Lou Reed's Death Garners Outcry From David Bowie, Morrissey and More

Lou Reed has passed. By this point, you probably are well aware. When a rock legend dies, it’s breaking news. Not only do headlines scour the front pages of top publications, but fellow musicians spread the word by sharing their condolences and sorrows with their own fans.

In the wake of Reed’s death, a handful of rock heroes have expressed their own misery as well as their admiration for the late musician. “He was a master,” David Bowie wrote on his website, along with a special photo of the two of them.

Morrissey posted a goodbye note on True to You, quoting his own song “Life Is a Pigsty,” that reads as follows.
“'Oh Lou / why did you leave us this way?'
No words to express the sadness at the death of Lou Reed. He had been there all of my life. He will always be pressed to my heart. Thank God for those, like Lou, who move within their own laws, otherwise imagine how dull the world would be. I knew the Lou of recent years and he was always full of good heart. His music will outlive time itself.
We are all timebound, but today, with the loss of liberating Lou, life is a pigsty.
'7 glasses used to be
called for six good mates and me
now we only call for three'”

Reed’s former bandmate, John Cale, who was the founding member of Velvet Underground and a longtime collaborator and friend, left his own sorrowful remarks.

“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.”

The world has lost a legend. At 71, Lou Reed has left us. His legacy, however, will ripple on through the tremendous love and respect he has earned throughout the industry. There will always be a piece of him in rock music, a piece that will never die.