my needle drops and Joel how're you
doing haven't really talked to you in a
while haven't responded to you in a
while and I figure recent events make it
sort of necessary to make video say
something about what's just happened
this past weekend but first I wanted to
address a few things in the video that
you previously made in response to my
church's video talking about some of
these sexually explicit messages some of
the harassment that sort of been thrown
the band's way via social media by fans
there is still a double standard right
now in terms of how male fans can
interact with female musicians and it
sort of seems like everybody shrug their
shoulders and thinks that well that's
just the way things are that's just how
men are people who are famous are
supposed to sort of accept people
crapping on them in the public eye over
social media because people who are
famous have been harassed for decades
upon decades upon decades and to
directly answer your question about why
I think some stories like this aren't
really widespread in the press it's it's
just because those standards are there
and because people aren't getting
offended by this suffer they don't
really perceive it to be entirely wrong
or they think that it's something that
in time isn't really going to resolve
itself and you know that may be the case
for right now but into the future I hope
that us discussing issues like this
makes people think twice about I don't
know sending somebody who is in the
public eye oh really stupid heartless
message for no other reason than to get
a quick misogynistic thrill moving on to
something that needs to be discussed of
the passing of rock legend Lou Reed a
lot of people have been sending me
tweets messages emails asking me if I'm
going to talk about this sort of telling
me their perception of the whole thing
how upset a lot of people are and
personally I'm not really the type of
person who gets worked up over the
passing of someone who I didn't know
personally obviously sympathy is there
but in a way Lou Reed will always be
alive to me to some extent because I
love the guy's music I love a lot of the
guys records and I'll always have that
to listen to and the
pack that that music is had in my life
is always going to be there that's never
going to change the fact that he is now
gone
that's not erased and all I can really
say about Lou and his legacy and his
discography is just how it's all
impacted me personally some people you
know that they get their minds blown
when they figure out that they like
hip-hop or they like punk are they like
jazz or like classical or they're like
whatever genre and it seems like there's
this whole new world open for them
that's what getting into the first four
studio albums from The Velvet
Underground was like for me to me the
Velvet Underground represented this new
league of edginess in rock and roll even
though during their time they weren't
quite as appreciated as they were later
in retrospect because not only are there
really strong elements of well-written
and catchy and fun rock and roll on
these records but there are some really
beautiful love songs on there ballads
drones experimental spots just
straight-up noise rock really
interesting moments of spoken word and
some really great stories in a lot of
the lyrics here because of Lou Reed will
be remembered for anything into the
future it's a lot of the tales and a lot
of the very grim images that came up in
his lyrics as well and of course you
know we have to attribute a lot of the
experimentation and the adventure in the
Velvet Underground's music to the other
members of the Velvet Underground but
still that experimentation and that will
to push boundaries and do something
different carried on into the Reed solo
career as well as he was making some
really solid art rock and glam rock
records as well as incorporating
elements of spoken word and poetry into
his LP is like with the album New York
or the Raven and then we have his very
experimental for Ray's such as Metal
Machine music and you can't deny that
the guy was a risk-taker all the way up
until the end especially with the
Metallica collaboration that he recently
did with the album Lulu an album that I
personally feel and you can check my
review I still don't feel like it's that
bad and you know what even though over
the course of his discography and his
career Lou did have some records that
weren't so hot had record
that were really misses in comparisons
to his hits but you know the hits that
he did have were so deafeningly great I
can't see why he won't be remembered for
them and be remembered for his influence
on rock music in general in the
foreseeable future and Joel I'm just
kind of wondering uh mostly because of
my reaction to this when a legends such
as Lou Reed passes and he's no longer
with us and essentially what that comes
to guarantee that we're not going to get
any brand-new music and we're not going
to see him evolve any more as an artist
how does that make you feel do you feel
personally upset does a guy like Louie
leaving the planet caused you to reflect
upon his discography sort of his wider
impact on the world of music and of
course that that goes for everybody
who's watching this to let me know what
you thought of Lou Reed's music how did
it impact your life did this recent news
event sort of caused you to go back and
listen to his old solo stuff listen to
The Velvet Underground are you a new
listener to Lou Reed's music and if so
what so what's your perception of it
Anthony Fantana reflections forever
[Music]
you