David Bowie thinks Lou Reed‘s 2011 collaboration with Metallica, Lulu, is his “greatest work”.
The claim was made by Reed’s widow Laurie Anderson during her speech at Reed’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on Saturday, April 18.
“One of his last projects was his album with Metallica,” she said. “And this was really challenging, and I have a hard time with it. There are many struggles and so much radiance. And after Lou’s death, David Bowie made a big point of saying to me, ‘Listen, this is Lou’s greatest work. This is his masterpiece. Just wait, it will be like Berlin. It will take everyone a while to catch up.’”
Anderson added: “I’ve been reading the lyrics and it is so fierce. It’s written by a man who understood fear and rage and venom and terror and revenge and love. And it is raging.”
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Reed was inducted by Patti Smith, who said, “I made my first eye contact with Lou, dancing to the Velvet Underground when they were playing upstairs at Max’s Kansas City in the summer of 1970. And then somewhere along the line, Lou and I became friends. It was a complex friendship, sometimes antagonistic and sometimes sweet. Lou was sometimes emerge from the shadows at CBGBs. If I did something good, he would praise me. If I made a false move, he would break it down.”
She continued: “One night, when we were touring, separately, we wound up in the same hotel, and I got a call from him, and he asked me to come to his room. He sounded a little dark, so I was a little nervous. But I went up, and the door was open, and I found him in the bathtub dressed in black. So I sat on the toilet and listened to him talk. It seemed like he talked for hours, and he talked about, well, all kinds of things.”
“He spoke compassionately about the struggles of those who fall between genders. He spoke of pre-CBS fender amplifiers and political corruption. But most of all, he talked about poetry. He recited the great poets — Rupert Brooke, Hart Crane, Frank O’Hara. He spoke of the poets’ loneliness and of the poets’ dedication to the highest muses. When he fell into silence, I said, “Please, take care of yourself, so the world can have you as long as it can.” And Lou actually smiled.”
You can read the full transcript of her speech at Rolling Stone.