Slaying the Father Summary and Analysis

In the first excerpt from Bangs' "Untitled Notes on Lou Reed, 1980," Bangs praises Reed for creating music with the Velvet Underground that was both physically and mentally stimulating.

In the essay "Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves" Bangs lists a number of ways in which Lou Reed is unique with the most important being that he is willing to be interviewed again by Bangs even after reading the first one. Bangs writes that Lou Reed is his hero because "he stands for all the most fucked things that I could ever possibly conceive of" (Bangs, pp. 171). Bangs and Reed begin their interview by combatively insulting each other and Bangs claiming Bowie imitates Reed, while Reed dismisses Iggy Pop as being derivative. This leads to an argument over stimulants. Bangs then asserts that Reed's music is about...