DANGEROUS MINDS : Rachel Humphreys [profile]

 Rachel Humphreys and the art of the muse

Will Howard

Fri 27 March 2026 18:00, UK

While this is nominally an article about Lou Reed, there’s one thing to clear up beforehand. Anyone who tries to tell you that transgender people weren’t around when they were growing up is either lying to you, ignorant or a third, even more tellingly, the kind of people we were trying to hide from in the first place. 

Because it’s true, transgender people have been around for as long as people have been around. Going about our business despite the sheer number of people who think we’re a blight on humanity who need to be removed. It’s a living, I guess. 

Trans and gender-nonconforming folks have been around for centuries, but, like many other folks, were shoved into the “alternative” sides of life by mainstream society. Then, they became a lot more visible in the 1960s and 1970s. The breakthrough came either by people like that becoming semi-mainstream celebrities or, more famously, inspiring great works of art. 

This was especially the case with Lou Reed. The Velvet Underground frontman was never the stadium-slaying pop star that he clearly wanted to be in the 1970s, but he was still more than a cult concern. He was touring the world, worshipped by hundreds of thousands and playing music inspired by his life in the New York City LGBTQ+ scene. One where he found people he loved both platonically and, in the case of Rachel Humphreys, romantically. 

Humphreys was a tough kid raised on the streets of New Jersey in the way that Reed himself only ever pretended to be. A Texan girl of Mexican Native descent, Reed met her in the early 1970s and was immediately infatuated with her. Telling his biographer for Lou Reed: A Life, “I’d been up for days, as usual, and everything was at that superreal, glowing stage. I walked in there, and there was this amazing person, the incredible head, kind of vibrating out of it all. Rachel was wearing this amazing makeup and dress and I was obviously in a different world to anyone else in the place.”

Rachel was seemingly genderfluid at the time, using male and female pronouns and switching her coding and presentation by the day (no, gender fluidity isn’t new either, do keep up). However, by the time she and Reed began dating, Humphreys had settled into her identity as a transgender woman. She joined Reed’s touring crew as a hairdresser, and for a period of time, they were completely inseparable. At least for a period of time. 

Eventually, Lou Reed gotta Lou Reed, and possessed an almost supernatural ability to bully anyone and everyone in his life. 

(Credits: Original Press Cuttings)

How did Lou Reed ruin everything? 

Reed was never private about his love for Humphreys. It would be difficult to be, as the vast majority of his music was inspired by her, but it wouldn’t be the first or last time that a cis musician hid his trans girlfriend from the world despite owing her his success. No, she turned up in his lyrics and even on the art of his albums. The album most directly influenced by his time with her, Sally Can’t Dance, has an incredible portrait of her on the back cover 

The couple had a three year anniversary party in 1977, which many took as a tacit wedding party. However, like many couples, that was when everything started to fall apart. The heart of the issue was gender affirming surgery. According to friends of Humphreys, Reed would talk about wanting Humphreys to go through with the procedure (something which Humphreys herself was only too happy to oblige), however, whenever Humphreys actually got the chance to go through with it, Reed categorically refused to let her. As if he had any say in that conversation whatsoever. 

The relationship was clearly on the rocks and in 1978, Reed and Humphreys were done. Seemingly, Reed moved on quickly but Humphreys never did, reportedly spending most of the 1980s homeless before dying in 1990, aged just 37. Not much is known of the circumstances of her death but she died in Saint Clare’s Hospital, an institution that specialised in helping those affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. One can work it out. 

Humphreys wasn’t the only trans woman who inspired Lou Reed. This was the man who wrote ‘Candy Says’ after all, the trans community had always been a part of his music. While he depicted them with grace and love in his music, those were feelings he seemingly couldn’t muster for them in real life for longer than a few years. Such is the way for most women who inspire the music of so-called “great men”, whether cis, trans or otherwise.

René de la Bush

Lou - Sally Can’t Dance 25/09/1984 Capitol Theatre

Billy Strings & Sierra Hull ‘Soldier’s Joy’ | Rick Grenda Facebook / Doc Watson, David Grisman, & Jack Lawrence ‘Soldier's Joy’

Speaking of Billy . . . . . oh you wanted something to compare his Led Zepp cover to?! . . .  here with super special mandolin player (and singer!) Sierra Hull. Soldier’s Joy . . .it’s about drug misuse you know!?

Billy Strings & Sierra Hull ‘Soldier’s Joy’ 

found here on Rick Grenda

where people were discussing what Soldier’s Joy referred to and that this version matches Doc 

Watson's version from the sixties (no argument from me!) The song tune is over 200 years old and 

has of course its roots in Scottish reels and Irish fiddle tunes, the term ‘Soldiers Joy’ eventually 

came to refer to the combination of whiskey, beer, and morphine used by Civil War soldiers.

Soldier's Joy performed by Doc Watson, David Grisman, & Jack Lawrence

The Traveling Wilburys - Tweeter And The Monkey Man [written by Boo Wilbury]

 

Traveling Wilburys Tweeter And The Monkey Man

[by Lucky Wilbury]

George Harrison ("Nelson Wilbury" or "Spike Wilbury”)

Jeff Lynne ("Otis Wilbury" or "Clayton Wilbury”)

Bob Dylan ("Lucky Wilbury" or "Boo Wilbury”)

Tom Petty ("Charlie T. Wilbury Jr." or "Muddy Wilbury”)

Roy Orbison ("Lefty Wilbury")

Patti Smith 1971 (by the legendary Dave Gahr)

Amongst my favourite pictures of Patti and my favourite haircut of hers!

patti smith photographed by david gahr at the chelsea hotel in new york, 1971

Billy Strings - Led Zeppelin cover! Ramble on 2022

 We know Billy from his country style finger picking but are folks aware of his rock cover work? I know he has adopted a life of sobriety now and well done Billy but was he drinking here? The poster of the clip didn’t seem to know so I went a searching!

Well he claims to be eight years+ sober so yes he was sober here and yet the elf ears and covering Led Zeppelin came as a surprise to this admirer! 

full clip below

Billy Strings - “Ramble On” Asheville, NC. Oct. 31, 2022

Björk - ‘Unplugged’ 1994 photo by Eddie Monsoon

 

I sometimes I forget quite how beautiful Björk actually is

Rare pictures from Björk's MTV Unplugged show in London in 1994. 

Photography by Eddie Monsoon

BOB DYLAN and band - 'In The Summertime' Loreley Germany 17-7-1981

 Rare Dylan . . . . . great song and a rare outing for it . . . . but it's classic Bobby 

Band:

Carolyn Dennis, Clydie King, Fred Tackett, Jim Keltner, Madelyn Quebec, Regina McCrary, Steve Ripley, Tim Drummond, William ‘Smitty’ Smith

It is officially the First Day of Summer here so . . . . .obviously it’s bloody freezing!

Mon Capitaine! Man With The Woman Head - Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa et al

 Man With The Woman Head - Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa et al

“are you with me on this people . . . . . . ?"

David Bowie - Heat [The Next Day] | jt1674

  . . . terribly melancholic . . do we think he knew he was ill around this time . . . so doom laden

https://www.tumblr.com/jt1674/812269557586788352/david-bowie-heat

Rock & Roll, When the Fire Was New (1938-1963) (A Butterboy Compilation)

 VA - Rock & Roll, When the Fire Was New (1938-1963) 

(A Butterboy Compilation) (4 x CDs)

ROCK & ROLL TIMELINE

"Before you drop the needle on this first track, let me tell you what you’re about to hear, 

because this isn’t just a box set, it’s a journey, and it’s meant to be heard in order.

What you’ve got in front of you is a timeline. Not a greatest-hits package, not a list of 

familiar names pulled out of context, but a story that unfolds track by track, year by year, 

from 1938 to 1963.

I start in 1938 because that’s where the ingredients are already on the table. 

There’s no such thing as rock & roll yet, no name for it, no category, but you can hear the 

forces gathering. 

Gospel fire, blues phrasing, jump-band swing, rhythm starting to matter more than polish. 

The music is getting louder, leaner, more physical. You can feel it wanting to move.

As this set rolls into the late 1940s, you’ll hear something click into place.

 By 1947, records start aiming directly at the body. 

The beat hardens. “Rocking” stops being a metaphor and becomes instruction. 

By 1949, the sound isn’t a fluke anymore, different artists, different studios, all arriving 

at the same rhythmic truth. That’s when rock & roll becomes recognizable, even before

 it’s officially named.

Around 1951, you’ll hear the moment when the world starts calling this thing rock & roll. 

DJs say the words. Labels market it. Cars, speed, youth, rebellion, it’s all suddenly right

 there in the grooves.

Then comes the stretch most people think they already know, 1954 to 1958, but here, 

you’ll hear it as part of a flow, not a highlight reel. This is rock & roll at full voltage, 

short records, big attitude, no filler. Rockabilly, R&B, vocal groups, instrumentals, 

all coexisting, all pushing the same beat forward. One thing to listen for here: 

no artist repeats. That’s intentional. 

This music wasn’t built by a few giants, it was built by many hands, 

often just passing through the charts once, but changing everything while they were there.

As we move into 1959 and beyond, listen closely, because this is where things

 start to stretch and pull apart. 

The sound gets smoother in places, stranger in others. 

Dance records, girl groups, surf guitars, soul polish, folk influence, 

rock & roll is everywhere 

now, but it’s no longer one voice. It’s becoming many.

And that’s why this set ends in 1963. Not because the music stops, far from it, 

but because the story changes. 

After 1963, rock & roll doesn’t disappear… 

it evolves into rock. Bands take over. 

Albums matter. Scenes form. The rules are different.

So, this box captures how rock & roll is born, how it finds its voice, how it peaks, 

and how it finishes becoming what it was always meant to be.

My advice is don’t shuffle this. Let it play straight through. 

Listen to how the beat hardens, how the attitude shifts, how the edges smooth out, 

and how, by the end, you can hear the door opening to an entirely new era.

This isn’t nostalgia. This is history, spinning at 45 revolutions per minute. 

In The majority of cases, I have used the original label mono versions.

Alright… let’s go back to the beginning." (Butterboy)

                         ==========================================================

Now we’re talking! The roots of Rock ’n’ Roll tight there and a thesis from our Butterboy