THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Power Of The Heart: A Tribute To Lou Reed is a star-studded album celebrates the pioneering singer-songwriter’s enduring influence — as well as the timeless appeal of his songs — through performances by some of Reed’s closest friends and musical peers.
The lineup includes Keith Richards, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, The Afghan Whigs, Bobby Rush, Maxim Ludwig & Angel Olsen, Mary Gauthier and Automatic. Blending generation-defining hits like I’m Waiting for the Man, Walk On The Wild Side and Perfect Day with lesser-known gems, the collection spans the artist’s five-decade-long career, from his earliest days with The Velvet Underground to his groundbreaking solo work. Some quotes from the partipants:
Keith Richards: “To me, Lou stood out. The real deal! Something important to American music and to ALL MUSIC! I miss him and his dog.”
Maxim Ludwig: “Lou Reed is why I write songs, why I read books, and why I stand up for myself. Country music is three chords and the truth. Lou only needed two chords to do that.”
Angel Olsen: “Lou Reed is my earliest influence, my introduction to punk rock. This song was a great opportunity to creatively work with Maxim.”
Rufus Wainwright: “Lou Reed has been gone now for many years. He’s one of the few people whom I miss as much now as when he left. There are so many instances where I wonder what he would say or what he would think. His general aura would always lend something really unique to the room. Thank God he left his great music and recordings. His personality is sorely missed. Love you, Lou.”
Joan Jett: “I bought Lou Reed’s Transformer album after buying the single, Walk On The Wild Side, in the mid-’70s, wanting to learn more about that wild side. I fell in love with Lou’s vocal style, his descriptive, poetic, real life lyrics, and his song, I’m So Free. And I learned something, too, as I wanted to know the meaning of St. Germaine in this context.”
Bobby Rush: “Lou Reed was a great artist and writer. I feel blessed to be a part of a tribute to him. I’m glad that I was able to contribute Sally Can’t Dance, as a man that came from a dancing family and background. Most black men and women dance a lot. If Sally can’t dance, let me be the one to teach her how to dance. Like the title track of my album from 20 years ago, Undercover Lover, I want to be the undercover teacher… to teach her to dance underneath the covers. Sally will know how to dance when I get through with her.”
Rickie Lee Jones: “It was not easy to find a new way into his song. It evolved one night — an old woman at an old out-of-tune piano and turned a page of her life. The limerick passages of Walk On The Wild Side. A nasty schoolboy’s scribble on a wall. I changed the chords, added a bar or two, emphasized the dark conclusion of each verse. That double bass line is not only the most recognizable instrument on the original track, it is the only melodic instrument, so I opted for no bass, only a faint rumor of that mesmerizing line. Mike Dillion came in to play percussion and vibes. I called upon the spirit of James Booker and I, way back in the old days — or rather the old nights — in the French Quarter of New Orleans, singing whatever we wanted, to whoever was listening until the hour we could run off and get high somewhere in solitude. In this version I hear whistles, trains, voices in the night. There is noise. Yes, there, that is where Walk On The Wild Side lives, and can be made new, through the evolution of the spirit.”
Mary Gauthier: “Lou Reed’s music was vital to young people like me who felt stranded in the middle of nowhere. A rough urban song poet of astounding vulnerability and brutal honesty, he saw — and described — the world as it was. Pure emotion. Pure reality, immense compassion. I love “talk-singers.” That was Lou — his words were raw and real. But there was always melody. And always a (heart) beat. It would be impossible to count the small-town dreamers like me who followed his voice to find their own.”
Automatic: “This song (New Sensations) is about sobriety. The same way Lou was able to describe with intense detail, the feeling of doing heroin, he does with this song about the feeling of being sober: the heightened senses, enjoying simple pleasures, experiencing new sensations. This song captures that feeling of heading out on a journey of discovery, whether you’re on drugs or sober, it’s two sides of the same coin.”
Rosanne Cash: “Lou seemed fearless to me; like he’d rather die than be a people-pleaser. I took inspiration from that.”
Brogan Bentley: “The Power Of The Heart is Lou’s love song to Laurie Anderson. I aimed to embody the vulnerability and softness of Lou’s love for her and the love we’ve all experienced for another person at some point in our lives. When we access the Power Of The Heart, we access an infinitely loving spiritual intelligence that has the power to transform anything and everything.”
