (film: On the eve of her 100th birthday, Lou Reed sat down with his cousin Shirley for a tête-à-tête) 2010
Lulu (studio album) 2011
The Raven (Fantagraphics Books) 2011
White Light/White Heat (45th Anniversary box set) 2012
Rimes/Rhymes (photographs) 2012
LAURIE ANDERSON’S INVENTORY OF WORK, 1994–2013
Bright Red (studio album) 1994
Puppet Motel (CD-ROM) 1994
Stories from the Nerve Bible: A Retrospective: 1972–1992 (book) 1994
The Ugly One with the Jewels (spoken-word album) 1995
“Hang On to Your Emotions” (Lou and Laurie single and video) 1996, 1997
The Path to Tranquility by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (co-narrator) 1999
Talk Normal: The Laurie Anderson CD Anthology 2000
“Baton Rouge” (single from Ecstasy with Lou Reed) 2000
Songs and Stories for Moby Dick (multimedia presentation) 1999–2000
Supplemental article on the cultural character of New York City for the Encyclopædia Britannica 2001
The Body Artist by Don DeLillo (sole narrator) 2001
Life on a String (studio album) 2001
Life on a String (film) 2002
Live in New York (live album) 2002
The End of the Moon (NASA performance piece) 2003
“Call On Me” (as Rowena on Lou Reed’s The Raven) 2003
“Gentle Breeze” (song with Lou Reed on Mary Had a Little Amp, a preschool education benefit CD) 2004
“The Fifth Plague” (song on The Death of Livestock) 2006
Hidden Inside Mountains (film) 2006
Night Life (diary and drawings) 2007
“Big Science 2” (single) 2007
“Mambo and Bling” (single) 2008
The Stone: Issue Three (Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, and John Zorn live album) 2008
“The Electrician” (song on Music Inspired by the Film Scott Walker: 30 Century Man) 2009
Night Life (diary) 2009
Nothing in My Pockets (diary) 2009
Homeland (studio album) 2010
“Only an Expert” (single) 2010
Rio de Janeiro museum Anderson retrospective, attended by over half a million people in 2011