Lou Reed: Drug King Animal
Amsterdam 1973
Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature. He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air.
Lou Reed, believer in the Iron Cross, visited the Anne Frank Huis on 20 September 1973. Maybe the image of the writer in hiding and saddled with their parents struck a painful chord with him, recalling his own days out on the Island, licking his wounds with his folks post-VU. Probably not. September 1973 Lou was a drug-addled domestic violence specialist. Using smack, speed, booze, anything he could get those musician hands on. Beating his wife from pillar to post, Lou Reed, moving through the air.