Notes from the Velvet Underground by Howard Sounes

Author:Howard Sounes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473508958
Publisher: Transworld

By the summer of 1976 a new generation of artists was emerging on the New York club scene who looked up to Lou because of what he had achieved in the Velvet Underground, artists such as Talking Heads and Patti Smith, whom Lou was delighted to see performing his old VU song ‘We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together’ at CBGB. A further connection was formed when John Cale produced Smith’s album, Horses, and Lou appeared on stage with Cale, Smith and David Byrne at the Ocean Club. Lou was so enthused about Byrne’s song ‘Psycho Killer’, a song of alienation with a Reedian attitude, that he took a demo into RCA, offering to produce his band. RCA passed, and Talking Heads thought better of accepting Lou’s patronage. ‘David Byrne calls me later,’ says Jonny Podell, who became Lou’s new manager that year. ‘He says, “Listen, this is awkward. It’s great to meet you [and Lou, but] we don’t want Lou to produce us. We don’t know how to tell him.”’

Addicted to drugs, Lou had become a self-destructive artist who alienated friends and colleagues, including executives at RCA, where his contract was due to expire in 1976. Metal Machine Music had put a strain on the relationship between artist and label, while Lou was never the easiest person to work with. His record sales were in decline and he had little rapport with management. ‘I might have been the most highly ranked individual Lou would talk to at the label, and I wasn’t very high up on the food chain,’ says Bruce Somerfield. ‘After Dennis left, the kind of people they brought in were not people that [understood Lou].’ His erratic behaviour didn’t help him win new friends at the office. ‘When he was on his game, he had a good sense of humour. At other times, he was very bitter and difficult to get along with.’ The drugs had also taken a toll. Lou didn’t look well. ‘If I would have picked up a newspaper at any point during the time I knew him and read that Lou Reed was found dead somewhere it wouldn’t have been a surprise.’

Luckily, another record company wanted him. Clive Davis was ten years older than Lou, a lawyer by background.He had a similar biography in other respects, being a fellow Jew from Brooklyn, and bisexual, though he didn’t come to this realization about himself until late in life. He was also one of the biggest names in the American record business. By the mid-1960s, Clive was head of Columbia Records, where he gained a reputation for having ‘golden ears’ – which is to say that he knew a hit when he heard it. A successful career was derailed in 1973 when he was fired by CBS for allegedly fiddling his expenses, the details of which he disputed, though he was found guilty on a related tax charge and had his licence to practise law suspended. The scandal didn’t finish him, however. He

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