Quote Of The Day - Laurie Anderson

"We were at home – I'd gotten him out of the hospital a few days before – and even though he was extremely weak, he insisted on going out into the bright morning light. As meditators, we had prepared for this – how to move the energy up from the belly and into the heart and out through the head. I have never seen an expression as full of wonder as Lou's as he died. His hands were doing the water-flowing 21-form of tai chi. His eyes were wide open. I was holding in my arms the person I loved the most in the world, and talking to him as he died. His heart stopped. He wasn't afraid. I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life – so beautiful, painful and dazzling – does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love. At the moment, I have only the greatest happiness and I am so proud of the way he lived and died, of his incredible power and grace." - Laurie Anderson, writing for Rolling Stone's upcoming tribute issue to Lou Reed.

Lou Reed Dead At 71

Rolling Stone has the sad news:

Lou Reed, a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, died today. The cause of his death has not yet been released, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May. With the Velvet Underground in the late Sixties, Reed fused street-level urgency with elements of European avant-garde music, marrying beauty and noise, while bringing a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry. As a restlessly inventive solo artist, from the Seventies into the 2010s, he was chameleonic, thorny and unpredictable, challenging his fans at every turn. Glam, punk and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his revelatory example. "One chord is fine," he once said, alluding to his bare-bones guitar style. "Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."

Probably like most of you, my favorite Reed track is 1972's Walk On The Wild Side (his sole hit single) which made Billboard's pop top twenty despite its references to transsexuality, male prostitution, backrooms, and oral sex. I was 13 then and the song utterly fascinated me, leading me to furtively peruse After Dark magazine to learn more about Warhol, the Factory, and the Manhattan nightlife scene. Our condolences to Reed's wife, Laurie Anderson, who brought him out for a couple of songs during her Lincoln Center concert a few years ago. That was the one time I saw him perform.

Laurie Anderson At Lincoln Center

Last night Aaron and I attended the first night of legendary multi-media performance artist Laurie Anderson's five night stand at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater at the Time-Warner Center, where she presented a remarkably low-tech version of her latest show, Homeland. Four acoustic musicians, two backup singers, and Anderson's keyboard with its loops and beats. No video, no lasers, nothing.

And it was serene and lovely. Well, as serene as any show that touches on global warming, terrorism, consumerism, advertising, and American imperialism could be, I suppose. The transfixed house hardly breathed or moved during the entire show, only interrupting with applause twice as song flowed into spoken bit flowed into song. Just incredible. Near the end, Anderson brought out her longtime boyfriend (and recently, husband) Lou Reed for a compelling version of Lost Art Of Conversation. Price of admission, right there. Speaking of which, our seats were only $30. But even way up in the balcony, the excellent sight lines and acoustics of the beautiful Rose Theater provided no problem. Get tickets here, the run ends on Saturday.

I've adored Anderson since I first drove my college roommate to madness with her spooky 1980 hit, O Superman. "Cause when love is gone, there's always justice. And when justice is gone, there's always force. And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!" (Had that bit on my answering machine.) Anderson's 1984 classic Mister Heartbreak would probably land somewhere in my all-time Top Ten best albums ever list, with its beautifully weird single Sharkey's Day having been the regular final song at the afterhours club we were haunting that year. "Sun's coming up, like a big bald head." (I knew I would love the Farmboyz forever when shortly after we met, we discovered that we could all recite every word from Sharkey's Day.) My final day living in Fort Lauderdale, my roomate treated me to a Laurie Anderson concert, which I've always thought was a fittingly strange entree into my new life in San Francisco.

Lincoln Center Setlist: The Lark, Bad, Transitory Life, Only An Expert, Mambo and Bling, Maybe If I Fall, Short Fall, Underwear Gods, Out Of The Heart, Callin' Em Up, Strange Perfumes, Pictures and Things, Bodies In Motion, Sky Flying Birds, Lost Art Of Conversation, No Man's Land.

Video: A highlight of last night was Only An Expert, recorded here during the 2007 European tour of Homeland, where video projections were used. The current stand at Lincoln Center is performed on a bare stage strewn with candles.