Lou Reed Hates MP3s

Stares into soul, soul stares back

Lou Reed hates MP3s! What a hater! (Just joking.) Reed was gently interviewed a few days ago on CBC Radio's Q with Jian Chomeshi (whatever that is) and you can listen to the podcast online.

A few small quotes about cameras:

• "I really love looking through the viewfinder. Things look better through the camera."
• "It's like having a private screening in a movie theater."
• "Crisper, cleaner, move things around... It looks better through it."
• "I don't read and write anymore, and I can't read a camera manual."

I know what you mean about that private screening, Lou Reed. Personally, I can't move things around when I look at them. :(

Also Lou Reed, you are only 67 years old! Why can't you read? I am saddened. Maybe he just refuses to?

Some longer quotes from Mr. Reed about cameras

Yesterday I had an extraordinary experience with a Leica S2. They'd come over to my place to demo it. I was playing around with it. And from across the room I took a picture of the keyboard of the Moog Mini Voyager. Which, when you look at it normally, it's a keyboard. And that's the end of it. And some dials. But when you look at it through the camera, put it in the computer and bring up part of the photo, it's amazing. So beautiful.

Then Mr. Chomeshi asked, "Can you describe what the Moog keyboard looked like?" No way!

Normally, the Moog keyboard looked like a Moog keyboard. A keyboard and a bunch of dials on it. But this caught the sun glancing off the keys, the transparency of some of the dials, even though it was in color, the black and white-ness of it. And it also is on a slight curve. It was like a dot of what I could see if I looked across the room.

Lou Reed then got down to the nitty-gritty. What we're all here for. DIGITAL VS. VINYL!!! No, wait, he talks about the difference between a camera and a guitar.

It's exactly the same as far as I'm concerned. I don't read and write anymore, and I can't read a camera manual. I can't read things that have long sentences. But I could look at pictures, or better yet if someone shows me something, then I can do that. And then there's just feel. And that's all that I am. Feel.

A digital camera can do a lot of other things. A lot of people like really old pedals, old guitars, 40's, 70's telecasters... I like modern things. I couldn't wait for them to come up with digital. Digital had my name all over it. A digital camera can do a lot of other things. There's always a tradeoff. Vinyl kills digital as far as recordings go. It's not even close. There's a clarity to digital that'll never have that warmth and pizazz that vinyl has. On the other hand, there's a lot of information you can put into a digital recording and clarity and hear a pin drop five miles away if that's what you want. The problem is you don't want it to sound sterile, and then you end up with an MP3, the worst sounding thing you can think of.

Lou Reed talks about the difference between architecture and landscapes.

I think there's some photographers and they put architecture and landscapes together. The grand canyon and the empire state building. Wall Street and a chasm... somewhere.

You have to listen to how he says that last sentence. Wall Street and a ... chasm ... .... ... somewhere. BAM. TAKE THAT FOR IMAGERY.

If you get a chance to check out Lou Reed's photography, you should. It is a collection of weird purple-y or black and white urban photographs of New York made with tinkered multi-thousand-dollar cameras.

Listen to it below.