Book review: Lou Reed: The Last Interview and Other Conversations - something to talk about
In a series that offers the thoughtful, provocative and impish responses of such great writers as Jorge Luis Borges, James Baldwin, Roberto Bolano and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Melville House now presents Lou Reed.
by various authors
Melville House
When I saw the latest entrant in Melville House's "Last Interview" series, I almost did a spit take.
In a series that offers the thoughtful, provocative and impish responses of such great writers as Jorge Luis Borges, James Baldwin, Roberto Bolano and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Melville House now presents Lou Reed.
That Melville House, a nimble Brooklyn publisher, would publish a book about the quintessential New York rocker is no shock. But a book of interviews with Lou Reed, a notorious interview hater and journalist basher?
But don't take my word on that. Let the man speak for himself, as he did in a 1989 interview with David Fricke in Rolling Stone: "I don't like being interviewed. Why would anyone want to be interviewed? Anybody in their right mind? Why would you, if the position was reversed, want to sit here and have me ask questions about you?"
Unsurprisingly, Fricke's discussion with Reed is the only truly successful journalistic interview in this collection of six; it was published a few months after the release of New York, his finest album. The other five pieces here can be described as interview-based encounters with Reed displaying varying levels of intransigence. Reed devotees will want to read and own this book; music publicists may want to use parts of it in professional development training.