David Bowie on Lou Reed, Writing and New York | American Masters: In Their Own Words

I come here no to your 50th birthday party at Madison Square this is absolutely fantastic evening and I I know he's saying a queen I'm waiting for the man dirty Boulevard yeah I'd like white heat tell me about those songs why does song um I think well firstly waiting for the man I think is probably the most important of the four in a way then manager brought back an album it was uh it was just a plastic demo album of Velvets very first album in 1965 ish something man and he was particularly pleased because Warhol had signed the sticker on the middle I still have it by the way I still have that album and he said well the I don't know why's doing new to this musics as bad as his painting I'm gonna like this so I I'd never heard anything quite like it it was a revelation to me and then so so influenced your own writing and music in some way I think um yes tentatively it influenced what I was to do for the next few years I don't think it out rightly I don't think I ever felt that I was in a position to become a Velvets clone but there were elements of what Lou was doing than I thought we just unavoidably right for both the times and for where music was going one of it was the use of the of cacophony as background noise and to create a kind of an ambience that had been hitherto unknown in rock I think and the other thing was the the nature of his lyric writing which for me just it smacked of things like Hubert Selby jr. and that had recently been the last exit in Brooklyn which under also John Ritchie's book cities of the night both books of which made a a huge impact on me and the loose writing was right in that ballpark it was Dillon had certainly bought a new kind of intelligence to pop some writing but then Lou had taken it even further into the avant-garde and had it had its roots in Baudelaire and Rhambo and that side that other thread of history which isn't talked about very much which it is now of course now it is history but at that time it was merely a thread it wasn't considered important in fact I couldn't ask for anything better than what you just said was wonderful you introduced Lou that night as the king of New York and Chris Walken is in the audience and I felt awful outdoors he said hey I'm the king of New York so of course you are with us that's you I have all the royalty here I said well it's the New York that I want to know about I think they're probably everybody has their own New York but for me New York was always James Dean walking out in the middle of the road and it was always the the village and it was always it was the beats and he was so her and it was that kind of the bohemian intellectual extravagance that made it so vibrant for someone like me growing up in quite a gray suburban tournament filled South London environment it seemed to be that seemed to be the heart the network of life you know and it's where we all wanted to escape to if we've people who like me we wanted to out and we wanted into places like New York far more so than the west coast right I noticed that that then Ivan de tulear playing it was so much sort of fun on stations that Lou I could see loose face was just so happy and just talk a little bit what it's like to play those songs with Lou it's it's strange working with Lu that's the first time we've actually worked like that together since the time that we may transformer and all I could see was luggage but the interesting thing was because we'd sort of one period not see much of each other is that these were suitcases I didn't know about I wanted to see what was in them over the last year or two we've reacquainted with each other and and it's so nice at this time in our lives I think to kind of look back and see that we both had considerable artistic successes since we both began and it's nice to feel that you've contributed in a fairly major way to how music how your chosen art has progressed because it's the way that one wanted it to do when you started off you think I know what I wanted to do you know I think both of us feel that we we did what we set out to do which was change the course of the river a bit you know there's this relationship between the two of you those are very rare to transatlantic connections that is yeah music I think and that's extraordinary to me yes I think the influence is back and forth I think there's a mutual regard for the differences between ourselves and we both as you obviously know that we have very different backgrounds also I think that we probably have different interests in life but there are certain areas where we definitely mean I think in visual terms and also in literature I think we both have very similar likes both Burroughs nuts and he was taught by Schwartz wasn't he generous for it yeah yeah yeah thanks right a teacher that's right thanks for laborious work yes I am yeah yeah who talks about that as being he sees that the great stories of Schwartz is a sort of a way that inspired him to write his own songs into very condensed material I know you've sort of quoted once the John Lennon about how he said my quote here say what you mean yeah Leonard I think yeah Lew did to grasp that very quickly say what you mean Ryan make it rhyme and put it to a backbeat and and and Lew was always very concise like that he never wasted words hey that's maybe a secret to your own writing I don't know I think I get a lot more elaborate I mean I tend to be far more Baroque than Dan Lew but that's the British in me I say what I mean eventually haha I tend to go the long way around them I transformer of course was a tremendously important transitional record for Lou and can you talk a little bit about that album that had walk in the wild say the first time you heard it did you how did it change from that moment the thing is with Lou he was so generous to work with I mean I was petrified that he said yes he would like to sort of work with me and with me in the producer capacity because I had so many ideas and I felt so intimidated by my knowledge of the work that he'd already done I mean even though those sort of only that much time between us it seemed like Lou had this great legacy of work which indeed he did have and that I've it felt impertinent of me to kind of recommend that we do things in certain styles in certain ways but he just gave the whole project over to me and I really hoped that I wouldn't let him down you know I really wanted it to work for him and be a memorable album that people wouldn't forget yes he let me choose an awful that all the musicians for it and of course Ronson was a major major part yeah yeah baritone sax player one time is in the top three in the world with Gerry Mulligan his name's Ronnie Ross sadly not with us anymore here's Travis oh I don't know things like that it must have been maybe 73 I don't know you you was it to 72 indeed there you are other songs enable go very quickly vicious vicious I mean I love the fact that they that the record company at the time I think was asking I did agree that walk on the wild side was a classic a wonderful song absolutely brilliant but I I really wanted them to bring out vicious thinking bring out vicious as the second single I'm not sure that they ever did but I thought that would have been a great single I think looking back on them of course they're all such memorable well crafted and well-written pieces of work it's almost like ah there we are I mean there's so many songs on here that should and could have been and probably will be one day singles by other bands I'm sure let's see let's give let's give satellite of love to blur and we'll give perfect day to suede vicious to placebo you see I mean there's so many songs here that could definitely make up to RuPaul I suppose probably do for New York telephone conversation I did create I take that glamour I'll grant you I'm sorry you've lost me there at land rock nope

Channel: American Masters PBS

Views: 480,897

Keywords: American Masters Documentary Public Television Service, Biography, Profile, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Transformer, I'm Waiting for the Man, Songwriting, Lyrics, Cacophony, Velvet Underground, New York City, Literature, Timothy Greenfield Sanders

Id: P4kUmYoc1rE

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 13 2016