“He was like a sun”
Rosanne Cash and Rickie Lee Jones acknowledge the all-powerful influence of Lou Reed
WHEN Rosanne Cash moved to New York in the early 1990s, it was inevitable that she’d run into Lou Reed. Reed dominated New York much as Cash’s father ruled Nashville, and it wasn’t long before Cash and Reed were performing together at a songwriter showcase at The Bottom Line. The next time they met, backstage at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden, Reed asked for her number.
“He was angling for a date, but I laughed and told him it wouldn’t be a good idea,” says Cash.
“I was very wary because his reputation was brutal, but he was always so kind and respectful to me. We became friends, and when I was editing a book of songwriter prose, I asked him to write a piece based on one of his songs. It was beautifully written, but there were a couple of scenes that bordered on porn. My dad was going to be in the book, so I called Lou and said I couldn’t include it because it would make my dad so uncomfortable. Lou was very sweet and understanding.”
Cash has now contributed a version of “Magician” to a forthcoming Lou Reed tribute album, The Power Of The Heart. It includes Keith Richards’ cover of “I’m Waiting For The Man”, as well as solo Reed songs by Angel Olsen, Joan Jett, Rufus Wainwright, The Afghan Whigs, Rickie Lee Jones, Lucinda Williams and Mary Gauthier.
The collection was helmed by Bill Bentley, who first met Reed in 1988
“His reputation was brutal, but he was always so kind and respectful to me” ROSANNE CASH
when hired to PR the New York album. “I was in LA, and usually they divided publicity between East and West Coast,” says Bentley. “But Lou had stepped on a few toes in New York, so I did the whole thing. You had to go with the Lou rules. He wanted people to be loyal watching him flower again, as he’d been taken for granted.”
When compiling The Power Of The Heart, Bentley was keen to highlight songs from Reed’s solo career. He found that female singers, including several from the Americana tradition, were particularly eager to contribute. “Lou would have loved that, as he had very strong relationships with women throughout his life,” says Bentley. “He had a feminine appreciation that turned women onto his music. Women were able to tap into his emotions because he wore them on his sleeve – he was very direct, and that also speaks to the country tradition, where there’s no hiding.”
Cash decided to sing “Magician” having seen Reed perform the entire Magic And Loss album at Radio City in 1992. “That blew me away because it was a very artful, dark record,” she says. “It gave me courage to perform an album of my own in sequence, which I did with Black Cadillac. My version of ‘Magician’ really pulls out the dreamy, druggy elements. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there are so many female Americana artists on this record. Lou really liked roots music, he was open to all of it, so the presence of all the Americana artists makes sense to me. His chord progressions and harmonies are not that complex, so the delivery can be easily adapted.”
This is evidenced by Rickie Lee Jones’s new version of “Walk On The Wild Side”, which draws out the jazzy feel and beat phrasing of the original. “‘Walk On The Wild Side’ remains one of the most fascinating, wonderfully beautiful sonic voyages of vocal music,” says Jones, noting that Lou Reed’s influence on songwriters of all stripes is stronger than ever. “People have grown in the direction of Lou’s music, not just this song. He was like a sun.”