patti-smith-lou-reed

Watch Patti Smith cover Lou Reed (videos); Don't pay attention to the quote on Facebook

Patti Smith

One of the many artists who has made a statement on the unfortunate passing of Lou Reed is his friend and fellow CBGB veteran Patti Smith. She posted the above picture to her Facebook and wrote

UPDATE: The quote we previously posted as being from Patti, where she supposedly said “Lou Reed [was] one of the most important friends in my life”, was actually just written by whoever is running her unofficial, but very popular, Facebook page. We doubt they were really friends with Lou, but maybe they were speaking metaphorically.

Meanwhile, Patti did give Rolling Stone a quote on Lou, which reads…

Lou was a very special poet – a New York writer in the way that Walt Whitman was a New York poet. One thing I got from Lou, that never went away, was the process of performing live over a beat, improvising poetry, how he moved over three chords for 14 minutes. That was a revelation to me.

Check out a video of Patti covering Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” in 2011, and a video of her doing The Velvet Underground’s “We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together” in 1976, below.

Patti Smith does her annual hometown end of year shows at Webster Hall on December 29 and 30 this year. Tickets for both nights are still available.

Videos below…

Patti Smith – “Perfect Day” in Amsterdam in 2011

Patti Smith – “We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together” in 1976

Patti Smith – “Perfect Day” (studio version)

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