Really liked Velvet Underground when I was younger, saw them. I don't think Lou, though, despite the image and "darkness" and mystique over the years, ever wrote a song of loss that matched Laura Nyro's "Been on a Train" or Bert Jansch's "Needle of Death," (which inspired Neil Young's song). Maybe I'm wrong. I am surprised, though, that Nick Drake's name didn't pop up in this piece!
I was at End of Cole a number of times; however, I don't recall for this one. I was at Interlochen all of that summer..... saw Velvet Underground (with Nazz) in 1969 at the War Moratorium at Winfrey Point. I think that was in October.
Keats died young, and Shelley wrote "Adonais." Shelly drowned young. Arthur Henry Hallum died young, and Tennyson wrote IN MEMORIAM. Emerson wrote "Threnody" on the death of his young son, Waldo.
All of it in my canon. I was actually looking for something to quote from In Memoriam, but after the Lycidas quotation, it seemed in danger of taking over and I needed to get to Magic and Loss and what it was about. I would normally use any excuse to write on Nick Drake (https://davidyaffe.substack.com/p/poor-boy), but Nick was not a survivor, and I was really writing about the grief of a survivor.
I thought of "Kindertotenlieder," or child-death-song. It is so real, it deserves its on category. A woman who loses her husband is a widow, a man who loses his wife is a widower, a person who loses parents is an orphan, but there is not even a word for a person who loses a child.
I've been preaching the Gospel of Magic & Loss since I first heard this album. Thank you for this because as Reed sings, "Life's like a mayonnaise soda."
And when we’re for real like that, we get what we need when we need it the most.
Really liked Velvet Underground when I was younger, saw them. I don't think Lou, though, despite the image and "darkness" and mystique over the years, ever wrote a song of loss that matched Laura Nyro's "Been on a Train" or Bert Jansch's "Needle of Death," (which inspired Neil Young's song). Maybe I'm wrong. I am surprised, though, that Nick Drake's name didn't pop up in this piece!
Were you and End of Cole Ave for the recording of Live 1969?
I was at End of Cole a number of times; however, I don't recall for this one. I was at Interlochen all of that summer..... saw Velvet Underground (with Nazz) in 1969 at the War Moratorium at Winfrey Point. I think that was in October.
Keats died young, and Shelley wrote "Adonais." Shelly drowned young. Arthur Henry Hallum died young, and Tennyson wrote IN MEMORIAM. Emerson wrote "Threnody" on the death of his young son, Waldo.
All of it in my canon. I was actually looking for something to quote from In Memoriam, but after the Lycidas quotation, it seemed in danger of taking over and I needed to get to Magic and Loss and what it was about. I would normally use any excuse to write on Nick Drake (https://davidyaffe.substack.com/p/poor-boy), but Nick was not a survivor, and I was really writing about the grief of a survivor.
Ruckert wrote poems for his dead children (that's about as real as it gets), and Mahler set them to music in his "Kindertotenlieder."
I thought of "Kindertotenlieder," or child-death-song. It is so real, it deserves its on category. A woman who loses her husband is a widow, a man who loses his wife is a widower, a person who loses parents is an orphan, but there is not even a word for a person who loses a child.
I've been preaching the Gospel of Magic & Loss since I first heard this album. Thank you for this because as Reed sings, "Life's like a mayonnaise soda."