We knew the rock legend and the poet. With his new book, we discover another Lou Reed, a follower of the practice of tai chi, a slow exercise that reduces stress and anxiety.
Lou Reed, who died ten years ago, is forever a rock legend and a poet. The dissolute New Yorker was also a fan of tai chi, a Chinese martial art and art of living about which he had started a book, completed and published this week by his widow. “He had started it, we wanted to finish it”, said American artist and musician Laurie Anderson, who was his companion and third wife for 20 years and remained by his side until his death in 2013, aged 71.
The Art of the Straight Line (“The art of the straight line“, not translated) compiles reflections, conversations and meditations of the former leader of the New York group Velvet Underground, renowned for his raw and poetic rock, which recounts his three decades of practice of tai chi, often described as a slow gymnastics that alleviates stress and anxiety, according to its masters and disciples.
“The Art of the Straight Line”
The book sheds light on the luminous face of the musician, born in March 1942 in Brooklyn, who burned life at both ends and died in October 2013 following complications from a liver transplant. With the Velvet, Lou Reed had thrown rock into the world of contemporary graphic art and drew his lyrics from a reality experienced through drugs and sex. The Velvet Underground and Nicoreleased in 1967 and produced by Andy Warhol, combined pop art, with the famous banana on the cover of the disc, and a surly and avant-garde sound.
From 1970, Reed went solo with a number of successes, such as Walk on the Wild Side (1972), produced by David Bowie. “I want more than a life of glory and gold records (…) I want to mature like a fighter”writes thus from 2009 the rocker calmed down.
“I want the power and the grace that I never had the chance to learn. Tai chi connects you with the invisible force, yes, of the universe. It changes your energy and your spirit”
Meditation Adept
The rocker worked with master Ren Guang Yi for a long time, studying and practicing for several hours a day when he wasn’t playing. According to Laurie Anderson, 75 today, Lou Reed started tai chi in the 1980s as a drug addict, including a heroin addict, which he candidly describes in his song by the same name (Heroin). “It wasn’t the best time to start, but is there ever a bad time to start?”, blows with gentle irony Laurie Anderson, evoking a man “very determined” in his practice of tai chi.
Reed wasn’t the only rock star to practice this age-old art. Widow remembers seeing Metallica band members doing tai chi with Lou Reed and coming out “fascinated”during their collaboration on the album “Lulu” in 2011. Then 20 years older than the Californian hard-rock musicians, “Lou was like their grandmaster” And “a kind of wise old man”says Laurie Anderson.
Guardian of the Temple
Publishing the writings of Lou Reed is a continuation of the actions of his widow, guardian of the temple who said, in March 2017, “dream of making Lou’s work accessible to the general public in its entirety”. At the time, the New York Public Library had acquired the archives of the legendary artist to make available 3,600 audio recordings, 1,300 videos and the equivalent of 90 meters of writings and photos. In March 2018, publisher Anthology released Do Angels Need Haircutscollection of unpublished poems by Lou Reed from 1970-1971, and an audio recording of the author reading his poetry in a church in Manhattan’s East Village.
The musician was 28 at the time and had returned to live with his parents in Long Island, east of New York, to work as a typist in his father’s accounting business. “He really wanted a better life. It was really inspirational,” concludes Laurie Anderson.