photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Dozens of written mementos have been posted on Lou Reed's official website. Here is the one by John Cale:
mar 2nd 1942 somewhere in NY a life is born. on the other side of the world a few days later on mar 9th of the same year - another new life brought into the big wide world. who knew what lay ahead for either ?
during these past few weeks i've struggled to put this into some sort of perspective. tried to find words of comfort to share with those of us who knew him and those who wanted to know him. my heart swinging like a pendulum - sorrow, anger, frustration, disbelief, curiosity, emptiness - empty, empty, hollow. staring at walls. crying. yelling, sobbing my fool head off. wringing my hands with frustration of not being able to yell at Lou for not taking care!
We both have that same damn bad liver -- of all the things not to do - watch our liver Lou!
so much was shared with the boy i met some 48 years ago. no other person seemed to get me the same way.
we got each other. he was wordy from the start, me, with my strange foreign accent that no one could understand - lou didn't need me to slow down or re-explain my odd syntax or unrecognizable formation of words - he got me -
and i got him.
much will always be made of the band we formed together in my dingy little living room apartment - i'll leave those remarks for others - i prefer to consider how much i gained from my friendship with Lou - the part the rest of the world is not privy to. the dreams, ideas and plans we shared and to a degree, achieved. Lyrics that went straight to the unconscious and trawled the corners - the darker the better - but always to make things better - and better - and better - it was a relationship of many colors - from red hot to ice blue -- never dull and always true.
much has been made of our differences - but throughout it all - we managed to remain attached. regardless of our differences - we never really drifted too far from what initially brought us together.
I guess that's what real friendship is - and i really miss my friend.
