One more perfect day

There’s been a whole lot of verbiage swirling around the Internet about Lou Reed since he died Sunday at age 71. I really only knew him from his Velvet Underground days—which had to have been named after his voice.

But it turns out that Reed was an exceptionally thoughtful, intelligent and aware human, as well as a solid songwriter and performer. He performed at benefit concerts for Tibetan causes, for Amnesty International and the ACLU. Two years ago he joined protestors at Occupy Wall Street.

You get a strong feel for his brain and his heart in this review he wrote of Kanye West’s Yeezus.

I’m sharing two videos with you. The first is a montage that distills Reed’s creative process and shows his adeptness at dealing with interviewers. He pretty well obliterates the one with his monosyllabic responses from behind those shades. But when he talks with Rose about his purpose in writing, and how he thinks of his music as being one-on-one—damn.

I think Reed would have despised the unavoidable 30-second advertisement attached to it.

And here’s his “Perfect Day”.