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Friday, July 29, 2022

Song of the Day for LOU REED :: Stephanie Says [- on Watching Lou Reed - AUTOPSY: The Final Hours ]


“Stephanie Says” by The Velvet Underground

"Stephanie says that she wants to know why she’s given half her life to people she hates now."


I watched the episode of the UK TV series Autopsy: Last Hours of. . . . . on Lou Reed last night and it left me indescribably sad. Fascinating and a no holds barred punch about drug addiction (and alcohol!) but the doctor who does the programme is just excellent. A terrible toll to bear but a lifetime of drugs will do that. Put in context of the times when mental health was treated with barbarity (still is to a degree) and the drugs he started to be given way back in his formative years played a terrifying part in Lou's 'treatment' and psyche over the years. Thorazine he came across when treated in mental hospital but to favour that over Benzos to come down from his love of 'Speed' is a tad brutal but he was exceptionally strong to have lasted until he was 71! The programme was followed by the episode on Andy Warhol but I couldn't take anymore and had seen that one before . . . . . . .😢

Sad but I can think of worse ways to go than to have spent the night before cuddling my partner on the living room floor as she rubbed my back and upon waking in the Long Island garden sunshine to be held in the arms of Laurie gently doing Tai Chi as he slipped away. The pain is over now Lou

😢

AUTOPSY: The Last Hours of . . . Season 9 (February 11, 2018 – October 6, 2018) Channel 5 UKTV

Reed had suffered hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterwards, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71

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