The Art of the Straight Line by Lou Reed

Author:Lou Reed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

LAURIE: Something like that happened to Lou when he died. When he couldn’t see anymore, he said, “I need light!” Because it was dark. “Light” was his last word. So we took him to the porch where there was light, but he couldn’t see anymore. He was still doing Tai Chi Cloud Hands.

Do you recall the portrait that you made of Lou? We used this image for the cover of the program and the memorial that we made for Lou at the Apollo Theater in New York. Can you describe the meaning of this work as a portrait and why you chose it for Lou?

YONGEY: Yeah. So what Lou told me about Tai Chi is presence and power. I think maybe he’s thinking of the Middle Way. It’s the balancing. He said that the chi is like yin and yang. And there’s power, there are chakras, energy points, in your body. There’s what we call clarity and energy. So the moment these two join together and become one, that’s the Middle Way. And that produces the flood of energy. So that’s what we call the Middle Way. Yin-yang. Yeah.

LAURIE: The last song that Lou wrote was called “The Power of the Heart.” My understanding of the portrait that you made of him was that it represents understanding that comes through the head and explodes through the heart.

YONGEY: Om, Ah, Hum—body, speech, and mind. “Ah” is like openness. “Om” is like compassion, possibility. “Hum” . . . there’s a lot of things there. We have the sound meditation, which is listening to sound and music and how it connects with you. An easy one. And then there is sound that is calm, without words. Then stronger sounds, with words. And there are all sorts of sounds—traffic, construction. I think most people connect sound to meditation. Sound meditation. It’s the easiest of all the meditations.

Lou and Laurie performing at Mind Meets Music, a benefit concert for YPPC, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009

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