Watch Lou Reed perform a live acoustic version of ‘Pale Blue Eyes’
In 1997, Lou Reed took part in the Bridge School Benefit, an annual charity concert held at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in California. Every year since 1986, Neil and Pegi Young had organised an entire weekend of concerts, which included sets by some of the biggest names in the music industry. The year Lou performed this stunning rendition of ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ by The Velvet Underground, for example, the lineup consisted of Metallica, The Smashing Pumpkins, Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, Kacy Crowley and, of course, Neil Young.
By the time he appeared at the Bridge School Benefit, Reed had started to put his various grudges and grievances to bed. Ten years previously, in 1987, he’d attended the funeral of Andy Warhol and bumped into former Velvets bandmate, John Cale. After years of anonymity, the pair decided to collaborate on 1990’s Songs for Drella, a song cycle about Warhol. Then, in 1990, The Velvet Underground reunited and toured Europe, appearing at that year’s Glastonbury Festival. Sadly, plans for a North American leg were put aside after Reed and Cale got into yet another dispute.
According to Sterling Morrison, it was John Cale’s initial departure from The Velvet Underground that allowed Reed to come up with ‘Pale Blue Eyes’, an uncharacteristically vulnerable piece of songwriting for Lou. “Why do you think ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ happened on the third album, with Cale out of there?” Morrison asks in An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side. “That’s a song about Lou’s old girlfriend in Syracuse [University]. I said, ‘Lou, if I wrote a song like that, I wouldn’t make you play it.’ My position on that album was one of acquiescence.”
For Reed, ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ was an attempt to throw Velvet fans off the scent. Tired of the violent, drug-soaked imagery of their previous albums, he wanted to showcase another side of the band; something soft and tranquil. At its core, ‘Pale Bue Eyes’ is a love song, which is perhaps why it remains such a firm fan favourite. Indeed, by 1997, it had probably taken on greater significance for Reed as well, given that he had started a relationship with Laurie Anderson by this time.
You can check out the rendition below if you haven’t already.
