Interview of Lou Reed (1974)

Australian press conference, 1974: short answers only

Lou Reed’s 1974 Australian press conference, in the season of Sally Can’t Dance and the live album Rock n Roll Animal, is mostly a refusal of the interview format. Questions arrive looking for scandal, for the Velvet Underground past, for a confession the room can print. The answers come back cold, short, and hard to turn into copy. Between the shrug and the sarcasm you still hear a working musician: a man who knows how much truth a pack of microphones deserves, and who will not spend one extra word on their questions.