“Reading Lou Reed”

c. 2003 Rod Ice

all rights reserved

(5-03)

Note To Readers: What follows here is an installment of ‘Thoughts At Large’ that originally ran in the Geauga County Maple Leaf newspaper, in May of 2003. I discovered it while looking through old 1.44 MB diskettes in the home office.

“When I was a young man/No bigger than this / A chocolate Egg Cream was not to be missed / Some U Bet’s Chocolate Syrup / seltzer water mixed with milk / Stir it up into a heady fro – tasted just like silk.” …From the CD “Set The Twilight Reeling” by Lou Reed.

Book reviews are a rarity for Thoughts At Large. To devote an entire column to a published work seems difficult. Such a single-minded task can produce useful results. Yet I don’t often attempt to offer that kind of ‘quick view’ here. It is a task usually left to other souls…

But a recent gift of Reed’s “Pass Thru Fire / The Collected Lyrics” (Hyperion) made me think about that sort of project, immediately. This anthology of classic compositions was a joy to receive. In every way, the book represented an artistic vision filtered through the rough atmosphere of New York City. Even the cover was striking – a black and white portrait of the artist with the book title scrawled across his face. From the first page, it offered a dark vision of yesterday.

Lou has remained an unknown figure to many fans of popular music. Occasionally, classic rock stations have paid attention to “Take A Walk On The Wild Side” or the live version of “Sweet Jane” from ROCK ‘N ROLL ANIMAL. But these moments were few indeed, for one who produced so many recorded works. His resume as a rock ‘n roll icon has always been unique. The artistic importance of what he created always soared beyond mere record sales. Because of this, having a published overview of his material was an achievement worth celebrating in print.

I couldn’t wait to look up some of my favorite Reed compositions to be sure of the lyrics he penned. The material was written throughout four decades of inspiration. Songs like “Wild Child” (from his first studio album as a solo artist) seemed to reflect the tendency to write as a reporter. Observations of his friends filled the verses with cheerful prose: “I was talking to Chuck in his Ghengis Khan suit / And his wizard’s hat / He spoke of his movie and how he was making / A new soundtrack / And then we spoke of kids on the coast/And different kinds of organic soap / And the way suicides don’t leave notes / Then we spoke of Lorraine, always back to Lorraine…”

Other works spoke in cryptic rhyme. “I Can’t Stand It” offered a surreal perspective on everyday living: “It’s hard being a man / Living in a garbage pail / My landlady called me up / She tried to hit me with a mop…I live with thirteen dead cats / A purple dog who wears spats / They’re out living in the hall / And I can’t stand it anymore…”

But most accessible were tracks like “Rock ‘n’ Roll” with a direct message of hope that connected with listeners immediately: “Jenny said when she was just about five years old / You know my parents are gonna be the death of us all / Two TV sets and two Cadillac cars – Ain’t gonna help me at all / Then one fine mornin’ she turns on a New York station / She don’t believe what she heard at all / She started dancin’ to that fine fine music / You know her life was saved by rock ‘n’ roll / Despite all the computations / You could just dance to that rock ‘n’ roll station / And it was all right…”

Each page was a thrill in itself. The images of street heroes, malcontents, debutantes, artists, beggars, and lost souls were compelling. Reed seemed to sense the inherent vulnerability in everyone. His portraits of the human experience captured an essential quality often missed by popular songwriting. He conjured visions of imperfect folk. Those who were not gifted with infallible forethought, but instead, a sense of realism tempered with frailty. In other terms, real people. It was a banquet of ideas.

But still, I was taken with the reference to U-Bet syrup. I remembered seeing the product somewhere in Geauga County. After puzzling for several days, I found the chocolate nectar at the area’s busiest grocery store. U-Bet Chocolate Flavored Syrup was in the kosher section, at $3.19 a jar. A product of H. Fox & Company, 416 Thatford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.

I studied instructions that were included on how to prepare a proper Egg Cream. The label was printed with precise instructions: “In a tall glass, pour ½ inch of U-Bet, ¾ inch of whole milk, add carbonated water, and mix briskly.” It appeared to be a simple concoction.

My shopping list could have accommodated the extra items easily. Yet I pondered the mixture with care. I couldn’t remember having sampled such a beverage while living in New York. So I wondered… loyalty to Lou, or not… did it make sense to try the drink now, from my vantage point in northeastern Ohio?

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