Lou Reed’s favourite song by Tom Waits
Lou Reed was never shy about sharing his musical opinions. He once declared, “The music is all,” but made it clear that not all music was created equal. He brandished Jim Morrison as nothing but a “silly Los Angeles person” and one time stated that he didn’t think British people should be allowed to make music. But on the flip side, he was happy to celebrate the music and artists he loved.
All in all, Reed was simply a fierce defender of the art form. He took music and its power incredibly seriously, saying, “Rock & roll is so great, people should start dying for it.”
He added, “You don’t understand. The music gave you back your beat so you could dream…The people just have to die for the music. People are dying for everything else, so why not for music? Die for it. Isn’t it pretty? Wouldn’t you die for something pretty?”
When he passed, not only did he leave behind an insurmountable musical legacy, but he also left a playlist of the music he loved. He stayed excited by music to the very end, keeping his Spotify playlists up to date with the new songs he loved alongside some of his all-time favourite picks, including one track by Tom Waits.
It makes sense that Reed would love Waits. As artists, the two are often compared. Both seem to exist in the same lineage, travelling the same path from rock and roll to wild experimentation. While Lou Reed began in the Velvet Underground, one of the most formative rock bands in history, he soon became interested in more left-field sounds. The journey from an album like Transformer with classic hits like ‘Satellite of Love’ or ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ through to more divisive projects like Berlin or Street Hassle was one of singular vision and determination to push his limits.
Waits has moved in the same way. When he first emerged with tracks like ‘Martha’ or ‘Please Call Me Baby’, he was a classic rock crooner with the energy of a drunkard playing the piano in the corner. By the 1980s, he was unrecognisable from that starting point as albums like Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones seeing him turn well away from his roots and towards something newer and weirder.
As the years rolled on, both of the artists only got more experimental. They both earned major respect for their singular visions and dedication to their own unique sounds. It was clearly a feature Reed respected in Waits as he picked out ‘Bad As Me’ as a favourite track from his 2011 album of the same name.
Whether this is his all-time favourite Waits track or not, who knows, but what it does show is that Reed was clearly keeping up with Waits’ career, enjoying his new record in the last years of his life as he remained just as much of a music fan as he ever was.
