“I thought I’d gone to heaven”: the one person Lou Reed owed his entire career to
Even if something doesn’t end quite so well, it doesn’t change the fact that at one point, it was great. That’s surely the mindset Lou Reed got into later down the line when a relationship that inevitably came to an end was once “heaven”.
In fact, Reed surely had to think that about a lot as his entire career, especially the era with The Velvet Underground, was full of comings and goings. John Cale quit at their peak, capturing their volatile creative relationship. Then in 1970, Reed himself quit, leaving the remaining bandmates to deal with the same complex love and frustration.
However, no one relationship in Reed’s life was quite as formative, or as fraught, as the one he shared with Andy Warhol – the pop icon and ex-manager he really owed his entire career to.
Sure, before Reed and the band met Warhol, they were already doing fascinating work. With Reed’s vast influences and the experimental streak every member brought to the table, they were bound to make some incredible work. In 1965, before the fateful meeting, they already had as Reed, Cale and co recorded a demo tape that featured early versions of future beloved tracks, including ‘Heroin’ and ‘Pale Blue Eyes’. It was clear that the content and the ideas were all there, but what was lacking was really any connection at all to a bigger audience.
Then one day, in one of those early and tiny crowds, there was the filmmaker, Barbara Rubin. The power of word of mouth is never to be underestimated, as Rubin whispered to Andy Warhol about this band she’d seen, and then suddenly Reed was swept up in the shining world of The Factory.
At that time, Warhol was king. He’d already done his soup cans and his Marilyns, and so now his name was the hottest thing in art. Looking to expand further, he was becoming more and more interested in film and multimedia, at first simply wanting to bring The Velvet Underground in to be part of his Exploding Plastic Inevitable roadshow and contribute some sounds to the production.
But as seemed to always be the case in Warhol’s world, ideas ran away with him. Quickly, the artist was locked in as their manager, helping them secure a record deal with Verve Records. He labelled himself as their producer to allow the band full creative control over their music, though he did strongly suggest, if not force, them to add Nico into the mix.
In the golden days, the connection between the band and Warhol was perfect. Through John Cale’s eyes, this was one of the happiest periods of Reed’s life as he said that Warhol’s Factory was “the best home he ever had, the first institution where he was understood, welcomed, encouraged and rewarded for being a twisted, scary monster”. It was a place where Reed felt not only understood, but also excited and passionate, surrounded by interesting people and feeling a sense of belonging and respect amongst their midst.
Warhol was setting them up with everything from shows to art projects, connecting them with all the right people and positioning them as the hottest band in New York City so passionately that they actually were. “I thought I had gone to heaven,” Reed said about the period, adding, “I couldn’t have been in a righter place at a righter time.”
In the end, the relationship would end complexly when the band fired Warhol in 1967 as they wanted to move away from the art scene and go harder on heavier, rockier sounds. For a good while, it shattered the friendship too, casting them out of the artist’s crowd. But still, at the end of the day, Reed could never deny the impact.
“You know, without Andy, I probably wouldn’t have a career,” he said. More so than Warhol’s helpful reputation, it was his encouragement that made the biggest impact, as the musician said, “He was right there saying what you do – everything that you do – is fine; don’t let anybody change it and keep it exactly the way it is. And that was Andy Warhol saying that, so that was enough for me, and it’s been enough for me up to this day. Andy said it was OK, so it was.”
Always holding a tender place in his life, Warhol forever loomed large in Reed’s heart, leaving him with immense grief after the artist passed.
