There are musicians and there are musicians, and then there are exceptions. Mr Lou Reed would have to be one of these exceptions.

From the early days of Velvet Underground, Lou has honed his own unique style of New York rock & roll poetry, and this has evolved & carried thrugh to the present day.

His 1989 album New York would have to be one of my all time favorites. Not because it is indicative of Lou's music, but because it is also the exception.

This album is pure poetry, from the opening track "Romeo Had Juliette" you are sucked in to Lou's hard hitting spoken lyrics, and by the time "Dirty Blvd" rolls around you can almost smell the Hudson River! New York is like an aural photo collage, exposing the rotten core at the centre of the Big Apple.

Lou wields his guitar like an AK-47, taking pot shots at polaticians, religious figures, and the somewhat racist middle America (Sample Lyric: "Give us your tired and your weak, and we'll piss all over them!), and much metaphorial blood is left on the walls.

When once asked what he would like to come back as when he dies, he was heard to utter "a guitar amp!"

Lou Reed is one of the headliners at this year's LIVID FESTIVAL (2000) in Brisbane, and this writer will not be missing it for quids!

- Micky Monad