The Lou Reed songs dedicated to Delmore Schwartz
Everyone has their biggest creative influences, and Lou Reed‘s is certainly the poet and short story writer Delmore Schwartz. Reed was a student of Schwartz at Syracuse University, and he once gave him the biggest of praises, saying: “Delmore Schwartz is everything”.
Schwartz was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1913, and a significant event in his life arrived when his parents separated a time when he was nine years old. It was his parents’ turbulent marriage that became the subject of his most famous short story ‘In Dreams Begin Responsibilities’, published in 1937.
Throughout his career, Schwartz’s prose and poetry drew acclaim from some of the most significant literary figures of the first half of the 20th Century, including T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound. Schwartz went on to become the youngest winning of the Bollingen Prize when he published his Summer Knowledge: New and Selected Poems collection. In his later years, he taught creative writing at six universities, including Syracuse, where he taught Lou Reed.
Reed dedicated two songs to his mentor throughout his career; the first is ‘European Son’, the final track from The Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. Reed selected ‘European Son’ for Schwartz dedicated because it contained the least lyrics on the album, as rock lyrics were something that the ever-poetic Schwartz detested.
Many years later, Lou Reed released ‘My House’ on his 1982 solo album The Blue Mask. The album’s opener is a profound ode to Schwartz, with the lyrics explaining that his ghost wanders around Reed’s house, always on his mind. “My friend and teacher occupies a spare room/He’s dead – at peace at last, the Wandering Jew,” Reed sings.
Reed then describes performing a Ouija board séance where Delmore’s spirit visits him and spells his name out. From there, Reed touchingly tells of how he misses his mentor and alludes to his literary knowledge. He sings: “Delmore, I missed all your funny ways / I missed your jokes and the brilliant things you said / My Dedalus to your Bloom / Was such a perfect wit / And to find you in my house / Makes things perfect.”
Reed had also written a poem for Schwartz simply entitled, ‘Oh Delmore, how I miss you’ as the introduction to Schwartz’s book In Dreams Begin Responsibilities. Schwartz looked to have been a massive influence on the life and artistic work of Reed, and he was sure to pay his respects to him throughout his career.
