Saturday, June 21, 2008

Berlin walls

At the FT, the outrageously named Ludovic Hunter-Tilney interviews Lou Reed about the subsequent fortunes of his 1973 concept album Berlin.
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2 comments:

  1. Phil Dyess-Nugent6/23/2008 8:12 AM

    That's a great interview, and I'm glad that they were able to arrive at some kind of understanding. I think it's funny, though, that Hunter-Tilney thinks that he got a load of anything like "the full force of Lou Reed’s contempt." Back in the early 1980s, I saw Reed being interviewed by sweet little Martha Quinn--God knows what he was doing there; I like to imagine that his agent blackmailed him by threatening to release to the press photos showing Reed dispensing alms to the poor and helping little old ladies across the street--and all I can say is, the fact that Quinn is still walking around somewhere is definitive proof that it's impossible to will somebody to death with the sheer force of your loathing.

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  2. Helen DeWitt6/25/2008 12:48 PM

    Yes, I liked that interview. I loved the bit where Lou Reed finally saw where he'd gone wrong after all these years: You know, Ludovic, I think you're onto something. What was I thinking? When you think of great feel-good songs like 'Little Surfer Girl' and 'California Girls' you realise life is just too short for miserable songs about drug addicts. Thank you for helping me get things into perspective, Ludovic, thank you thank you thank you. (OK, I know Hunter-Tilney didn't actually print that bit, but I think we can read between the lines.)

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