David, Lou, and Bono hang out at Syracuse University
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Oh man, this is an unreal meeting.
Lou Reed was honored with the George Arents Pioneer Medal For Excellence In The Arts by his alma mater, Syracuse University. Besides Bowie, Bono was there as well to honor Lou. Now, I think I would have actually gotten pretty nervous if I had been given the chance to squeeze in the middle of a pic with Lou Reed, Bono, AND David Bowie. One on one would be super-cool, all three at the same time near mind-blowing for me. These guys didn’t just play music, they defined my entire generation for me. If you were way out there, you were a Lou Reed fan walking on the wild side. If you were into exploring alternative sounds and weren’t intimidated by distractions such as sexuality or hipness, you were into David Bowie. If you wanted to impress the babes and hopefully score, you were into U2. The rest of the stuff was pretty safe depending on which trend you bought into. By being into Reed/Bowie/Bono combined, you pretty much told the world you were into intellectual qualities of music such as the lyrics. These guys didn’t write rap and hip hop, they wrote stories, sagas, tragedies, and ethical odes that meant something.
So, why do you suppose a rocker like Lou Reed would be honored by Syracuse University? That’s where he got his degree. Honorary anyway, in English. Reed credited his musical writing style to a professor he had at Syracuse, Delmore Schwartz. Reed described it as “to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music,”. In other words, to tell a story. Intelligently.
No one even tries any more. And, the three best at doing that were all there in the same room at the same time. Lou’s last real hit was over 30 years ago and people are still honoring him. I wonder how many hitmakers of 2007 will be remembered in 2037?
Tags: award, bono, david bowie, Events, george-arents, Lou-Reed, syracuse
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2 Squawks to “David, Lou, and Bono hang out at Syracuse University”
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University Update Squawked:
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:22 pmDavid, Lou, and Bono hang out at Syracuse University…
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dlt Squawked:
May 27th, 2007 at 3:20 pmThe Bicentennial
Three years after Walk On the Wild Side, as I
Entered high school, I
Thought Andy’s Chest wasPure nonsense, so I wrote a
Song, pure nonsense.Then I discovered
The beauty of suicide, Delmore Schwartz’s
Baudelaire.Now I wanna
Ride Cycle Annie, and
Be a tiger in a tank
