Top Ten Spiritual Lou Reed Songs

One of rock’s music most important and influential figures has died. Lou Reed, 71, succumbed to liver failure on Sunday seven months after receiving a liver transplant.

To say Reed was a giant in rock music is an understatement. If he hadn’t played a single note after his band Velvet Underground disbanded, he would have been regarded as one of rock music’s best songwriters and musicians. But a 40-year solo career — with understandable ups and downs — added to his legacy. His work was defiant and sensitive street poetry, with examination of the bright spots and dark corners of the soul. To quote one of his best solo songs, he had a legendary heart.

I heard months back that Reed had been ill. But he appeared to be on his way to making a recovery. He even posted on his web site he was benefiting from the marvels of modern science. I expected him to survive because Reed always battled and won. No matter what he confronted, he passed through many dark nights of the soul. Like Jacob he wrestled with the angel and walked away.

His battleground was often New York City. And that made sense. Like a modern day cross between Babylon and Jerusalem, the city went through these phases during his career: bohemian center, hip and exciting world of possibility, a downtrodden mess with characters on the fringes, a sea of distance between the haves and have nots. And Reed looked at it all.

A journey of darkness and beauty

Reed was capable of some of the most transcendent and beautiful moments in modern music. And also some of the darkest and most disturbing. It was that way right from the beginning. On the Andy Warhol supervised “The Velvet Underground and Nico” way back in 1967 there was the tenderness of “I’ll Be Your Mirror” and the darkness of “Venus in Furs.” He wrote about the high of heroin where “I’m gonna try for the kingdom.” It’s a need for spiritual transcendence that was channeled into the wrong place. But that was Reed’s career: the search for transcendence and truth — no matter where it would lead him.

And it was an authentic spiritual search compared to most pop music at the time. Just think about what was going on in the late 1960s when The Velvet Underground released their seminal four studio albums. Now everyone’s forgotten about “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,”  “Incense and Peppermints,” and all that “if you’re going to San Francisco be sure to wear some flowers in your hair” stuff that was popular at the time.

But people still care about the The Velvet Underground — who sold few records at the height of the hippie era. But time was on their side. They were the anti-hippie band that paved the way for punk rock and alternative music. One of the things that made The Velvet Underground stand out was their spiritual search through the underside of New York’s non-hippie world. They found a kindred spirit in Andy Warhol. who was from working class Pittsburgh and could also see through all that hippie gobbleygook.

Spirituality from Velvet Underground to Hudson River sounds

For me, if there was one album that encapsulated Reed’s spirituality it was the third album simply called “The Velvet Underground.” Every song seemed like either a spiritual epiphany or a modern-day psalm. With its mostly sparse folk-rockish instrumentation, everything from infidelity to spiritual transcendence was covered. It all ended with “After Hours,” a complex ode to hopeful isolation.

Reed himself was born Jewish, but by the 1980s he was committed to Eastern religion. He was a devoted follower of Master Ren Guangyi and even sometimes brought him on stage to perform tai chi. Reportedly, he did tai chi up until the day he died. And his final solo album (before the collaboration with Metallica called “Lulu”), was “Hudson River Wind Meditations,” a non-New Agey soundtrack for meditation comprised of natural sounds recorded by Reed himself.

Reed’s career was one of the greatest spiritual expressions in pop music. He died too soon. He’s one of the great artists that the world is a worse place when we no longer have their insights. Here are ten essential spiritual Lou Reed songs in chronological order:

1. “I’ll Be Your Mirror” (1967)

This song sung by Nico is the perfect introduction to some of the spiritual themes Reed would explore in his career. At the center of it is providing truth and insight in times of doubt:

“Let me be your eyes
A hand in your darkness, so you won’t be afraid
When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you’re twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind.”

2. “Beginning To See The Light” (1969)

From the Velvet Underground’s stunning self-titled third album which is packed with spiritual songs. Here, Reed is having an epiphany, a transcendent experience of understanding where he realizes that “some people work very hard and still never get it right.” By the end of the song he joyfully asks “How does it feel to be loved?”

3. “Jesus” (1969)

No sense of irony here. Reed is looking for Jesus to lift him out of a dark place and a downward trajectory to find his “proper place.” This is one of the best pop songs about grace ever written.

4. “I Found A Reason” (1970)

A beautiful song that sounds like a modern-day hymn. The singer has found a reason to go on — to keep living. What’s the reason? A spiritual love that makes him aware of what really matters and what life is about at its core. A resolution, a poem of making peace with oneself and with life. With moments of deep insight:

“I do believe you are what you perceive
What comes is better that what came before.”

5. “Perfect Day” (1972)

A song of contentment and peace. But with an undercurrent that it won’t last. The line that “you just keep me hanging on” and the ending line “you’re gonna reap just what you sow” are ominous indications that this perfection may end. But for now there are no problems and for a moment he believes he’s someone good.

6. “Coney Island Baby” (1975)

What starts as a story about wanting to play on a a football team in school turns into a mystical desire for acceptance and redemption through love.  Only Reed can get away with it. Within the disappointments and regrets of life comes a realization. Although  “the city is a funny place/something like a circus or a sewer” there’s hope because “the glory of love might see you through.” Love — or even the hope of love — transforms.

7. “Strawman” (1989)

This album is a tour of New York told from the perspective of a middle-aged man who is outraged at injustice and the twisted values of the political power structure, excessive materialism and religious hypocrisy. This is an anthem-like summation of everything Reed covered in this album. And there’s going to be some ultimate Old Testament style justice here. An oppressor known as “the strawman’ will end up in hell with the devil for company.

8. “Work” (1990)

From Reed and John Cale‘s album “Songs For Drella,” a tribute to their mentor Andy Warhol. The song starts off with Warhol finding an answer in a Catholic Church —  the answer is work. Something in him created this work ethic, which seems like a spiritual desire to create. It’s something that Reed as narrator wants to live up to. It’s a song about the importance of a mentor and the spirituality of artistic creation — which in the end might be defined as good works.

9. “What’s Good” (1992)

The “Magic and Loss” album is mostly about death and is a tribute to two of Reed’s friends who recently died. It confronts mortality straight on. This song wrestles with what’s left when you’re hit with the unfairness of disease, death and loss. Perhaps there’s no more profound spiritual statement in Reed’s entire catalog than the concluding line: “life’s good, but not fair at all.”

10. “Mystic Child” (2000)

A magnificent song from Reed’s “Ecstasy” album. Like “Heroin” it appears to be a mischanneled search for transcendence. On a “holy morning” there’s a character or a series of characters who wrestle with alcoholism, mental illness and other demons. Is he saying there’s a thin line between transcendence and madness? Or is this a song about lost souls? Or will their dark journey ultimately lead them to a true mystical experience?