It's still sinking in with me. Everyone knows the Velvets were influential; what mattered to me is that to my taste they were genuinely the greatest, and my most-listened-to, band of all time. I've been listening to them for 35 years and still feel like I haven't gotten to the bottom of them. I also do think it's important when these VU references come up in the obits to note that they weren't Lou Reed + backing group; the other three deserve full equal credit for making them what they were (and Doug Yule, too, some).
And I've never been quite able to hate Lou the legendary asshole and solo purveyor of many a crappy album (and a few great ones). Say what you will, he was right when he said he did Lou Reed better than anyone. Given his legendary assholery, I will repeat a story I posted a while back: I once sat in Jimmy's Corner Bar near Times Square listening to two dudes talking next to me. One said he was a recording engineer, working with Lou Reed on what later turned out to be Ecstasy. This guy said Lou was a really nice guy, fun to work for. One day, Lou came in to the studio and announced that he didn't feel like working, he felt like going to Coney Island. So the band and the whole recording crew spent the day eating Nathan's and sitting in the sun at Coney Island, all on the clock! What a guy!
