2015 Rock Hall Inductees: Joan Jett, Green Day, Lou Reed, Ringo Starr

The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame has unveiled its list of inductees for the 2015 class. Via Rolling Stone:

Lou Reed, Green Day, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Bill Withers and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band will all join the class of 2015. Ringo Starr will be given the Award For Musical Excellence and 1950s R&B group the "5" Royales will receive the Early Influence Award. Artists are eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single. Green Day, whose debut EP, 1,000 Hours, came out in 1989, are entering the institution in their first year of eligibility. Starr was inducted as part of The Beatles in 1988, though his three other bandmates have since entered the Hall of Fame as solo artists.

And once again Chic, who have been nominated NINE times since becoming eligible in 2002, are shut out.

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 Posthumously Forgives Mother For His "Ex-Gay" Electroshock Torture

In an interview published in the 1996 book Please Kill Me: An Oral History Of Punk, the late Lou Reed described the electro-convulsive therapy his parents ordered because they wanted to cure him of his bisexuality. 

"They put the thing down your throat so you don't swallow your tongue, and they put electrodes on your head. That's what was recommended in Rockland State Hospital to discourage homosexual feelings. The effect is that you lose your memory and become a vegetable. You can't read a book because you get to page 17 and have to go right back to page one again."

Reed famously railed against the abuses of his parents in his 1974 song, Kill Your Sons.

Reed's will was filed in a Manhattan court on Monday. While he left 75% of his fortune to his wife Laurie Anderson in a bequest that includes homes, boats, and publishing royalties, Reed also left a quarter of his estate to his sister in the hopes that she'll care for their 93 year-old mother.  From the will: "It is my hope and desire, without imposing any legal obligation, that my said sister will use a portion of this cash bequest to help care for our mother, Toby Reed, for the balance of her life."

But It Would Have Been Fabulous

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.