Lou Reed: Lulu Is For The Literate
The Velvet Underground man sticks up for his collaboration with Metallica
In a recent interview with The Telegraph (via Blabbermouth) Reed responded to the critical bashing that the album has taken.
"Who cares? I never wrote for them then, I don't write for them now," he said "I have no interest in what they have to say about anything. I'm interested in whether I like it. I write for me."
"I think this thing needs a champion. This is for people who are literate. This isn't 'I cry in my beer 'cause you fucked him and ran your truck through my bar.' You can write 30 of those and move to Nashville. These words — every time I see them I get thrilled because it does it to me. It may do it to no one else, I don't care. I can't try any harder. I can't do any better. And my heart was pure and my soul was pure, too. I went in there to make music with the best guys I could find. And we did."
He also went on to try to describe what the album actually is: "I don't like the word rock opera, but I'm trying to write on that level that's reserved for plays still, or novels. I was trying to escape the simplistic form, and find a different kind of melodic form, but still rock. I didn't want to traipse off into the land of jazz. All this stuff is about emotion, I mean, why else do it? quoting Shakespeare 'Out, out, brief candle.' Hey, if I could get there, climb that particular ladder. You have to pass through blood to get there, wherever it is."
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