Lou Reed and Greil Marcus, 25 November 2002, Pastis, New York
An edited version of this conversation ran in Interview magazine in March 2003, with the title, “Lou Reed: With his new album, the rock renegade conjures Edgar Allen Poe, literature's favorite hell-raiser, in a way your English teacher never did.”
Lou Reed’s The Raven (Sire/Reprise) began its life on stage as POEtry, a collaboration with director Robert Wilson commissioned by the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg, Germany, in 2000. Now, featuring dramatic readings by the likes of Willem Dafoe, Elizabeth Ashley, and Steve Buscemi, notable musical contributions by Laurie Anderson and Ornette Coleman and songs by Reed and his band, the piece, produced by Hal Willner, has been made over into a double CD. With songs as rock ‘n’ roll rough as “Edgar Allan Poe” sitting alongside Reed’s own rewrites of Poe’s greatest hits and dramatizations that in moments seem like nightclub acts, the work is also a modern dream.
GM: I have to tell you—I had a dream last night about this interview. In this dream, we came down, we did an interview. It was good—and after I left I realized I had never asked you a single thing about the Edgar Allen Poe project.
LR: That’s very funny.
GM: So I thought maybe I should ask you a few questions.