At Neil Young’s Bridge School benefit concert this past Sunday night (October 27, 2013) there was an all-star performance of Lou Reed’s “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’.”
Jim James of My Morning Jacket led a group of musicians that included Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis and others.
This fan video shows a beautiful and moving tribute to Lou Reed.
Writer Neil Gaiman published an essay today in The Guardian about Lou Reed, and Reed’s influence on Gaiman.
Gaiman writes:
‘There are certain kinds of songs you write that are just fun songs – the lyric really can’t survive without the music. But for most of what I do, the idea behind it was to try and bring a novelist’s eye to it, and, within the framework of rock’n’roll, to try to have that lyric there so somebody who enjoys being engaged on that level could have that and have the rock’n’roll too.” That was what Lou Reed told me in 1991.
I’m a writer. I write fiction, mostly. People ask me about my influences, and they expect me to talk about other writers of fiction, so I do. And sometimes, when I can, I put Reed on the list, and nobody ever asks what he’s doing there, which is good because I don’t know how to explain why a songwriter is responsible for so much of the way I view the world.
For the rest head to The Guardian.
Lou Reed was, of course, a big influence on Lou Reed.
Here are three videos in which Patti covers Lou.
“We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together”
“Perfect Day”
“perfect Day” (studio version)
Blind Willie Johnson had a voice that could burn the skin off your back. When he sang he might as well been gargling with rocks. He made Howlin’ Wolf sound like Frank Sinatra. His gospel recordings are legendary. Most famous, perhaps, is “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” or maybe “John The Revelator.”
“Johnson’s music was charred with purgatorial fire — more than sixty years later, you can still smell the smoke on it,” wrote Francis Davis in his book, “The History of the Blues.”
Now a tribute album is in the works. Tom Waits is contributing covers of two songs: “Soul of a Man” and the amazing “John The Revelator.” Lucinda Williams checks in with “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” the Cowboy Junkies recorded “Jesus Coming Soon,” and there are contributions from the Blind Boys of Alabama, Luther Dickinson, Rickie Lee Jones, Sinead O’Connor and more.
To fund the project, producer Jeffrey Gaskill is using Kickstarter. For more of the story, or if you’re interested in checking out what you get for what you give, head to this Kickstarter page.
Listen to “John The Revelator”:
And “Dark Was The Night, Cold Was the Ground.”