Hal Willner and Lou Reed get down and sorta brief at SXSW. All photos by Kimberly Chun.
Lean, not so mean, and ready with both sage music-biz advice and disarming wisecracks - that was SXSW keynote speaker Lou Reed, chatting comfortably with collaborator-producer Hal Willner two hours ago today, March 13, at the Austin Convention Center.
The pair discussed Reed's new concert doc capturing his 1973 LP, Berlin, at the behest of Julian Schnabel who considers the record one of his favorites. Reed talked about recreating the album in Europe, "but it won't be here. But not in LA. Music business town. Not in the states."
They showed a clip from the film of his band playing "Men of Good Fortune" with particular intensity. Cribbing from his own 2007 film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Schnabel drifts watery, transparent, shadowy imagery, seemingly pulled from the photo collage backdrop behind the band. The group includes guitarist Steve Hunter, Willner pointed out. Reed added that Hunter was in the Rock 'n' Roll Animal band, which was actually Alice Cooper's combo. "It's emotional music - that's what's so great about rock 'n' roll," said Reed. Berlin was marked by the time: 1973, a time much like our own. "Don't you agree? Terrible."
"Julian Schnabel said it's the most romantic record ever made," said Willner.
"It initially made me think of Othello and Desdemona. It made me think bout jealousy, peaks of jealousy. In that sense it's more romantic to feel that attachment to another person that turns into physical abuse because you love them so much. I don't know anyone who isn't jealous, not even a monk."
A cell phone goes off. And Reed's ears get pointy. "What does 'Turn off your cell phone' mean in Texas - or there a special way of saying it like, 'Howdy!' Or 'shove it in a cow!' What? JOKE! Have you heard the cowtipping joke? I heard someone was cowtipping. Gave him five bucks."
The two talked about the first project that brought them together: Willner's Brecht tribute album. "As a result of that project, I developed relationships with two people, Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull. If as a kid my parents knew that, they would have smothered me."
"Instead they moved to Florida," Reed deadpanned.
A lean - and slightly fuzzy - Lou.
Willner asked a slew of questions from the audience including one about what Reed thought of the impact the Velvet Underground had on Vaclav Havel and his homeland's so-called "Velvet Revolution." Did he think that music would be able to inspire political action? Can music do the same today?
"I asked President Havel, 'Can music change the world?' He said, 'Not in itself but it can change the individual person, make them not feel alone in their belief.' The government was very afraid of young people in Czechoslovakia getting together and singing songs, because if they could sing songs together they could start talking about their situation."
The interview ended with a moment of levity from Lou, quoting a musician he would only ID as "blank":
"'Touring is like going to jail. You don't want to get fucked.' And on that note..."
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