Redtree Times

I don’t normally like to put posts with music in them too close to one another but while watching the Winer Olympics I keep seeing an ad with Lou Reed‘s Perfect Day carrying the message.  I can’t even remember what the ad is for but I always stop when it comes on to hear Lou.

It’s a funny thing how the world has come around.  When I was listening to Lou Reed many ages ago, the idea that his songs would be used as the motor for commerce seemed totally inconceivable.  His songs were not pretty.  His songs were not sentimental in the way we normally see sentiment.  They were about seamy people on the grubby side of town.

And Lou was not a pretty voice.  His plaintive flat tones lent a matter-of-fact feel to his lyrics of drug use, sexual ambiguity and street-smart losers.  Not the stuff of your normal pitchman.

I remember a Christmas when my brother gave me the album Rock N Roll Animal and all Christmas Eve and most of the next Christmas day my stereo was blasting Sweet Jane and Heroin through the house.  Not exactly holiday cheer but when you’re young and pretty much stupid, you don’t fully appreciate the occasion.

But time passes and the mainstream shifts, and what was once verboten now is the stuff of TV ads and supermarket background music.

I don’t know if there’s a point here.  I just wanted to play Perfect Day for you.  Have one yourself…