Walk on the Wild Side, RIP Lou Reed

Out of context, out of my head

I can only imagine what Lou Reed lived through. The first time I heard this song was with my dad, I was around 7. The ‘Doo, do, do, doo’ was catchy and I was trying to be cool with my dad because he always felt like more a distant friend.

Later while on stage for my ‘second’ song at the ‘895'-this song reminding me of when I was too tired to really pull something off and just kind of wanted to ‘phone it in’. The lights shining bright, the late night smell of tired feet, worn perfume and mouthwash to mask the odor of the blunt I just hit.

Then last Saturday my NY Times push notification reads “Rocker Lou Reed dies at 71". I’m lying in bed on a lazy Saturday with who I hope is my last, great love-don’t we wish they all were? But really it feel different. So in homage I cue up ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ and I think of the chorus and the back-up singers. Seems like anyone really gets their due, look at how much Lou Reed contributed to pop culture and how it seeps into our current mainstream culture.

It’s just so strange how one song can transcend memories from a young girl trying to discern how this ‘dad’ fits into her model of a parent. How being too tired and having this classic song as a ‘go-to’ for laziness and then again in bed with hopes of a dream that I don’t want dashed-listening with respect while cloaked in what can feel like an opiate of love.