I first saw Lou Reed perform in 1977, first covered his songs in 1980, and first recorded and released his songs in 1983. By the time we met in 1985, he had already helped define the trajectory of my life. Musically, Lou Reed was profoundly important, but there was another component to his public persona that cannot be overlooked; Lou was the first queer icon of the 21st Century…30 years before it even began.
As early as the late 1960’s, Lou proclaimed with beautifully confusing candidness a much more 21st century understanding of a fluid, moving sexuality. He saw beyond—and lived outside—a society locked into a simplistic straight/gay binary division. Through his public persona, his art and music, he boldly refused labels, very publicly mixing things up and providing a “Whoa, that’s possible?!?” avenue of sexual exploration and identity examination, all with whip-smart nonchalance. He was indefinable, he was other, he was outside of society. He spearheaded a new cool, and he did not care if you ‘got it’ or not. Lots of people did get it; Bowie, Iggy, the New York Dolls, Freddy Mercury and Queen, Elton John, Marc Bolan, Brian Eno and Roxy Music; and then punk rock, with Patti Smith, Television, Ultravox, the Damned, Japan, the Stranglers, the Sex Pistols; at the same time the Bee Gees, Village People, Grace Jones; and through to Joy Division, Genesis P-Orridge, the B-52s, Sonic Youth, Madonna, Prince, Culture Club, Depeche Mode, the Beastie Boys, the Smiths, R.E.M., the Replacements, Jane’s Addiction, The Pixies, Nirvana, Hole, Bjork, Antony and the Johnsons, Peaches, the Scissor Sisters, Lady Gaga, Ssion, Beth Ditto…every second the list grows exponentially. Lou Reed was massively important to the outcasts and “Island of Misfit Toys” kids. Every single child of the 21st Century who is not square owes him a moment of reflection and thanks.
-Michael Stipe
this is the unedited piece I wrote about Lou Reed for R.Stone. please reblog, link and copy, and send it out as far as possible
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LOU REED BY MICHAEL STIPE, unedited
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