Ah Fuck. Lou Reed is Dead.

I want to write an obituary for Lou Reed but I understand now, after several tries, obituaries are only easy for people you hate (like H.L. Mencken writing about William Jennings Bryan, the most savage piece of professional journalism I've ever read) or don't give a shit about. If you knew the person or wanted to, an obit is not an easy thing to write. 

He was cool for four consecutive decades. That's him and Miles Davis. I can't think of anyone else who has done it. Some people might make an argument for some French or Italian "celebrity" I have only vaguely heard of but being cool in Italy or France is a breeze compared to being cool in America. Lou made it in the coolest city in the world. He was the coolest person in New York, New York was the coolest city in the world - you do the math. And in the 40 some years he remained as cool as ever, the culture around him turned to complete shit. It isn't possible to be cool in America anymore. At least not in New York or L.A. You can only be famous. While the culture around him devolved into a shit-storm of celebrities made famous by reality TV or home-made porno, with careers of the same duration as the super-heavy atoms created in particle accelerators, Lou was still in New York. Still writing songs. Still the cool. He got left behind by fame, renowned more for his ill-will towards TV producers and the poor fucks who tried to give 2 minute interviews than his music. But I watched him talk openly and intelligently to Elvis Costello for an hour and started to wonder how the fuck he earned his reputation as "difficult". I can't find it on Youtube. Too bad. Maybe someone will post it now to mark his death. It wouldn't be the worst memorial.