June 4, 2013

Lou Reed gets a liver transplant.

His wife Laurie Anderson said: "It’s as serious as it gets. He was dying. You don’t get it for fun."
She described the operation as “a big surgery which went very well”, adding: “You send out two planes – one for the donor, one for the recipient – at the same time. You bring the donor in live, you take him off life support. It’s a technological feat. I was completely awestruck. I find certain things about technology truly, deeply inspiring.”
The linked article, in the UK Telegraph, brings up this old quote of Reeds':
"I take drugs just because, in the 20th century, in a technological age living in the city, there are certain drugs you have to take just to keep yourself normal like a caveman, just to bring yourself up or down. But to attain equilibrium you need to take certain drugs. They don’t get you high even, they just get you normal."
That made me think of the old Velvet Underground song "Train Round the Bend":
I'm sick of the trees
Take me to the city...
Hey, I am just a city boy
And really not the country kind
Oh, I need the city streets and the neon light
To see the train comin' round the bend...
Yes, I've heard about that light you see coming.

57 comments:

madAsHell said...

....but I just saw him at the gym, and he was kick-boxing!!

jr565 said...

Maybe it was also him waiting for his man a bit to much. Not to mention the Heroin. And the white light/ white heat.
And searching for his mainline. And him over in the corned doing it again with his calamine lotion.
And he was busy sucking on ding songs.
In short - liver transplant

Methadras said...

The entire process of organ transplantation is macabre from beginning to end. The horror stories by families who've had loved ones organs taken without their consent should make this industry extinct. Oh, I can hear the stories of the courage of those who donate their organs or make the decisions for them, but being kept alive just so your organs can be 'harvested' is truly mortifying. It's an evil practice and it needs to be stopped.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There is something wrong with the song links.

Ann Althouse said...

Song link fixed.

Thanks for the heads up.

ricpic said...

James Brown's the devil made me do it = Lou Reed's the city made me do it = I refuse to take responsibility for my fuckups.

Ann Althouse said...

Reed was right that we have the human body that evolved in an environment in which we no longer live. We are not adapted for this. It's a wonder we can do it. Me sitting here tapping on computer keys, staring at a screen. What would an animal evolved to do what I do actually look like?

It's not as if the drugs are really a way to get to that imagined evolved animal that we presumably ought to be if this is what we're doing.

He was only saying the so-called natural state can't possibly be right.

m stone said...
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m stone said...
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Sydney said...

There was a time that if you ruined your liver through your own abuses, you did not get someone else's liver to make it OK.

Bob Ellison said...

He might look like this.

Kevin said...

I can't believe I've gone this long and not known that Lou Reed is married to Laurie Anderson.

Henry said...

I did not know he was married to Laurie Anderson.

gerry said...

What would an animal evolved to do what I do actually look like?


Is that a tautology?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Reading that article Meth linked to @11:39 and connecting the earlier supreme court DNA swab decision to it, makes me believe Gattaca is even closer than what any of us might be willing to admit.

Julie C said...

Evidently he had very easy access to large amounts of Tylenol.

Damn drug companies.

BigFire said...

It does help to be rich and famous to be able to get the liver. Reed haven't exactly been shy about his drug and alcohol abuse.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There was a time that if you ruined your liver through your own abuses, you did not get someone else's liver to make it OK.

I remember there was some grumbling when Miki Mantle got his.

Though Mantle was very popular, his liver transplant was a source of some controversy. Some felt that his fame had permitted him to receive a donor liver in just one day,[39] bypassing other patients who had been waiting for much longer. Mantle's doctors insisted that the decision was based solely on medical criteria, but acknowledged that the very short wait created the appearance of favoritism.

Now?... not so much.

jr565 said...

Ann wrote:
Reed was right that we have the human body that evolved in an environment in which we no longer live. We are not adapted for this. It's a wonder we can do it. Me sitting here tapping on computer keys, staring at a screen. What would an animal evolved to do what I do actually look like?

What if there is no evolve? WHat if there is only adapt?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Julie C.

jr565 said...

There will never ever ever be a time where an animal will evolve to do what you do. An ape might be able to bash out pages on a typewriter, but only because apes have hands similar to our which will allow him to bash out pages on a typewriter. A horse, will never evolve to get such hands.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I drink way too much booze but I eat lots of Braunschweiger so I'm hoping things balance out.

jacksonjay said...

BigFire sez:
It does help to be rich and famous to be able to get the liver. Reed haven't exactly been shy about his drug and alcohol abuse.

Mickey Mantle and Pat Sommerall come to mind!

Robert Cook said...

"What if there is no evolve? WHat if there is only adapt?"

Do you think there's a distinction?

Kirby Olson said...

Laurie Anderson dropped off my radar about twenty years ago. Amazing that here she is again, married now to Lou Reed.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

What would an animal evolved to do what I do actually look like?

You, a law animal.

Paco Wové said...

"It does help to be rich and famous to be able to get the liver"

Is it common for people in their 70's to get liver transplants? I thought that once you got past a certain age you weren't considered worth the effort.

Valentine Smith said...

Fuck Lou Reed and his cow of a wife. I hope "greedy and stupid Americans" aren't bearing the lion's share of the cost. Fucking junkie piece of shit. Reminds me of the daughter-fucking degenerate John Philips who got 2 livers.

Robert Cook said...

I heard a scientist of some sort or other on tv a few years ago suggest that humans had essentially stopped evolving, as we had obviated the necessity for it: with our technology we adapt the world to ourselves and therefore need no longer adapt ourselves to the world.

I do not necessarily agree with him, although I take his point and think it an interesting view. Evolution is such a long, slow process, that we wouldn't easily see it, (if at all), given our limited perspective.

Anonymous said...

Yes, organ donation, a terrible evil....tell that to Bagoh20.

Fucking jerk, Methadras.

Rabel said...

There have been some complications.

But seriously - "living donor liver transplants." They can cut out 70% of your liver, the entire right lobe, and it will grow back completely in a few weeks. That just don't seem right.

sakredkow said...

"New Liver Complains Of Difficulty Working With Lou Reed"

Onion Story

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The Onion Rocks.

Palladian said...

Fuck Lou Reed and his cow of a wife. I hope "greedy and stupid Americans" aren't bearing the lion's share of the cost. Fucking junkie piece of shit. Reminds me of the daughter-fucking degenerate John Philips who got 2 livers.

Someone needs a chill-the-fuck-out transplant.

Known Unknown said...

Been there, made fun of that

Strelnikov said...

"I drink way too much booze but I eat lots of Braunschweiger so I'm hoping things balance out."

Thread winner.

Strelnikov said...

Why is that old pederast married? I mean, to a women? Assuming Laurie Anderson is a woman. Having seen her act, I'm not so sure.

I'd be more interested in this if he had done anything even remotely interesting since "Rock N Roll Animal".

TMink said...

I find the hate toward Laurie Anderson surprising. She is an intriguing artist who has made some great records in my view. She also invented an electronic violin in which the bow was strung with a piece of recorded tape and pulled across a tape head where the bridge of the violin should be. The most famous application was a tape of William Burroughs saying "Listen to my heartbeat" from Sharkey's Day. Or was it night?

For the record, she was also a babe and got a job as an art history lecturer in a NYC college despite knowing nothing about the subject, ancient Egyptian art.

She is really quite fab in my eyes.

Trey

KCFleming said...

I am also a Laurie Anderson fan, big time. Lover her storytelling and songs.

Let X = X is one of my favorites.

There is not an age limit to transplants, but more of a 'likelihood to survive' limit.

I am not against Reed's transplant. Human life is good. That we can do such a thing is a miracle.

Might as well, since Obamacare will weed out the lesser among us soon enough.

Lydia said...

Can't stand Laurie Anderson. She's one of those bright lights, like Susan Sontag, who behaved most ignobably after 9/11 -- remember her performance of "O Superman" in NYC the week after? Some of the lyrics:

Here come the planes.
So you better get ready. Ready to go. You can come
as you are, but pay as you go. Pay as you go.

And I said: OK. Who is this really? And the voice said:
This is the hand, the hand that takes. This is the
hand, the hand that takes.
This is the hand, the hand that takes.
Here come the planes.
They're American planes. Made in America.
Smoking or non-smoking?
And the voice said: Neither snow nor rain nor gloom
of night shall stay these couriers from the swift
completion of their appointed rounds.


You might enjoy watching her reflect upon that day as well.

Methadras said...

Inga said...

Yes, organ donation, a terrible evil....tell that to Bagoh20.

Fucking jerk, Methadras.


I'm not talking about bag, you unfathomably stupid drech? I'm talking about the practice of organ donation and harvesting as it stands know and the industry that has been built around it as a whole. I don't even know about bag's situation, nor is it any of my business, but clearly, you are so intimidated by my view of the subject that you lashed out again, like a shit throwing monkey. Want your banana, baboon ass?

Palladian said...

I find the hate toward Laurie Anderson surprising. She is an intriguing artist who has made some great records in my view.

No hate here, either. I love Laurie Anderson (she's a really nice person to boot). She is, by far, the more talented partner in that marriage.

Methadras said...

Yeah, I'm not sure about the Laurie Anderson hate. She was one of the primary users of the Synclavier synthesizer, which at the time was a phenomenal instrument. Her and Peter Gabriel too.

Anonymous said...

Yes you WERE talking about Bagoh and anyone who receives a transplant you disgusting hypocrite. May you go straight to hell you sinner and hater.

Anonymous said...

I bet Methadras will need a liver one day, may he be a victim of his own hatred and biases.

Paco Wové said...

"remember her performance of 'O Superman'"

What's the problem? Those are the correct lyrics.

Methadras said...

Inga said...

Yes you WERE talking about Bagoh and anyone who receives a transplant you disgusting hypocrite. May you go straight to hell you sinner and hater.


Show me, anywhere in what I said, that I was specifically talking about bag or anyone else who receives a transplant? I'm indicting the industry, not the people who receive from the industry you stupid ignorant fuck. Your usual dementia is taking over again, you poor senile dear. Please, go back on your meds, or the box of 2 buck chuck that you swill. I won't be needing a transplant liver ever, you know why? First of all, I'm not a rapacious drunk like you are. Secondly, I live a fairly healthy lifestyle of moderation that doesn't impugn on my liver functions. Also, because I would rather die, than accept someone else's organ.

You see, you lowlife scumbag, I don't stoop to the shit level you live in. My dog's shits are better than you, you stupid uninformed ignorant bitch.

Anonymous said...

Bullshit Meth head, everyone here knows exactly what you meant. I hope that one of your children never need a transplant and doesn't get it, I do however hope you end up needing one and are denied. That is exactly what you deserve you human piece of offal. I predict an early death, much suffering and eventual eternity in the burning fires of hell and deservedly so.

Burn you piece of dreck!

Anonymous said...

Also I suspect you are a victim of Bovine Encephalopathy, with your brain shrinking and shriveling and desscicating into nothingness. Soon your teeth will fall out of your skull into the sink as you wash your shit ridden face, because you spew nothing but bullshit. Your foul breath reeks of death! May you soon face your mortality and beg God for forgiveness, as you most defiantly need to, your sinful bag of pus!

Anonymous said...

Did you get that you dung beetle. Eat shit and die.


:) gee that made me feel great!

Anonymous said...

And no I'm not smiling at you, you toothless moron, meth.

Palladian said...

Her and Peter Gabriel too.

Don't forget Zappa!

bagoh20 said...

I just wanted to get my liver fixed, but they said it was cheaper to just trade in the old one. The woman who gave me hers was not gonna need it anymore, and it was either give it to me or let it rot. Now, of course that's a tough call, so I flipped a coin. The thing is, if mine was not fixable, why couldn't they let me take it home? Well, the doctor said because I'm not allowed to drink Chianti anymore, and where the hell do you find Fava beans anyway?

Rusty said...

There's a waste of a perfectly good liver.

tiger said...

It's amazing how the rich can buy their way to the head of the line.

Reed didn't deserve to moved up.
Neither did Jobs or David Crosby and yet a 10 year old girl is being left to die because she can't move up the list for a lung transplant.

But as we all know 'money talks'.

Belial said...

Well, I just wanna know, who's gonna go and walk HIS dog?

Tompkins said...

methadras, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about when it comes to organ transplants. i know a number of people who's lives were saved by transplants. it's beyond ignorant when a person prints a bunch of incorrect information, as you did. in addition to your absolutely wrong information, you laced it with opinion straight out of the dark ages.