Lou Reed: Dead

[Shaun A]

That's a weird mixture of people! Isreali scientists name new spider after Lou Reed - from a Zambian newspaper...
http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2012/05/25/scientists-name-new-israeli-spider-after-rocker-lou-reed

[Whet Bull]

Why is Byron Coley's eulogy
broken up into these, like,
unpunctuated lines of irregular length? 

And YOU.  Oh, brother.  Eulogies are narcissistic, so your vulgarity passes.

The thing about Lou is, I really liked the guy.  He was a little bigger than most of us.  The city is emptier without him; it hurts. 

[Whet Bull]

The Ecstatic Peace Poetry Manifesto:

Write some shit that
Comes to mind
when yr stoned

Omit punctuation
Break it up into
Lines at random

So it looks
Less like          prose

Never edit yrself

Never read any actual
poetry

Bukowski Richard
Hell and BOC
"R" good enough

Trust that yr readership
Will not notice

B/c to paraphrase

Record
Collectors
Are the secret arbiters
Of the universe

[Whet Bull]

Byron's eulogy is vulgar and stupid beyond belief.  Even now BC thinks he knows something others don't, and it gives him permission to call the man a cocksucker -- in his eulogy.  Yes, I know, the famous line.  And the electroshock therapy.  And all the other bits and pieces that writers borrow for their own ends. 

I'm interested to read Christgau's; thx for the link.

[Scrod Prickknee]

I've scanned a bunch of eulogies, and they all suck. Byron's was one of the least sucky.

Sorry
I mean that
The sep'ration and colloquial
isms add "wait"
To our shrinkwrapped chestshitter
And hero

End Punctuation

[DaveK]

Eulogies are narcissistic.

The city is emptier without him.

These two
sentences sum
up my
impression
of
The Situation

[smallguy]

VELVET UNDERGROUND & NEGRO

...this would have been a great halloween coverband

[cenotaph]

All the Ecstatic Peace poetry people have pretty terrible taste in poetry.

[I Am Not Marty Feldman]

Coley's eulogy is very clearly rushed, slapdash -- shitty. 

Legs McNeil trots out the same three Lou mem'ries he's traded on for the past several decades, and they're even dimmer now than they were the first dozen times 'round. 

Christgau can, at the very least, write.  Coley has flashes of illumination, but every time I read him (and, for that matter, pretty much any grad of Forced Exposure U), I sense insecure posturing and hollow nihilistic affectations (a la Meltzer, who could also write).  See: Albini. 

I'm not all that affected by Lou's passing, but I did give the third LP a spin at work the other day 'cuz it was the only VU I'd handy.  The solo on "What Goes On" sounded particularly great.  But then I remembered Loaded, and the subsequent horrible (and never-ending!) solo career, and the putrid bobbleheaded cult o' personality -- hey, at least David Crosby cut one really good solo LP -- and after threading through a litany of dime/duz Facebook eulogies and etc., I felt every bit the hollow husk of a whogivesafuck this side of the morning's unmade bed.  I stepped out to grab a cup of coffee while the rec continued to play, and some tourist bought it when I returned.

Hey: Lou was tin-pan alley with a pulse.  He wasn't an artist.  Which is fine -- he didn't have to be.  (Cale did.)  But he definitely thought of himself that way, and the recs he made under those pretenses aren't fit to line a birdcage.  And now the pulse is gone, and I've still never read any grand stories about a rock journo decking the guy in his face.  What Christgau wouldn't say is that Lou, of all the world's bitchiest rockers, would've deserved it. 

RIP, Lou.

[androo]

Coley's eulogy is very clearly rushed, slapdash -- shitty.

I've scanned a bunch of eulogies, and they all suck. Byron's was one of the least sucky.

i agree with both these

Byron's eulogy is vulgar and stupid beyond belief.  Even now BC thinks he knows something others don't, and it gives him permission to call the man a cocksucker -- in his eulogy.  Yes, I know, the famous line.  And the electroshock therapy.  And all the other bits and pieces that writers borrow for their own ends. 

I'm interested to read Christgau's; thx for the link.

but this...i mean, really?

[meshkalina]

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/29/i_loved_lou_reed_more_than_you/

[Dick]

its weird - about a month ago, I had a dream that Lou Reed tried to beat me up for making fun of his music

[Whet Bull]

Coley's eulogy is very clearly rushed, slapdash -- shitty.

I've scanned a bunch of eulogies, and they all suck. Byron's was one of the least sucky.

i agree with both these

Byron's eulogy is vulgar and stupid beyond belief.  Even now BC thinks he knows something others don't, and it gives him permission to call the man a cocksucker -- in his eulogy.  Yes, I know, the famous line.  And the electroshock therapy.  And all the other bits and pieces that writers borrow for their own ends. 

I'm interested to read Christgau's; thx for the link.

but this...i mean, really?

Yeah. 

Byron's a minor public figure, which is why he wrote an obit in the first place.  Writing an obit or a eulogy implies that the author has some kind of relationship with the deceased, and that people want to know how the writer feels about him.  Nobody said Byron had to write an obit.  He volunteered it.  And it's shitty, and it's not a poem, and it trades in these stock tales and cliches about Lou that say very little about who he was.  A cocksucker?  You mean a guy who has sex with men, or a son of a bitch?  Both?  Well, what's that got to do with you, Byron?  Or with any of us?  It's a way of claiming power over him, and it's vulgar and stupid and shameful 'cos Byron can't even string together a convincing 100-word "poem" to save his life, and he's calling this guy, the bisexual man who wrote "White Light/White Heat" and "I'll Be Your Mirror" and "What Goes On," a cocksucker.  Because Lou at some point called himself a cocksucker, out of pride or just to fuck with people, who knows.  It reminds me of Thurston in "1991: The Year Punk Broke," making "here, doggie," noises at Iggy Pop.  As if.  That sentiment shows him to be a small minded person with no imagination, whose only conception of Lou is as this transgressive asshole who, more or less (and unwittingly) gave birth to the assholic culture of "cool" that Byron calls home, where Byron has currency.  I mean, the least you can do when a person dies is acknowledge their humanity, right?.  No: the least you can do is shut the fuck up and not make it about you. 

This isn't about sacred cows, etc.; it's about basic human principles, and measure.

Sorry, friend: it just pisses me off, and I thought I was clear enough in the first place.

[androo]

Coley's eulogy is very clearly rushed, slapdash -- shitty.

I've scanned a bunch of eulogies, and they all suck. Byron's was one of the least sucky.

i agree with both these

Byron's eulogy is vulgar and stupid beyond belief.  Even now BC thinks he knows something others don't, and it gives him permission to call the man a cocksucker -- in his eulogy.  Yes, I know, the famous line.  And the electroshock therapy.  And all the other bits and pieces that writers borrow for their own ends. 

I'm interested to read Christgau's; thx for the link.

but this...i mean, really?

Yeah. 

Byron's a minor public figure, which is why he wrote an obit in the first place.  Writing an obit or a eulogy implies that the author has some kind of relationship with the deceased, and that people want to know how the writer feels about him.  Nobody said Byron had to write an obit.  He volunteered it.  And it's shitty, and it's not a poem, and it trades in these stock tales and cliches about Lou that say very little about who he was.  A cocksucker?  You mean a guy who has sex with men, or a son of a bitch?  Both?  Well, what's that got to do with you, Byron?  Or with any of us?  It's a way of claiming power over him, and it's vulgar and stupid and shameful 'cos Byron can't even string together a convincing 100-word "poem" to save his life, and he's calling this guy, the bisexual man who wrote "White Light/White Heat" and "I'll Be Your Mirror" and "What Goes On," a cocksucker.  Because Lou at some point called himself a cocksucker, out of pride or just to fuck with people, who knows.  It reminds me of Thurston in "1991: The Year Punk Broke," making "here, doggie," noises at Iggy Pop.  As if.  That sentiment shows him to be a small minded person with no imagination, whose only conception of Lou is as this transgressive asshole who, more or less (and unwittingly) gave birth to the assholic culture of "cool" that Byron calls home, where Byron has currency.  I mean, the least you can do when a person dies is acknowledge their humanity, right?.  No: the least you can do is shut the fuck up and not make it about you. 

This isn't about sacred cows, etc.; it's about basic human principles, and measure.

Sorry, friend: it just pisses me off, and I thought I was clear enough in the first place.

yeah look, no probs. it just seemed a touch harsh, but thanks for taking the time to clarify your objection. appreciated.

[Swampy]

Did Byron Coley give one of your records a bad review or something?

Dude....

Coley turned me on to some cool shit when I was a hick in the sticks back in the day... He gets a LIFETIME PASS from me, eggheaded poetry/eulogy ain't gonna change that...