Hardcover, 304 pages
6 × 9 in.
15.24 × 22.86 cm.
During his first major sit-down with the music press in 1977, between
claiming all his songs were about guilt and revenge, Elvis Costello
casually remarked, "I don't really listen to Lou Reed's records, but I
never miss an interview with him."
Indeed, for all his publicly expressed loathing of the press in general
and music journalists in particular, during his long career as a rock
artist, Lou Reed was never less than entertaining in his dealings with
the Fourth Estate. In fact, one could go so far as to claim that, for
Lou, the press became as much an implement of expression as singing,
composing, and playing music. In a style at times very much informed by
his mentor Andy Warhol, Reed could play the media like a Marshall-amped
Stradivarius.
To the majority of his fans, the apotheosis of Reed's relationship with
the press, and most prominently regarded to this day, was the series of
combative tête-à-têtes between Lou and the late great music journalist
Lester Bangs, published in CREEM Magazine during the 1970s.
My Week Beats Your Year: Encounters with Lou Reed features 30+
interviews spanning his solo career, from the golden era of print
rock-journalism, to the first online blogs. The compilation is one fan's
humble attempt to move beyond the Bangs canon, and delve deeper into the
distance and intimacy, cactus and mercury, that constituted Lou's
post-Velvet Underground public media image.
This anthology will be an intimate portrait of Reed who, in addition to
being notoriously prickly (to put it mildly), was also intelligent,
articulate, and deeply passionate about what was important to him, both
as a person and as a creative artist.
Edited and with texts by Pat Thomas
Compiled by Michael Heath
Foreword by Luc Sante
Designed by Philippe Karrer
Cover photograph by Mick Rock
Hat & Beard Press #13
