Lou Reed didnt seem hung up. Not on [1969 Live]. The cross dont seem his true shape. The boy on this record was riding a wave—seeming in a state of suspended joy. Longing checked in some roadhouse like Steve McQueen in Baby the Rain Must Fall. Not Mick Jagger no muscular sailor just ONE caught in a warp in some lost town and rising. The Velvets winding up the Sixties laying one long clean rhythmic fart across the West called Live in Texas; with Lou Reed winking right in the eye of that fart. I mean these boys may been outa tune but they were solid IN TIME….

And who beyond the performer is the most hungry for poetry in any form but the children the new masses and Lou Reed KNEW it—never played down back then—cause he knew that youth can eat the truth…. I...