The first time I heard What Goes On from the Velevet Underground's eponymous album of 1969 I was with a girlfriend in a booth of a record store in Corporation Street, Birmingham around 1970...we were both tripping and had taken refuge from the chaos of the streets in that booth.....We were transformed by this fabulous proto-punk anthem. I had to wait until the1990s before I saw Lou Reed live at a gig promoting his then new album Set The Twilight Reeling (1996) at Birmingham Indoor Arena. This was no stadium rock gig, it was standing/dancing event in which Lou Reed was performing a few feet from where I stood and at more or less the same level, more like a big pub gig than a superstar spectacular.
In the Middle East in the late 70s Lou Reed's album Rock and Rock Heart was my constant companion and his classics like the first Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol ' Banana' album... Transformer, Berlin, White Light White Heat, Live at Max's Kansas City and New York were all albums that I have owned in a variety of formats over the years and still play today. The video below is the best I could find on YouTube, the annoying caption disappears after about a minute, unfortunately it returns at the end, but this original 1965 footage is absolutely priceless I think.
Lou Reed was a master of contemporary music, he was born in New York City and died in New York City and he sang about the place a lot in between. There will be many tributes to Lou Reed in coming days, but for me there will never be a more exciting sound than the one I heard that day back in the mists of time, dancing with my girlfiend out of our heads in a soundproof booth in Lewis's Department Store, Brum... with the sound turned up full, it was divine madness. It was also incidentally - a day to remember for all my life. So thanks for that Lou, you were indeed a fabulous shining star!
