Remembering Lou Reed’s Darkness and Light

People were always keen to call Reed a nihilist, to play his public persona into a comment on his art in general. But no one could call the man who wrote “Pale Blue Eyes,” or “Candy Says,” or the songs from Magic and Loss a nihilist. Indeed, it was one of the great wonders and mysteries of Reed’s career that a man so man so apparently debauched and dark and cynical and often unpleasant could write songs so beautiful. 

And importantly, even his darkest songs were characterized by a sort of bruised compassion — they were never sentimental, but they were full of humanity.

read the article by TOM HAWKIN

Remembering Lou Reed’s Darkness and Light – Flavorwire: