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In The Late '70s I Started To Search For The Perfect Sound - Whatever That Might Be, Before That I Was Mainly Interested In Drugs, Insanity And The Rock'n'roll Lifestyle.

-Lou Reed

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In The Late '70s

Lou Reed

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In The Late '70s I Started To Search For The Perfect Sound - Whatever That Might Be, Before That I Was Mainly Interested In Drugs, Insanity And The Rock'n'roll Lifestyle.

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Honey, I'm A Cocksucker, What Are You?

Electricity Comes From Other Planets.

I Tried To Give Up Drugs By Drinking.

You Know The Expression 'god Protects Fools And Drunks'? I Qualify For Both.

I'm Too Old To Do Things By Half

I Have No Control Over The Audience. I Have No Idea What They Think. My Heart's Pure. I Can't Do Anything. I Really Can't Do Anything. I Don't Know What Goes On In The Crowd.

The Heart Says What Only The Heart Knows.

How Could You Even Dream Or Think Something Of Someone Who Is As Uncommercial As I Am?

The Gay People Know Where I'm At. Straight People May Not Know Where I'm At, But They Find It Kind Of Interesting When They Show Up And See What Is Sitting Around Them.

I Mean, There Are Peripheral Things I Do, I Do Photography, I Write Plays, I Have Books Published, But That's Neither Here Not There.

You're Going To Reap Just What You Sow

As You Practice Things, You Get Better. I Mean I've Worked Very Hard On Changing My Life And Taking What Is Good About It And Trying To Jettison The Things I Think Were Not Good About It. I Think The Key Word Is "discipline," Focus. I'm Always Working At It, But I'm Not Always Successful.

I Always Believed That I Have Something Important To Say And I Said It.

Velvet Underground

People Didn't Know Certain Things About Me, Which... I Was Out Of Creative Writing Class In School, Syracuse University; Had A B.a. In English And Wanted To Write The Great American Novel But I Also Loved Rock And Roll. I Was In Bar Bands All Through College, Playing Fraternities And Have To Know All The Songs In The Top 10. That Kind Of Thing.

I Think It's Important That People Don't Feel Alone.

It's Fun To Be In A Small Club And To Be Able To Look Somebody Right In The Eye And Watch Them Just Freak. Then It's Fun To Be In Front Of Thousands Of People And Watch A Couple Of Hundred Freaking Out Of Their Minds.

I Don't Think I'm In Any Position To Call Myself A Martial Artist. I'm A Student Of The Martial Arts.

It's The Music That Kept Us All Intact, Kept Us From Going Crazy.

Sometimes, You've Got To Be In A Place. You're Just Another Guy. You Can Just Blend In. I Live Out In The Wilds Of Nowhere, Out In Jersey. Even There, There's Sometimes Problems. College Students Like Journey Out There And Show Up At 11 O'clock At Night, On My Porch, Looking Into The Door Not Saying Anything. My Wife And I Are Sitting There; It's Really Creepy.

The Music Business Doesn't Interest Me Anymore.

I Love Ornette Coleman. I Love Don Cherry. I Love The Way Those Guys Play.

I Dreamed That I Was Young And Smart, And It Was Not A Waste. I Dreamed That There Was A Point Of Life, And To The Human Race.

Sound Is More Than Just Noise. Ordered Sound Is Music. My Life Is Music.

I Think It's Pretentious To Create Art Just For The Sake Of Stroking The Artists Ego.

They Tied His Arms Behind His Back To Teach Him How To Swim, They Put Blood In His Coffee And Milk In His Gin.

Psychologically, It's Better That I Think That I'm Dirt.

It's Depressing When You're Still Around And Your Albums Are Out Of Print.

Velvet Underground

Bodily Changes Take Place, Like The Thing With The Kick.

I Take Drugs Just Because In The 20th Century In A Technological Age Living In The City There Are Certain Drugs You Have To Take Just To Keep Yourself Normal Like A Caveman. Just To Bring Yourself Up Or Down, But To Attain Equilibrium You Need To Take Certain Drugs. They Don't Getcha High Even, They Just Getcha Normal.

I'd Harbored Hopes That The Intelligence That Once Inhabited Novels Or Films Would Ingest Rock. I Was, Perhaps, Wrong.

Well, Everybody Does Something, Some People Race Cars, Others Collect Stamps, I Find Tai Chi To Be Philosophically, Aesthetically, Physically And Spiritually Fascinating.

I'm Still Not Sure I Didn't Die

I Wish I Had A Talking Book That Told Me How To Act And Look, A Talking Book That Contained Keys To Past And Present Memories

Kill Them Now, Cause I Need Some Kicks. I Need Some Kicks, I'm Getting Bored.

All The People Have Gone To War Leaving No Interrogator To Mind.

I Don't Think Anybody Is Anybody Else's Moral Compass. Maybe Listening To My Music Is Not The Best Idea If You Live A Very Constricted Life. Or Maybe It Is.

Music Was What Bothered Me, What Interested Me.

Life's Like A Mayonnaise Soda.

Speaking In A Common Tongue, Speaking Through Guitars And Drums.

Meditation Doesn't Have To Be Complicated. What I Do Is About As Simple As You Can Get. You Could Just Count The Beads, One, Two, Three, With Your Eyes Closed Or Open, Whatever Makes You Happy.

I Am Bigger And Stronger Than Ever. My Chen Taiji And Health Regimen Has Served Me Well All Of These Years, Thanks To Master Ren Guang-yi. I Look Forward To Being On Stage Performing, And Writing More Songs To Connect With Your Hearts And Spirits And The Universe Well Into The Future.

Writhe And Sway To Music's Pain Searing With Asides, Caress Death With A Lover's Touch For It Shall Be Your Bride.

I've Never Been Super Confident About Anything. The Work Is Never As Good As It Could Be.

I Can't Tell The Difference Between Wrong And Right, Are You Laughing At Me?

Unanswered Questions

I Can't Do Anything I Want To. I Mean, I Can't Have My Own Tv Show. I Can't Have My Own Movie. But Within My Little World, Nobody Tells Me What To Put On The Albums.

Rock & Roll Is So Great, People Should Start Dying For It. You Don't Understand. The Music Gave You Back Your Beat So You Could Dream...the People Just Have To Die For The Music. People Are Dying For Everything Else, So Why Not For Music? Die For It. Isn't It Pretty? Wouldn't You Die For Something Pretty?

I Want The Principles Of A Timeless Muse, I Want To Eradicate My Negative Views.

Plucked Her Eyebrows On The Way, Shaved Her Legs And Then He Was A She. She Said, Hey Babe, Take A Walk On The Wild Side.

I Had Started Also Studying Because I Wanted To Learn More About Power And Fighting.

I've Become Completely Well Adjusted To Being A Cult Figure.

Perfect Night Is Minimalistic And That's What Makes It So Forceful.

When I Record An Album I'm Trying To Get As Close As Possible To That Perfect Moment.

There Were Lots Of Things That I Recognized From My Experience With Eagle Claw And Wu Hao, And Here Was The Combination Of The Whole Kit And Kaboodle, The Whole Tamale In One.

But It's Not Only: What Are You Going To Do About Touring, It's: What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? Is There A Point To What We Do? I Think There Is. Making Music, Creating Beautiful Things. We Have To Be In Love With The Good And The Beautiful. If We Are Not, Then You're In A Nihilistic State.

When The Past Makes You Laugh And You Can Savor The Magic That Lets You Survive Your Own War, You'll Find That That Fire Is Passion And There's A Door Up Ahead - Not A Wall.

But It's The Things That Preceded It That Made That Happen, And Of Course Now Someone Like Me Thinks, Well, If I Can Do That... Then There Are A Lot Of Other Things That Are Possible.

Underachievers Of The World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose Except Your Fright.

I'm Writing About Real Things. Real People. Real Characters. You Have To Believe What I Write About Is True Or You Wouldn't Pay Any Attention At All.

Any Human Being Should Have A Tolerance For Anybody.

I Don't Like Overdubs, Never Liked Them.

Dear Pope, Send Me Some Hope Or A Rope.

I Wouldn't Want To Hear Beethoven Without Beautiful Bass, The Cellos, The Tuba. It's Very Important. Hip-hop Has Thunderous Bass. And So Does Beethoven. If You Don't Have The Bass, It's Like Being Amputated. It's Like You Have No Legs.

I Think Life Is Far Too Short To Concentrate On Your Past. I Rather Look Into The Future.

Don't The People You're Around Shape The Music, Is That What You're Saying? Everything Does.

High Energy Does Not Necessarily Mean Fast, High Energy Has To Do With Heart.

And No Kinds Of Love Are Better Than Others

I'd Breed A Little Liberal Army In The Wood, Just Like These Redneck Lunatics I See At The Local Bar With Their Tribe Of Mutant Inbred Piglets.

It's Interesting To Have A Conglomeration Of People That Covers The Strata From A To Z... There's A Certain Element Of The Audience That's Intellectually Oriented, Into The Lyrics... Then There's Another Element Of The Audience That's Into A Sex Trip. I'm Into Both Of Them.

Please Don't Set Me Free Death Means A Lot Me

I've Found That From My Point Of View, The Chen Style Contained Many Things That I Knew On A Fairly Superficial Level From Eagle Claw, And That Had Chen Elements Of What Seemed To Me The Soft In Eagle Claw.

I Try Very Much, Whenever I Do Projects, Whatever It Is, There's Only One Thing On My Mind, Only One Thing.

Let's Do What You Fear Most That From Which You Recoil But Which Still Makes Your Eyes Moist

Caroline Says As She Gets Up From The Floor, You Can Hit Me All You Want To, But I Don't Love You Anymore.

I'm Tearing Down Route 80 East, The Sun's On My Right Side. I'm Drunk, But My Vision's Good.

You Won't See My Parents Honored On Any Stamps.

I Don't Like Nostalgia Unless It's Mine.

I Was A Product Of Andy Warhol's Factory. All I Did Was Sit There And Observe These Incredibly Talented And Creative People Who Were Continually Making Art, And It Was Impossible Not To Be Affected By That.

Give Me Your Hungry, Your Tired, Your Poor, That's What The Statue Of Bigotry Says. Your Poor Huddled Masses, Let's Just Club Them To Death, And Get It Over With.

Eve Kissed Able, That's How He Got Murdered By Cain.

I Don't Know What Goes On In The Crowd. I've Had Them Show Up And Throw Beer Cans At Me. I Caused Riots In Most Of The Major Cities.

The Music Is All. People Should Die For It. People Are Dying For Everything Else, So Why Not The Music?

Here Comes Jesse Jackson, He Talks Of Common Ground. Does That Common Ground Include Me, Or Is It Just A Sound?

Music Is An Amazing Thing. I Don't Know If We Really Think About It The Same Way We Consider A Painting An Amazing Thing. I Mean, A Painting Is, In Quotes, Imaginary. There Is Nothing On The Canvas When You Start; And Writing A Song, There Is Nothing There When You Start.

Music Should Come Crashing Out Of Your Speakers And Grab You, And The Lyrics Should Challenge Whatever Preconceived Notions That Listener Has.

I Don't Really Think About What The Subject Of My Next Album Will Be. I Just Know That I'm Going To Make Another Album.

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.

Over What Guilty Spirit To Not Hear The Beating, To Not Hear The Beating, But Only Tears Of Perfect Moan, Only Tears Of Perfect Moan.

My Week Beats Your Year.

Valium Would Have Helped That Bash.

The President's Dead, No One Can Find His Head, Its Been Missing For Two Weeks. But No One Seemed To Notice It.

But I Found Tai Chi When I Was Studying With Leung Shum, Who Teaches Eagle Claw And Wu Hao.

It's Just A Temporary Thing.

For A While, I Felt A Little Self-impelled To Write Lou Reed Kind Of Songs. I Should Have Understood That A Lou Reed Song Was Anything I Wanted To Write About.

The Rich Son Waits For His Father To Die, The Poor Just Drink And Cry.

Things Always Seem To End Before They Start

I Wanted To Be An Actor. That Was My Real Goal. But I Wasn't Any Good At It, So I Wrote My Own Material And Acted Through That. That's My Idea Of Fun. I Get To Be All These Things In The Songs.

I Don't Believe In Dressing Up Reality. I Don't Believe In Using Makeup To Make Things Look Smoother.

I Write Whatever Shows Up. That's Good Enough For Me. I'm Part Of The First Generation That Wants To Still Do Original Material And Not Tour Around As An Oldies Act.

I've Gone Out With My Shotgun. This Is Hunting Country Out There. You Better Run.

You Know, Some People Got No Choice, And They Can Never Find A Voice, To Talk With That They Can Even Call Their Own. So The First Thing That They See, That Allows Them The Right To Be, Why They Follow It, You Know, It's Called Bad Luck.

Take A Walk On The Wild Side.

I Cleaned Up My Act Because Otherwise I Would Have Kicked The Bucket.

My Attitude Is That You Very Rarely Come In Contact With Someone Of Master Ren's Level, So Every Opportunity I Could Get To Learn From Him I Wanted To Do That.

Herpes, Aids, The Middle East At Full Throttle. Better Check That Sausage Before You Put It In The Waffle.

All I Want To Do, Is Write Rock And Roll That You Could Listen To As You Got Older, And It Wouldn't Lose Anything; It Would Be Timeless, In The Subject Matter And The Literacy Of The Lyrics.

When You Pass Through The Fire, You Pass Through Humble.

When I Saw That Combination Of Grace And Power, The Fast And The Soft, The Yin And The Yang, That's What I'd Been Looking For.

I Can Create A Vibe Without Saying Anything, Just By Being In The Room.

My God Is Rock'n'roll. It's An Obscure Power That Can Change Your Life. The Most Important Part Of My Religion Is To Play Guitar.

I Always Thought Martial Arts Was The Most Modern Choreography We Could Have Right Now, And I Always Wanted To Put It To Music.

The Most Important Thing Is Work.

Important Things

I'm Not Leaving New York. And Neither Is Anyone Else. We're Here. We Are Quintessential Americans - We're Not Only American, But New York-american.

To Wish For The Crazy Times One Last Time And Freeze It In The Memory Of A Camera Is The Least A Great Artist Can Do.

Life Is Like Sanskrit Read To A Pony.

I Can Concentrate On My Art.

I've Always Believed That There's An Amazing Number Of Things You Can Do Through A Rock'n'roll Song And That You Can Do Serious Writing In A Rock Song If You Can Somehow Do It Without Losing The Beat.

You Do What You Love, Or You Get Arrested.

When He Beat My Mother It Made Me So Mad.

The Only Thing Constantly Changing Is Change, And Change Is Always Changing For The Worse.

Research, Research, Research. It Means Everything.

I Don't Think Anybody Is Anybody Else's Moral Compass.

One Thing I've Often Thought Is That I Never Want To Tell Anybody Else What To Do. It's Hard Enough To Figure Out What I Want To Do.

Some Even Claim That I'm A Terror, A Dictator And They're Right.

I Don't Know Anyone Actually Who Does Care What A Critic Says.

Velvet Underground

I Would Like To Live To A Ripe Old Age And Raise Watermelons In Wyoming.

First Thing You Learnis That You'vealways Got To Wait

With Master Ren, If I'd Tell Him I Can't Do That And He'd Say, Yes You Can, And It Turns Out I Very Much Can Do It.

They Put The Thing Down Your Throat So You Don't Swallow Your Tongue, And They Put Electrodes On Your Head. That's What Was Recommended In Rockland State Hospital To Discourage Homosexual Feelings. The Effect Is That You Lose Your Memory And Become A Vegetable. You Can't Read A Book Because You Get To Page 17 And Have To Go Right Back To Page One Again.

How Can Anybody Learn Anything From An Artwork When The Piece Of Art Only Reflects The Vanity Of The Artist And Not Reality?

This Violent Rage That Turned Inward Cannot Be Helped By Drink.

But I'm Also Talented And I Know When I Created Something Great And Perfect Night Is Something Great, No Doubt, No But.

Some People Drink To Unleash Their Libidos, And Other People Drink To Prop Up Their Egos.

When You Think The Night Has Seen Your Mind, That Inside Your Twisted And Unkind, Let Me Stand To Show That You Are Blind. Please Put Down You Hands Cause I See You. I'll Be You Mirror.

One Chord Is Fine. Two Chords Are Pushing It. Three Chords And You're Into Jazz.

Velvet Underground

An Eye For An Eye Is Elemental.

I Like Druggy Downtown Kids Who Spray Paint Walls And Trains. I Like Their Lack Of Training, Their Primitive Technique. I Think It Hurts You, When You Stay Too Long In School.

Families That Live Out In The Suburbs Often Make Each Other Cry.

What I Really Love Is My Scotch. It's The Power, The Power Of Positive Drinking.

The Currents Rage So Deep Upon Us, This Is The Age Of Video Violence.

People Can Vote For Who Ever They Want. That Doesn't Mean I Have To Go Near Them.

If Someone Teaches You Alignment And - I'm Not A Tai Chi Expert By Any Stretch - So Interviewing Me About Tai Chi Is Kind Of The Cart Before The Horse - But Just From My Point Of View As A Student, It's Simply That Master Ren Can Show You The Relationship Of Power, Stance And Form.

These Are Really Terribly Rough Times, And We Really Should Try To Be As Nice To Each Other As Possible.

Perfect Night Has That Magic And It Has The Raw Energy That Grabs You By The Throat.

I Never Liked The Beatles. I Thought They Were Garbage.

Teach Them About Anger, The Sin That Comes With Dawning. Teach Them About Flowers, And The Beauty Of Forgiveness.

When You're Growing Up In A Small Town You Know You'll Grow Down In A Small Town There Is Only One Good Use For A Small Town You Hate It And You Know You'll Have To Leave.

I Wanna Hear Some Diana Ross, I Wanna Hear Some Marvin Gaye. I Wanna Hear A Song That Reminds Me Of A Better Day.

In The Late '70s I Started To Search For The Perfect Sound - Whatever That Might Be, Before That I Was Mainly Interested In Drugs, Insanity And The Rock'n'roll Lifestyle.

The Injuries We Do In Kind Are Visited Upon Us Often. In The Science Of The Mind, Trying Hard To Move A Shadow.

Raymond Chandler Managed To Write About L.a. His Whole Career. Should I Keep Going Writing About New York? Is That What I Should Be Doing? Songwriting Doesn't Work That Way.

It Always Bothers Me To See People Writing Rip When A Person Dies. It Just Feels So Insincere And Like A Cop Out. To Me, Rip Is The Microwave Dinner Of Posthumous Honours.

Senator, It Has Been Reported That You Have Had Illegal Congress With Your Mother.

I Don't Mind A Repetitive Chorus; I Mind Repetitive Verse. I Mean, It's The Same Amount Of Space. Why Would You Have Only Three Diamonds If You Can Have Six?

That's Why I Survived Because I Still Believe I've Got Something To Say.

You Can't Beat Two Guitars, Bass, And Drums.

You're A Musician: You Play. That's What You Do.

Between Thought And Expression Lies A Lifetime.

Nothing Beats 2 Guitars, Drum And Bass.

When I Was In College, I Had A Jazz Radio Show. I Called It 'excursion On A Wobbly Rail,' After A Cecil Taylor Song. I Used To Run Around The Village Following Ornette Coleman Wherever He Played.

And I Feel Just Like Jesus' Son

The Most Important Part Of My Religion Is To Play Guitar.

People Think That I Work Out But It's All T'ai Chi.

The Baby Sits In Front Of Mtv Watching Violent Fantasies, While Dad Guzzles Beer With His Favorite Sport Only To Find His Heroes All Coked Up.

I'm Not Joking Around When I've Said Occasionally, Trying To Learn How To Play A D Chord Properly Has Been A Very Big Thing For Me.

Jealousy Endlessly Eats Through My Mind, And Jealously Endlessly Makes Me Be Unkind.

One Of My Rules Is: Never Listen To Your Old Stuff.

You Can't Ask Me To Explain The Lyrics Because I Won't Do It.

As The Dead Rise To Live, The Live Sink To Die, The Currents Are Deep And Raging Inside.

There's Only X Amount Of Time. You Can Do Whatever You Want With That Time. It's Your Time.

Do Whatever You Want

I've Made Love To My Mother, Killed My Father, And My Brother. What Am I To Do?

You Do This Because You Like It, You Think What You're Making Is Beautiful. And If You Think It's Beautiful, Maybe They Think It's Beautiful.

I Love Women, I Think They're Great.

You Know, When You're Relaxed, You're Putting It Out There, And Then It Comes, Oh, I Can Do That.

You Can't Ask Me To Explain The Lyrics Because I Won't Do It...i Always Believed That I Have Something Important To Say And I Said It. That's Why I Survived Because I Still Believe I've Got Something To Say. ... I Don't Like Overdubs, Never Liked Them. ... The Music Business Doesn't Interest Me Anymore...don't The People You're Around Shape The Music, Is That What You're Saying? Everything Does. ... I'm Not Joking Around When I've Said Occasionally, Trying To Learn How To Play A D Chord Properly Has Been A Very Big Thing For Me.

There's A Bit Of Magic In Everything, And Some Loss To Even Things Out.

Why Don't You Swallow Razor Blades?

I Am Very Emotionally Affected By Sound. Sounds Are The Inexplicable... There Is A Sound You Hear In Your Head, It's Your Nerves, Or Your Blood Running.

You've Gotta Blow The Roof Off Of Your Heart And Let The Universe In.

Does Anyone Need Yet Another Politician Caught With His Pants Down And Money Sticking In His Hole?

Not Too Many Songwriters, When They Write Songs Go For Broke. When Someone Does Who's Really Good, It's Astonishing. There's A Reason A Three-minute Song Can Devastate You, Or Make You Get Up And Dance, Stop What You're Doing And Go, 'what Is That?' It Just Hits You. And It's A Very Potent Thing You're Playing Around With.

What Could There Be More Purely Bright In Truth's Day Star?

When Critics Ask You If You Feel Vindicated By Other Critics - I Didn't Like Critics Then, And I Don't Like Them Now. There You Go. I've Always Been Outside The Mainstream, And It Stayed That Way.

I'm An Artist And That Means I Can Be As Egotistical As I Want To Be.

There Are Problems In These Times, But None Of Them Are Minei'm Beginning To See The Light

Well All Tai Chi Has The Martial Aspect To It, A Lot Of People Don't Know, A Lot Of The Teachers Won't Show It, Or They Do Show It But You Don't Really Learn It, What The Application Is.

The Sickness Of The Mother Runs On Through The Girl, Leaving Her Small And Helpless. Liquor Flies Through Her Brain With The Force Of A Gun, Leaving Her Running In Circles.

I'll Tell Ya, I'm A Genuinely Nice Guy. I Really Am. A Real Nice Guy. But I Think I'm Temperamental.

Looking Through The Viewfinder For Me Is Like Being In A Movie Theater. That's What I Like About It.

You Can't Always Trust Your Mother.

My God Is Rock'n'roll.

Will None Of The Powers That Be Realize What Brian Wilson Did With The Chords. Deftly Taking From All Sources, Old Rock, Four Freshman, He Got In His Records A Beautiful Hybrid Sound - Let Him Run Wild, Don't Worry Baby, I Get Around, Fun, Fun, Fun - 'and She Had Fun, Fun, Fun 'till Her Daddy Took Her T-bird Away.'

I Shot A Vein In My Neck And Coughed Up A Quaalude.

She Never Ever Lost Her Head Even When She Was Giving Head.

If It Has More Than Three Chords, It's Jazz.

I Like Mindless Disco... They Say The Lyrics Are Stupid And Repetitious. So What's Wrong With That? So Is Lying In The Sun. Not Everything Has To Be Serious.

Moving On Has Allowed Me To Know Who I Am And To Be Present In All That I Do. I Take This Forward In My Work And In My Personal Relationships. It Is A Powerful Program And I Highly Recommend It To Anyone Wanting To Move On With Their Life.

I Think That Everything Happens For A Reason, Everything Happens When It's Going To Happen.

Everything Happens For A Reason

Velvet Underground

To Debate Political Objectives, Views, And Goals Is The Most American Thing Conceivable.

Me, I've Concentrated On Music Pretty Much To The Exclusion Of Other Things.

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