With Halloween approaching it seems only right to bring back this sadly underappreciated (or perhaps too-true-for-further-comment) post on Lou Reed’s poor efforts at trick-or-treating as Fonzie.
This post initially appeared 10/31/08.
Think Lou Reed + Rock Fashion and, thanks in large part to his period with The Velvet Underground, you think cool shades, lots of black clothing, maybe that striped shirt he used to wear in the VU, genetically challenged rock hair, and leather. Leather is supposed to be cool and Lou is supposed to be cool. It should be a marriage made in heaven, right?
Nope. For the last 30 years the guy’s been wearing soft, floppy, “adult” leather jackets, the kind a middle-aged, suburban accountant might throw on when hitting the town. Who’s been buying Lou his leather jackets over the years, his mom?
I don’t meant to pick on any of the Hall’s middle-aged, suburban accountants with well-meaning moms. We do not need to be held to the standards of an icon of rock cool. Lou, however, has been clueless about the role of leather jackets in rock for just about his entire career. The rock leather jacket is supposed to be tough, with a severe cut and a lived-in look. Hell’s Angels didn’t wear puffy leather jackets with floppy lapels, so why should Lou? It’s time we call bullshit on him and save both Lou and ourselves, as rock fans, from heading any further down this hopeless path.
Remember when you were a kid and you wore fresh, white sneaks to school? Your friends couldn’t wait to step all over those bad boys and scuff them up a bit. These were good friends. Does Lou have no friends or lackeys willing to step on his brand-spanking-new leather jackets? This problem didn’t begin with the ’80s Lou, when we might have been willing to write off some puffy leather jackets for other middle-aged rock icons. Even when he was working the leather for all it was worth he looked like he grabbed his duds off a rack 5 minutes before the photographer snapped the shot. Not cool.
In an extensive search of the Web, following is the closest I could find to a shot of Lou in a cool leather jacket. Not bad, but not exactly what I’d like to see of proof that the guy ever really lived in his leather. It’s Halloween, folks, and I fear that Leather Lou has been nothing but a costume for the man.
Your challenge, Rock Town Hall, is to find us photographic evidence of Lou comfortably wearing a cool leather jacket, the way Icons of Rock Cool are supposed to be able to carry off the Leather Look. If no evidence is available, I will ask you to counsel Lou about his leather choices.
Lou is a big enough man to grow from your advice.
That leather trench coat in particular is hideous.
At least Lou never wore one of these: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSNQH5xBirTD48370y0jH0nt_HHfXwDubqXWsF-5qHnG7GtmOSSQgC5pg (Bonus: that’s Puddy from the Seinfeld show in the photo)
I guess no one ever gave him one or he would have.
Perhaps the leather sets off his teeth.
I was reading an interview with Lou in a recent edition of one of the UK music mags (Mojo? Uncut? Record Collector? can’t remember which) allegedly tied into the super deluxe reissue of VU & Nico. The interviewer mentioned that his bottom front 4 teeth were silver. Who knew?
And, for those keeping score, he never said how VU & Nico (or any album for that matter) was how his music was really meant to sound.