Lou Reed's wife, Laurie Anderson, has posted an open letter online to the residents of Springs, East Hampton, the New York town where Reed passed away over the weekend. Writing in the East Hampton Star , she explained that last week she promised Reed that she would get him out of hospital and take him to his 'spiritual home' of Springs. "He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air," she wrote of his passing. Read the full letter below: "To our neighbors: What a beautiful fall! Everything shimmering and golden and all that incredible soft light. Water surrounding us. Lou and I have spent a lot of time here in the past few years, and even though we're city people this is our spiritual home. Last week I promised Lou to get him out of the hospital and come home to Springs. And we made it! Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature. He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air. Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us." Reed's cause of death was confirmed as liver disease by his doctor. Dr Charles Miller of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where the singer had liver transplant surgery this year and was being treated again until last week, confirmed the cause of death to The New York Times. Reed died on Sunday [October 27]. He was aged 71. Many other musicians have paid tribute to Reed, including David Bowie, John Cale and The Who. Morrissey has also written a personal tribute to Reed. You can hear Neil Young, Elvis Costello and Jim James cover a Lou Reed song here. You can read a 2002 interview with Reed from the Uncut archives here.
Lou Reed’s wife, Laurie Anderson, has posted an open letter online to the residents of Springs, East Hampton, the New York town where Reed passed away over the weekend.
Writing in the East Hampton Star , she explained that last week she promised Reed that she would get him out of hospital and take him to his ‘spiritual home’ of Springs. “He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air,” she wrote of his passing. Read the full letter below:
“To our neighbors: What a beautiful fall! Everything shimmering and golden and all that incredible soft light. Water surrounding us. Lou and I have spent a lot of time here in the past few years, and even though we’re city people this is our spiritual home. Last week I promised Lou to get him out of the hospital and come home to Springs. And we made it! Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature. He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air. Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us.”
Reed’s cause of death was confirmed as liver disease by his doctor. Dr Charles Miller of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where the singer had liver transplant surgery this year and was being treated again until last week, confirmed the cause of death to The New York Times. Reed died on Sunday [October 27]. He was aged 71.
Many other musicians have paid tribute to Reed, including David Bowie, John Cale and The Who.
Morrissey has also written a personal tribute to Reed.
You can hear Neil Young, Elvis Costello and Jim James cover a Lou Reed song here.
You can read a 2002 interview with Reed from the Uncut archives here.
