The Shockoe ExaminerBlogging the History of Richmond, Virginia: Lou Reed

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Lou Reed

Yes. I know. Lou Reed has nothing to do with a history blog on Richmond, Virginia. He was most associated with New York City but like any real artist his work was universal. I'm a fan and its my web site. And I'll do what I want.

I saw Reed at the Mosque with a dear friend in the late 1980s. He played the National here in Richmond just a few years ago - wish I had gone to that. Here is "Sweet Jane" from December 21, 1973 from a concert at the Academy of Music in NYC. That's Stephen Hunter on guitar. This recording was released the following year on Rock 'N Roll Animal. Here's what the AP has to say about Reed today. More about Lou here.

- Ray.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Those were the days. Lou Reed was like an island on that stage. Fortunate to hear Kirsty MacColl sing "perfect day" on a St Patricks in late 90s. Most memorable vocal. Most memorable song.; October 28, 2013 at 12:35 PM

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Contributors:

Ray Bonis:

Ray worked at VCU Libraries' James Branch Cabell Library from 1989 until 2021. He is the co-author of Virginia Commonwealth University (2006) and Greetings from Richmond (2009) - an architectural history of the city.

Selden Richardson:

Architectural historian and author of Built By Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia (2006), The Tri-State Gang in Richmond: Murder and Robbery in the Great Depression. (2012), and Richmond Murder & Mayhem (2023)

On History:

"The dead were and are not. Their place knows them no more and is ours today...The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at cockcrow."
-- G. M. Trevelyan (1876-1962) from his "Autobiography of an Historian," An Autobiography and Other Essays (1949).

Key Dates in Richmond History
(more to follow)

1737 – William Mayo laid out the original street plan for the town of Richmond on land provided by William Byrd II.

1742 – Chartered as a town

1780 – Virginia’s state capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond.

1782 – Incorporated as a city.

1788 - Virginia State Capitol building completed.

1860-1865 – Serves as capital of the Confederate States of America.

1910 - Manchester, the city located just south of the James, is consolidated with Richmond.

1949 - Oliver Hill (1907-2007) elected to City Council, first African American since Reconstruction.

1968 - Virginia Commonwealth University created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia and Richmond Professional Institute.

1977 - Henry Marsh elected as first African American mayor of Richmond.

2009 – Shockoe Examiner founded.