for my tastes, Lou Reed (1942-2013) was the 2nd best American songwriter/rocker, after Bob Dylan.

as it stands, we have a pretty good goldvein of lou reed songs to last us.

the world lost a quirky, charming, massive personality who was, in rock & roll, a blatant & irrepressible singer, Lou Reed was formative in shaping rock & roll for future generations – especially musicians – from his original 60s & 70s hippie & loose-rock shipmates to the current generation of indieans – more so now than back then, even.

when i was younger, there was about a 1/3 dice throw you could find me listening to these & songs like them, on headphones, on a minidisc recorder biking or walking around Faribault.

Thanks for teaching all of us to Walk on The Wild Side – just like you did –

Walk On The Wildside:

i couldn’t pick just one Velvet’ favorite – so i picked 3 songs. i think it’s impossible to be unhappy listening to Rock & Roll – a favorite song of My Dad’s & personally, this is maybe tied for my favorite rock song:

what a better 17-year-old’s anthem than Sweet Jane for my generation – i couldn’t find a better:

i still remember trying to woo a girl singing that song, ‘standing on the corner / (suitcase in my hand)‘.

— this was not feel-good music; it was feel-best.

no wonder Andy Warhol produced their first album & & made a nearly endless amount of arthouse videos at Warhol’s Factory.

bring on the documentaries.

– joe

Hippocrates has a famous oath, for Doctors, that goes

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art — if they desire to learn it — without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but to no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfill this path and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

Maybe we should have a patient’s swearing that they will seek health, avoid unhealthy foods & practices, & advise others to do likewise, at their every opportunity (since Health is very important).

What do you think – what should be included in a patient’s oath of health?