Nico: The End by James Young

Author:James Young
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs, Arts & Literature, Romantic Erotica, BIO013000, Contemporary, Bisac Code 1: BIO000000, Romance, Rock, Erotica, BIO004000, Composers & Musicians, Literature & Fiction
ISBN: 9781468309843
Publisher: Overlook Books
Published: 1994-05-01T12:00:00+00:00

September ’84:

THE SMILE OF A MEDIEVALIST

Suddenly Dr Demetrius began to devote his powers of persuasion to something other than tourism. His ultimate goal was, of course, to secure more tours, but it had become obvious even to the most dedicated holidaymaker that no one would be going anywhere until Nico became a going concern.

Nico had tried to run away a number of times after the Italian disco tour, but no one else really wanted to look after her. She’d camp out on sofas, stretching her hosts’ generosity to the limits, until they’d have to say or do something hostile. I’d heard that at the height of Sergeant Pepper mania Paul McCartney’s chief concern was in getting Nico out of his living-room.

She tried it on everywhere, even my girlfriend’s. They got on like two cats in a sack. At first she’d be charming and sweet and talking about recipes, and then things would start to turn a mite strange. For instance, you’d find suggestions and alterations being made to your TV schedule. Comedy programmes were bypassed for anything even remotely connected with Death. She moved on to a friend’s place. But when he found all his spoons had become mysteriously bent and burnt, and his pretty young wife expressing fascination with Nico’s little pochette of pinkish brown powder, he put her on the first available flight to New York – where she bugged my brother for floor space.

It wasn’t that nobody liked Nico. In fact they were, mostly, very fond of her. But she was a junkie. Junkies, any kind, are invalids with criminal tendencies. They can’t be trusted. It’s not their fault. Their need is greater than they are.

You witness their vulnerability and you want to help because they’re your friends or colleagues. But you know they’re going to let you down. I’d implored Echo to come and stay with me and sweat it out; wisely he’d turned down the offer. His voice was fainter than ever on the phone:

‘Thanks, Jim … But what I really need … is the stuff.’

He was being honest. Moreover, he knew if he accepted my offer he’d be forced into dishonest behaviour. I think that’s why we’d fallen out. I just wasn’t prepared to walk the same Via Dolorosa.

But, in order not to succumb, you’re forced, as a witness, to harden your will in a manner ultimately injurious to the spirit. I think we all loved Nico. But those of us especially who weren’t prepared to sacrifice themselves to smack found it necessary to fix a limit to that affection. And that’s unnatural. The way we did it, mostly, was through humour. It wasn’t meant to hurt her, more to protect ourselves from her predatory influence.

It reached an insane level, though, when Demetrius conducted an interview on the phone to a music magazine, impersonating Nico. As the journalist got suckered in deeper, Demetrius/Nico got wilder and more fantastic in his claims. The interview closed on a major scoop/revelation, that Andy ‘isn’t really, well, you

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