Diogenes still looking...

     

A few days ago we caught up with Diogenes still looking for an honest man.

We followed him from Washington and a meeting there with the US Press Gang ...

          

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... to Sydney, to observe a gathering of Rupert Murdoch and his attendants.

This was not Diogenes first visit to Oz. 

He was here in July 1974 when the Sydney Press pissed-off Sinatra with an article about his mafia connections and another on the women in his life, this latter headlined : 'Sinatra's molls'.

Diogenes was in the stalls of the Theatre of the Actors of Regard at Festival Hall, Melbourne a few days later when Sinatra hit back.

The verbal bombshell heard around the world was about to drop.
         

Referring to Australia's journalists, he said: "They keep chasing after us. We have to run all day long. They're parasites who take everything and give nothing. And as for the broads who work for the press, they're the hookers of the press. I might offer them a buck and a half I'm not sure."
    

Next morning the Australian Journalists' Association demanded that Sinatra apologise for his remarks and Hawke quickly became involved.
       

By noon it was announced on Melbourne radio that airport workers would refuse to refuel Sinatra's private jet. And it kept on snowballing.

Sun-Herald, The seige of Sinatra, 22 April 2002 

And was still here a few weeks later when Lou Reed arrived. 

Again, the self-regarding press turned out to impress this latest blow-in with their erudition and virtue. Diogenes with his light stood with the fans at the back of the room.

Transcript of interview
Sydney Airport, 14 August 1974

Press : You said a little while ago that you sing mainly about drugs. Is that right?

Lou Reed : Sometimes

Press : Why do you do this?

Lou Reed : Cos I think the Government's plotting against me.

Press : Why do you say that?

(laughter)

Press : You like singing about drugs : is this because you like taking drugs yourself?

Lou Reed : No, cos I can't carry when I go through customs, I  figure somebody in the audience...

Press :Were you searched by Customs Men for drugs?

Lou Reed : Oh, no, because I don't take them?

Press : No drugs at all?

Lou Reed : uh uh

Press : and yet you sing about them...

Lou Reed: I'm high on life

Press : You want people to take drugs themselves : is this perhaps why you sing about drugs

Lou Reed : Oh yeah. I want them to take drugs

Press : Why is this?

Lou Reed : Cos it's better than Monopoly.

Press : Why do you think your music is so popular, Lou? 
Lou Reed : I didn't know it was popular.

Press : You've got two sell-outs in Sydney before you've even come here, so it is popular apparently.

Lou Reed : I didn't know that.

Press : Lou, do you think it's a decadent society we're living in?

Lou Reed : No.

Press : Would you describe yourself as a decadent person?

Lou Reed : No.

Press : How would you describe yourself?

Lou Reed : Average.

Press : It's said in your release that we were given this morning that you like lying to the Press. Why is this? and are you doing it now?

Lou Reed : I didn't say that; the release did.
Press : is it true?
Lou Reed : No
Press : Is your anti-social behavior just part of your show business gimmick?
Lou Reed : Anti-social behavior? What's that?
Press : You seem very withdrawn.
Lou Reed : Introverted, you mean?
Press : Lou, you're a man of few words. Why is this?
Lou Reed : I don't have anything to say.
Press : Do you like meeting people, talking to people?
Lou Reed : Some.

Press : Do you like talking to us?

Lou Reed : I don't know you.
Press : Do you like press interviews in general?
Lou Reed : No.
Press : You shun publicity?
Lou Reed : No.
Press : Do you tend to keep to yourself?
Lou Reed : No.
Press : Why are you attending this one, Lou.
Lou Reed : They told me to come in here.
Press : It's just part of show business, is it?
Lou Reed : I'm not in show business.
Press : Not in the entertainment game?
Lou Reed : The entertainment game? No.
Press : Do you do everything people tell you to?
Lou Reed : Sometimes.
Press : What message is it that you're trying tpo get across?
Lou Reed : I don't have one.
Press : Most singers do. They usually sing about something and have some kind of way of getting through to the people.
Lou Reed : Like who?
Press : Well, most singers.
Lou Reed : Like who?
Press : Well, I ...
Press : Would it be right to call your music 'Gutter Rock'?
Lou Reed : Gutter Rock? oh yeah.
Press : It's been called Underground Rock and Roll...
Press : Andy Warhol, Lou. Are you still friends with him?
Lou Reed : Oh yeah.
Press : Has he been very important in your life? Did he make a big difference to you?
Lou Reed : Oh, he's everything. Still is.

Press : Lou , you sing a lot about transvestites and sado-masochism: how would you describe yourself
IN THE LIGHT OF THESE SONGS?

Lou Reed : What does that have to do with me?

Press : Well, could I put it bluntly, and pardon the question : Are you a transvestite or a homosexual?

Lou Reed : Sometimes.

Press : Which one?

Lou Reed : I don't know. What's the difference?
Press : Why do you like describing yourself... as this; why do you think you fit into this type of person?
Lou Reed : It's something to do.
Press : Is life so boring forv you then?
Lou Reed : No.

Press : What do you like most in life?Lou Reed : Everything.

Press : Is there any things you like better than others?

Lou Reed : No

Press : Where do you spend your money?

Lou Reed : On drugs.

Press : For other People?

Lou Reed : Right.

Press : It's been said that in your early days you were quite a wild performer. Is it true, for instance, that you attacked your fans in England and were arrested for obscenity on stage?

Lou Reed : No.

Press : This is again false publicity?

Lou Reed : (nods)

Press : Well, who writes these things about you if they're not true?

Lou Reed : Journalists.

(laughter)

Press : And is this perhaps why you don't like journalists?

Lou Reed : Oh, I love journalists.


VALE LOU REED

2 March 1942 - 27 October 2013


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