Former Velvet Underground member John Cale released a statement with regards to the passing of Lou Reed. Though the two had a volatile relationship, with Cale leaving the band in 1968, only to reunite with Reed on 1990′s Songs for Drella, then for a Velvet Underground reunion tour in 1993, which once again saw Cale and Reed vow to never work with one another again, they seemed to have had a mutual respect for one another, and even kept in touch, according to the statement (which describes the two sharing laughs as recently as several weeks ago). In a statement yesterday, Cale wrote “The world has lost a fine songwriter and poet….I’ve lost my ‘school-yard buddy.’” In the statement released today, Cale elaborates:
“The news I feared the most, pales in comparison to the lump in my throat and the hollow in my stomach. Two kids have a chance meeting and 47 years later we fight and love the same way —losing either one is incomprehensible. No replacement value, no digital or virtual fill…broken now, for all time. Unlike so many with similar stories—we have the best of our fury laid out on vinyl, for the world to catch a glimpse. The laughs we shared just a few weeks ago, will forever remind me of all that was good between us.”
Reed died yesterday from a cause currently unknown, though the rocker did recently receive a liver transplant earlier this summer.
[via Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly]