# RIP Lou Reed **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382 "2013-10-27T17:30:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/61 "2013-10-28T17:31:55Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > If I had to guess I’d say the cause of death was heroin. > [@Undead Annie](#): > > Reed underwent a liver transplant in April. I doubt they would give a new liver to someone doing heroin. > > And your guess is incredibly insensitive. Reed used to [sing](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Ch4O7wmuY) [about](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOmZimH00oo) doing heroin. I always assumed he had some actual experience with it. If so, 76 years is an impressive lifespan for a junkie. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/62 "2013-10-28T18:02:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I always assumed he had some actual experience with it. A great deal - 1960’s to the 1980’s. He had been clean for decades, but unfortunately he apparently contracted the [hepatitis C](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_C) that eventually killed him back in 1966 while sharing a needle. It just took a long time to catch up with him, as it sometimes does with hepC. **Airman Doors, USAF** was name-checking a famous song, but technically speaking he is probably exactly correct. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/63 "2013-10-28T21:04:39Z")
[John Nichols of _The Nation_ praises Reed’s political activism.](http://www.thenation.com/blog/176852/lou-reeds-more-perfect-union-politics) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/64 "2013-10-28T21:06:48Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > A great deal - 1960’s to the 1980’s. He had been clean for decades, but unfortunately he apparently contracted the [hepatitis C](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_C) that eventually killed him back in 1966 while sharing a needle. It just took a long time to catch up with him, as it sometimes does with hepC. **Airman Doors, USAF** was name-checking a famous song, but technically speaking he is probably exactly correct. How could that hepatitis kill him if he got a new liver in April? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/65 "2013-10-28T21:14:17Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > How could that hepatitis kill him if he got a new liver in April? a.) It caused him to get the new liver and liver transplants are hardly risk free in 70-year olds. b.) Viral recurrences are extremely common even after transplantation and a certain percentage of people will develop cirrhosis again within a few years. Don’t know which scenario it was ( I’d bet on the first one - his body just never recovered or took to the transplant ), but one way or another it looks like it was the hepatitis, perhaps piled on top of decades of other Keith Richards-level abuse, that did him in. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/66 "2013-10-28T23:43:50Z")
Chuck Klosterman has a nice remembrance on Grantland: [» Remembering Lou Reed](http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9892086/remembering-lou-reed) ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/67 "2013-10-29T00:27:30Z")
Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) was a close friend of Reed’s and did a tribute show and told a lot of great Reed stories on his podcast yesterday. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to get the episode on [Penn’s site](http://pennsundayschool.com/page/episodes) but you can get it from [this rss feed](http://feeds.feedburner.com/PennSundaySchool) or [this direct mp3 link](http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/acedl.noxsolutions.com/ace/_Penn.13.10.27.SS.mp3). ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/68 "2013-10-29T02:36:07Z")
Pete Townshend wrote this: _“My heart goes out to Laurie whom I met briefly when Lou played with me at Joe’s Pub in NYC. Lou seemed to have fun that night, and it was wonderful and easy for me to perform with this clear-sighted musician who I had expected to be so difficult.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/69 "2013-10-29T03:13:03Z")
His _New York_ tour show was the first real rock & roll concert I ever attended. I went by myself in my senior year of high school. The Velvet Underground tapes got me through a lot of long drives. My favorite was _The Velvet Underground_, their 3rd album. It’s a document of a personal journey that affected me deeply. I was able to fit my own life into its framework pretty closely - the mark, to me, of a great piece of art. The obits I’ve read so far make a point of calling him an artist instead of just a rock star - I agree. He had that power to move us. So long, Lou. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/70 "2013-10-29T05:24:50Z")
This is what [Peter Gabriel said on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/PeterGabriel): > [@](#): > > Oh Lou, where have you gone? > > We have lost a great artist > And I have lost my friend. > > It was your words and your work with the Velvet Underground that inspired Vaclav Havel to name the Czech revolution, the Velvet Revolution. You brought a great novelist’s unswerving attention to the human psyche and soul and attached it to an electric guitar. That clarity and fierce honesty symbolized freedom, like nothing else. > > You carried this honesty, purity and passion into whatever you did. Whether it was writers, amplifiers, artists, photography, tai chi, friendships, the glasses you designed or the journeys you had taken, anyone around you knew exactly what you were into; what you loved and hated. > > You could be so difficult, narcissistic and intransigent, but anyone you allowed beyond that leather-jacketed protective and sometimes-poisonous veneer got to meet a special man that was sweet, tender and exceptionally loyal. > > Watching you and Laurie finding each other was like watching teenage sweethearts. Everyone knew New York Lou, who could tell you all the ups and downs of the modern-day urban explorer, exploring drugs and sexual identity, but how many noticed the great romantic poet of the Power of the Heart that you wrote for Laurie. And what wry sharp intelligence you carried with you at all times, that could cut through any packaging and reveal the living and beating core. > > It was always such a pleasure to eat and laugh with you and hear that high-pitched squeal of delight, echoing around the room and bursting out of nowhere. > > Oh Lou, we’re going to miss you. > > PG Poor Laurie. I feel so bad for her. They had so little time together as a couple. His death a couple of months before Christmas made listening to this short message especially poignant. [Lou Reed - Christmas Message](http://youtu.be/VLJ6_oKFUMI) I don’t believe in an afterlife, but sometimes I wish I did. It’d be nice to think that he and Nico are making music again somewhere in the cosmos. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382/71 "2013-10-29T15:48:23Z")
The liver transplant was in May. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-lou-reed/672382.md?page=3)