PR Shoes & A Big Straw Hat
"Nothing good in the world has ever been done by well-rounded people. The good work is done by people with jagged, broken edges, because those edges cut things and leave an imprint.” Harry Crews
I had heard rumors of an exciting package being sent around to some music heads….and I had recently received an e-mail from my friend Matt from Light In The Attic asking for my home address…so I waited and hoped that said package would be coming my way. It was Sunday morning, 6:30 am, and I was returning from one of the greatest musical performances I have ever seen as John Schott and his 14-piece orchestra performed his 8-hour piece based on Monk’s ‘Round Midnight. Despite the lack of sleep and the long night of slivovitz shots and cheesecake, I managed to grab milk at the local store for the family and go by our mailbox, down the hill from the house.
And there it was: a slim, sturdy envelope that contained a banana-yellow flexidisc of an early, never before published demo of Lou Reed doing “I’m Waiting For My Man,” a song that would find it’s way onto the first Velvet Underground record. The recording was from May 11th, 1965 (my birthday, the actual day of birth of my friend Greg Dulli), with future Velvet John Cale somehow being a part of it. It had been on the shelf for 50 years, now being dusted off for a release that will include it and other VU demos.
The Lou Reed Estate is working with Light in the Attic. My friend Don Fleming, former leader of the Velvet Monkeys as well as former ED of The Association for Cultural Equity, had told me so. The reissue is titled Words and Music, 1965 and seems to be the first of many, being called part of the Lou Reed Archival Series, which sounds incredible. The flexi mailed to me is a mere promo announcement (and a damn good one at that) and it doesn’t disappoint, with a performance by a young Reed and his nascent song that is confidently solid, on the dark folk side with an assured guitar and vocal performance…already showing the grit in the vibe that he would become known for.
And for all fans, it is not the only Lou Reed event that is going down at the moment. Fleming and Lou’s widow Laurie Anderson must be working around the clock, simultaneously opening up a museum exhibit with the New York Public Library featuring items from the estate like Reed’s photography…his poetry…a suitcase filled withVU bootlegs (need), audio and video highlights of his career….it goes on (WHAT goes on!). And knowing the people involved, it will be as informative as it is exciting.
So, I am going to stop typing and. throw the flexi back on for the for the 50th time…maybe pulling out a Velvet Underground boot for a follow up…and wait for more to come as we begin to see the spoils freed from the deep files of Lou Reed.
Nobody Sings The Blues Like Blind Willie McTell
Another great, dig-deep type of article from Document Records’ website featuring his recordings, covers by others, photos and other ephemera.
Martin Scorsese on Ray Liotta in Goodfellas: ‘The new guy never missed a beat’
The great Martin Scorsese wrote such a beautiful piece about Ray Liotta in the past few days, since hi passing. Such a sweet read.
Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols Show Is All True, Except When It’s Not
A lot is being said and written about the new Sex Pistols series. I need to dig into it. Until then, this is a great article about it by my friend Alan Light….
Animal Secrets: Mark Ryden @ Perrotin, Paris
Mark Ryden was one of the second-wave low brow art movement folks who has consistently created incredible art for years. This show looks great.
How the wild jungle fowl became the chicken
“From chicken biryani to khao mun gai, chicken and rice is a winning combo worldwide. But the two are more inextricably linked than even chefs realized. A pair of new archaeological studies suggest that without rice, chickens may have never existed.”
Feature-length Detectorists special commissioned
I have come to this show late…but am loving it, working my way through season 2. A quiet, sweet show with a lot of heart and wit…The Detectorists is a needed oasis in the chaos of the intensified TV that has become the norm…. Wonderfully written and acted, I am looking forward to finishing the three seasons of its initial run and prepping for this new installment.
The Bean Eaters
By: Gwendolyn Brooks
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
Tin flatware.
Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep on putting on their clothes
And putting things away.
And remembering . . .
Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that
is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,
tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
~~~
We Real Cool
By: Gwendolyn Brooks
The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
