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A review by futurama1979
Lou Reed: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations by Lou Reed
4.0
i found this selection of interviews really good. they spanned enough time to have a bit of a character narrative going, they showcased the best (and worst) of lou's wit and rigour. i found the 70s interview to be just brilliant; what a character, what a difficult character. the following one, as well as the auster interview, were genuine gifts to read. in auster's interview particularly, you see both him and lou's genuine love and respect for art, and a camaraderie that let lou give the whiplash defensive guard dog thing in him a rest. gaiman's suffers from what a lot of gaiman writing suffers -- an overcentring of himself -- but still proves a really good read. the last two seem pathetic in comparison to the first four interviews in the book. they're shorter, the questions less intelligent and specific. however, in the last, once lou gets past the one sentence answers and gets to actually talk, what he has to say is wonderful.
reading them in chronological order made me think about a few things, of course, lou's reluctantly softening temperament over time, but also the changing state of music journalism. in the 70s and early 80s, good music journalists were witty, wittier than the musicians. they were fucking sharp, able to keep up, and their pieces had voice, underground appeal. as time went the voices of journalists were flattened, the humour gone, the individualism gone, the wit utterly gone. they write like news reporters, not like writers. it's sad, and interesting, and this book was a good microcosm to view it through.
reading them in chronological order made me think about a few things, of course, lou's reluctantly softening temperament over time, but also the changing state of music journalism. in the 70s and early 80s, good music journalists were witty, wittier than the musicians. they were fucking sharp, able to keep up, and their pieces had voice, underground appeal. as time went the voices of journalists were flattened, the humour gone, the individualism gone, the wit utterly gone. they write like news reporters, not like writers. it's sad, and interesting, and this book was a good microcosm to view it through.