Lou Reed has died. Time to get out those old Velvet Underground albums and say a prayer for his soul. Me and my high school friends, Lou Reed gave us such pleasure with his music. He was a broken man — he wrote and sang about very dark things, including drug addiction and prostitution — but out of that brokenness came beauty, at times, and even grace. The song in the clip above is one of his loveliest performances (I don’t think he wrote the lyrics, btw). I remember the winter of my freshman year in college, lying alone in my dorm room, sad and cold, listening to this over and over. I sing it in my heart for Lou Reed today. RIP.

UPDATE: I recalled just now that some critic said not many people bought Velvet Underground albums back in the day, but just about every one who did started his own band.