I watched a movie recently, the well-crafted drama Things I Lost in the Fire, with Benicio del Toro and Halle Berry, and there were two scenes where the background music featured Lou Reed singing "Sweet Jane."
That song triggered memories of my college days, sitting on the bed in a blacklighted dorm room with a bunch of other immature Dukies, cranking up the Pioneer tube amp and Marantz speakers and blasting Reed's "Rock and Roll Animal" until we could hear the neighbors pounding on the wall.
That album is one of the greatest live rock albums ever recorded, and that is no overstatement.
I learned something important from that album: that the mood and the attitude of the artists are just as important, actually more important, than their technical prowess on their instruments.
Up until that time, I was really into Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Doors, Led Zeppelin, the Stones and Beatles of course, Yes, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Johnny Winter, Allman Brothers -- remember, we're going waaaay back here.
Then I was introduced to Lou Reed by some New York intellectual punkers who seemed angry at being stuck at Duke instead of NYU, and we listened to this weird looking dude with the pasty face and short black hair and lipstick and eyeshadow, and the music and the lyrics just rocked my little closed-up sophomore mind.
Lou Reed took me on a trip I wasn't expecting. The music has such energy and emotion it sweeps you away. And Reed's band was right on cue and the attitude was perfect for the era, a pioneering punk rock band that shook its fist at the establishment.
After that, I got into Patti Smith and Television and a few other NY punk rock pioneers (not the NY Dolls or Twisted Sister, mind you -- you have to draw the line somewhere) as well as the inimitable David Bowie.
One Thanksgiving break we went to New York and saw Television at CBGB's, and I remember asking the girl checking ID's at the door if Lou Reed was there tonight. She looked at me, checking me out, and said, "We would never let that little faggot in here."
After watching the movie and hearing Lou sing, I dusted off my CD of "Rock and Roll Animal," which had been sitting on a shelf for years. I hadn't even removed the shrink wrap!
I put that little disc into the player and turned up the volume and found myself being taken down that rock and roll road once again.
The music is just as vibrant and relevant today as it did when it was recorded live at the Academy of Music in New York on Dec. 21, 1973.
You can't say that about too many '70s bands.
My values and my life have changed drastically since then but the music remains the same -- to quote Zep. It was a nice trip down memory lane.
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Sylvania, Ohio
Sept. 14, 2008