Lou Reed Sails on Hudson River Wind Meditations: The Echoes Interview
Before he died in 2013, Lou Reed created an ambient album called Hudson River Wind Meditations that tapped into his spiritual side. Now that the album is being re-released in a deluxe edition, we go back to our interview with Reed talking about it.
Lou Reed was an iconic figure in modern music. The founder of The Velvet Underground, he provided a counterpart to the hippies and flower power of the era, trawling a darker and seedier side of life. As a solo artist, he did the same thing, with a lean, distorted guitar sound and songs that were often grittier than a back alley. But there was another side to Lou Reed as well, one that’s experimental and meditative. He was a disciple of Tai Chi and that brought him to a different state of mind that you can hear on his on the 2007 CD, Hudson River Wind Meditations. It was an all-electronic disc of drones and ambiences. And if you listen close, you might detect some Velvet Underground samples. We don’t play Lou Reed often on Echoes for obvious reasons, but I thought: when else would I have an opportunity to interview him? Lou Reed talks about a meditative river, on Echoes from PRX.