John Cale, who co-founded the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, is one of the latest musicians and artists to pay tribute to the late rock star. Reed died on Sunday and Cale mourned his death with an emotional statement.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Cale said that this was “the news I feared the most,” noting that despite their rough relationship over the decades, losing one of them is “incomprehensible.” He wrote that all of the “fury” between the two is available for everyone to hear on vinyl. “The laughs we shared just a few weeks ago, will forever remind me of all that was good between us,” Cale wrote.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, before issuing a statement, Cale remembered Reed on Facebook. “The world has lost a fine songwriter and poet…I’ve lost my ‘school-yard buddy,’” he wrote.
Cale can be heard on the Velvet Underground’s first two albums and left in 1968. He later worked with Reed again for 1990’s Songs for Drella and in 1993 for a Velvet Underground reunion. However, disagreements between the two rose again and they did not record together again.
Reed died on Sunday in New York, following complications from a liver transplant earlier in the year. He made his final public appearance on Oct. 3 in New York, where he promoted his new book Transformer.
Here is Cale’s full statement:
“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.”
image: Wikimedia Commons
