| 29th November 2006 10:42 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Reed gives up singing for tai chi
By Indo Asian News Service
New York, Nov 29 (IANS) Legendary rock star Lou Reed of Velvet Underground is abandoning his music career to teach his fans martial arts.
Reed has teamed up with famous martial arts instructor Master Ren Guang Yi and has produced a tai chi DVD, reported contactmusic.com.
Reed in the DVD teaches the relaxation and self-defence techniques while one of his songs plays in the background.
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Pioneering Lou Reed still a major influence on rock
By Shay Quillen
McClatchy/Tribune newspapers
Lou Reed isn't one to focus on the past.
The music he created in the 1960s and '70s remains a touchstone for the hippest rock bands. But Reed would rather talk about his new Moog Voyager synthesizer -- "the Stradivarius of electronics," he calls it -- and the possibilities of today.
"There couldn't be a better time to be a musician than right now with all these astonishing instruments available," says Reed, 64. "I mean, someone's going to put this stuff together in a different way, somebody really smart, and just bust it open."
That's exactly what Reed and his bandmates did with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s, bringing pop art, hard-boiled literature and avant-garde musical techniques into rock 'n' roll to create something that flopped commercially at the time but still is reverberating 40 years later.
After leaving the band in 1970, Reed received as much attention throughout the '70s for his provocative public image as for his wildly inconsistent recorded output, which included his only hit single, "Walk on the Wild Side."
Getting serious
At the end of the decade he got married and sobered up, and for the past 25 years, he more or less has settled into his status as a serious writer and musician and respected elder statesman of rock. For the past decade he has shared a home in New York City with his partner, performance artist Laurie Anderson.
Although Reed's commercial impact has been moderate, his influence -- particularly from the work with the VU -- has shown no signs of going away.
In the '70s, Reed's androgynous image and aggressive attitude inspired glam and punk rockers. In the '80s, such college-rock bands as R.E.M. responded to Reed's melodic pop songs and tender ballads. In the '90s, it was the British "shoegazer" movement, with feedback-drenched music from such bands as My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain.
Reed's influence popped up again in the new millennium with the emergence of the New York garage rock scene: the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol, as well as like-minded bands from other regions, including Detroit's White Stripes.
Reed has made a couple of high-profile appearances this year with his younger admirers, playing with the Strokes at the Rolling Stones' 1,000th-issue party in May, then fronting the Raconteurs for a thrilling version of the VU's "White Light/White Heat" at the MTV Video Music Awards show in August.
"Oh, they were awesome," Reed says of the Raconteurs, a side project for White Stripes frontman Jack White. "I wish they would back me for the next year, but everybody would just stare at Jack."
`It's the writer'
Reed says he is impressed by the musical talent of the younger generation but emphasizes that "in the end, it's the writer."
"There's always going to be great singers, great players, but they have to play something," he says. "If you don't have a Tennessee Williams, you don't have `A Streetcar Named Desire,' even though you've got Marlon Brando. What's he going to do, sit and read the Yellow Pages?"
Reed claims not to be "conversant" enough to identify the great lyric writers of today, but then he mentions a few names: Bright Eyes, Beck, Radiohead.
"Which one of them is the Tennessee Williams? I'm not a critic," he says. "But those are people where you can listen to it and not be offended, you know what I mean? They're trying to go a little deeper."
Reed hasn't released a new album since 2003's "The Raven," a sprawling two-CD work inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, but he has been keeping busy. Earlier this year, he released his second book of photography, "Lou Reed's New York," and he recently created a soundtrack of electronic music for an instructional DVD by his tai chi teacher, Master Ren Guangyi. He also served as its narrator.
On the stage
His latest project is a stage version of his concept album "Berlin" from 1973, to be performed in upcoming months in New York and Australia. A profoundly dark song cycle, lavishly produced by Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd's "The Wall"), the album was savaged by many critics upon its release. Now notables such as Ezrin, producer Hal Willner, visual artist Julian Schnabel and singer Antony are lending their talents to bring it to the stage for the first time.
"I wasn't delighted that it was called the worst record ever recorded," Reed says. "On the other hand, as my friend [songwriter] Doc Pomus used to say, `Lou, look at the source.' I know me and Ezrin aren't stupid. We loved that. We put every last drop of blood in that thing. ... I never and Bobby never doubted that we had done something incredibly wonderful."
His fans will be happy to know that he has returned to songwriting after putting it on the back burner in recent years.
"I just wrote two songs for an HBO thing called `The Good Man of Nanking,' about the invasion of Nanking by the Japanese," Reed says, "and these two songs are amazing, if I do say so myself."
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| 29th November 2006 11:44 AM |
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| Gazza |
+++ BLANK FRIGGIN' STARE ++++
[Edited by Gazza] |
| 29th November 2006 01:07 PM |
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| Saint Sway |
quote:
Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
Reed gives up singing for tai chi
By Indo Asian News Service
New York, Nov 29 (IANS) Legendary rock star Lou Reed of Velvet Underground is abandoning his music career to teach his fans martial arts.
Reed has teamed up with famous martial arts instructor Master Ren Guang Yi and has produced a tai chi DVD, reported contactmusic.com.
Reed in the DVD teaches the relaxation and self-defence techniques while one of his songs plays in the background.
Odd, yes. But this doesnt stand a chance at rivalling David Lee Roth's bizzarro karate scenes in his "No Holds BarBQ" DVD
Not only does Diamond Dave's video match Reeds dvd pound-for-pound with martial arts content but it ALSO has sketch comedy, strippers, midgets, barbecue tips... |
| 29th November 2006 07:08 PM |
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| lotsajizz |
didn't Elvis have a karate period too?
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| 29th November 2006 07:13 PM |
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| Gazza |
yeah..he was an 8th dan black belt actually. First took it up in the army |
| 29th November 2006 07:17 PM |
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| lotsajizz |
and Priscilla ran off with the karate instructor
(well, after Elvis refused to touch her for the last two years of their relationship while bangin' every groupie he could on the road!) |
| 29th November 2006 07:25 PM |
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| Gazza |
quote:
lotsajizz wrote:
and Priscilla ran off with the karate instructor
(well, after Elvis refused to touch her for the last two years of their relationship while bangin' every groupie he could on the road!)
yep. Mike Stone. Elvis had a phobia about having sex with any women who had had a child.
Thought it was funny in the "Elvis What Happened" book that the Memphis Mafia used to try and make sure he'd never be near a TV when "The Streets of San Francisco" came on, because Mike Stone was the name of Karl Malden's character and because everyone knows what Elvis used to do if he was loaded and there was something on the TV he didnt like....
[Edited by Gazza] |
| 29th November 2006 08:35 PM |
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| sweetcharmedlife |
Yeah that is a bit odd. I saw an ad for lou playing some tiny theatre in the SF bay area just a couple weeks ago. I would have went to see him except I was on my way to Phoenix to see the Stones. He always has been an odd sort anyway. |
| 29th November 2006 09:29 PM |
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| M.O.W.A.T. |
[Edited by M.O.W.A.T.] |
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