Description
Book SynopsisIn August of 1970, 28-year-old Lou Reed quit the Velvet Underground, moved home to Long Island, New York, and embarked on a fascinating alternate creative path: poetry. Spending months in relative isolation, the musician refashioned himself, publicly vowing to never again play rock and roll. Reed wrote verse and contributed his work to journals and small press publications. “I’m a poet,” he proclaimed from the stage of St. Mark’s Church in March 1971. Though his retirement from music wouldn’t last—only six months later he began recording his debut solo album—Reed’s passionate identification with the written word was solidified, and would last the rest of his life.
Do Angels Need Haircuts? is an extraordinary snapshot of this turning point in Reed’s career. This book, the first to be produced by the Lou Reed Archive, gathers poems, photographs from the era—by Mick Rock, Moe Tucker, and others— as well as images from rare poetry zines. Featuring a new foreword by Anne Waldman, archival notes by Don Fleming, and an afterword by Laurie Anderson, Do Angels Need Haircuts? provides a window to a little-known chapter in the life of one of the most singular and uncompromising voices in American popular culture.
Trade ReviewNot just for diehard devotees of Lou Reed. If you like those strange things called books, you’ll probably find something interesting here from the man who was an inspiration to Bono and Bowie and The Sex Pistols and a million others -Independent
As a poet, he must be counted as a solitary artist. And so, Lou, thank you for brutally and benevolently injecting your poetry into music. -The Guardian
Leaping from the quotidian to the profound in the space of a line [Reed’s poems often bury their wisdom in deadpan humour] - Dazed Digital
The poems echo many of the qualities of Reed’s songs that fans throughout the decades have loved: his sensitive portrayals of society’s outsiders... unique approach to gender fluidity, deliciously vicious streak, and an arguably under-celebrated sense of humour- The Times UK
The book, which also includes photos and other ephemera, is a fascinating glimpse into a tangent that Reed’s biographers tend to gloss over. - Pitchfork "These Are the Best Lou Reed Books"
Lou Reed may be punk's godfather, but he also figures in a great American poetic lineage including the Beats and the New York School—and a new book of his writing, Do Angels Need Haircuts?, offers compelling evidence. . . . [Do Angels Need Haircuts] shows an artist at a crossroads. . . . Reed's message-in-a-bottle to his mentor, like the rest of Do Angels Need Haircuts?, is a touching portrait of the artist as a young-ish man, following his muse, doing his work, tending his soul. - Rolling Stone
"Striking portraits and fascinating ephemera" - Mojo UK
"Taut and contemporary" - The Times
“ [Do Angels Need Haircuts?] can be read in the same 45 minutes or so that it took Reed to record it—but you can be haunted by it and think about it and return to it and consult with it for a heck of a lot more than 45 minutes. If this is what we can expect from archivist Don Fleming and his stewardship Reed's incredible legacy, we have much cause for optimism. . . . Reed really did evolve tremendously as an intellectual over the course of his life, so to see such a detailed, close-up crystallization of this one rather short season at its culmination on that one-of-a-kind evening is incredible. The portrait it paints of him is so specific and clear it's easy to say it makes you feel like you were there that night." - Megan Volpert, PopMatters
"A line that could have been written by an angry young poet from Trump’s America... penned decades previously, by the bard of New York’s grimy rock’n’roll underbelly: Lou Reed." Don Fleming, The Guardian
Table of ContentsForeword We Are The People, 3 Playing Music is Not Like Athletes, 5 Whiskey, 7 This is Not The Age of Curtsy, Barely Civil Strangers Passing, 9 Force It, 11 He Thought of Love in the Lazy Darkness, 13 Since Half of the World is H2O, 15 Lipstick, 17 A Bed Trip, 19 Do Angels Need Haircuts?, 23 Spirited Leaves of Autumn, 27 The Murder Mystery, 31 Archival Notes, 57 Afterword, 67
