USA under Donald Trump – Lou Reed: Don’t be mean

Before Lou Reed became famous with The Velvet Underground, he studied English at the University of Syracuse in the state of New York in the early 1960s. There the Delmore Schwartz teaches creative writing. For Reed he was the “smartest, funniest and saddest person” he had ever met. Schwartz became his teacher and friend, even if he was no longer in the best condition. He died out of alcohol, pills and psychological crises in 1966, when the Velvets became known because they played on Andy Warhol’s legendary Mulitmedia parties.

A wild time started for Lou Reed. He was the singer, guitarist and composer of a band who hardly sold records, but later it was said that she was one of the most important bands ever. He explained that they would do the same as the writers William S. Burroughs, Hubert Selby, Allen Ginsberg and Raymond Chandler – “only with guitar and drums”. After the end of the Velvets, the music press reacted to Reed’s solo slats between heavenly high and sad.

With his second album “Transformer”, produced by David Bowie, he landed a brilliant litter in 1972, the songs are still played today (“Walk on the Wild Side”, “Perfect Day”, Satellite of Love “). With the plates he recorded afterwards, he was at best considered a hero of the bathroom button, while his lifestyle was adequate that of the late Delmore Schwartz. But in 1982 the album “Blue Mask” appeared in 1982, of which cover looked like a negative of “Transformer”. Werned up with a small, fine ribbon, this was a masterpiece of an artist who had decided against self-destruction: music as a rock ‘n’ roll literature on fear, alcohol, violence, neuroses and delmore Schwartz.

At that time, the construction of the “Trump Tower” was in the final phase in New York. At the height of 204 meters, it was the first megalomania of the later president and was inaugurated in 1983. Until then, Donald Trump had mainly reached the headlines through his dazzling first wife Ivana Trump, he himself was too boring, even if he always claimed the opposite. In contrast, Reed on “Blue Mask” notes: “I am an average type that tries to stay on the floor.”

Both were New York, Reed was 39, three years older than Trump, who organized everything in the future to at least make a brand out of his name: wrestling shows, miss elections, reality TV and so on. The fact that he wanted to become president at some point was actually just a marketing gag.

On “Blue Mask” there is a song in which Reed dreams of being the President of the United States: “I dreamed that I would end ignorance, stupidity and hatred (…) I dreamed that I was incorruptible and fair to everyone. I dreamed that I was not rough and mean or criminal. ”Above all, he dreams of forgetting the day when John Kennedy died. No matter what one thought of him, whose murder on November 21, 1963 became the national trauma of the United States, as later 9/11. Older Americans asked each other: “Where were you when Kennedy died?”

In the song “The Day John Kennedy Died” Reed describes how he experienced this day: in a bar, football was running on TV, and then the screen was black and a spokesman said that unconfirmed reports were shot at the president – “it could be that he dies or is already dead”. Then nobody talked to the bar, and Lou Reed ran onto the street “where people stand and talk about it everywhere and what they said on TV.”

Lou Reed sings so sadly and fragile that you want to cry. The first short story that Delmore Schwartz had published in 1938 was called “in Dreams Begin responsibilities” – responsibility begins in the dreams. In “The Day John Kennedy Died” Singing Reed: “I dreamed that I was young and smart and it would not be a waste of time / I dreamed that life and humanity would have a point.” This is the anti -program too Donald Trump, as a cashier from 1982.