Do Angels Need Haircuts? [Hardcover]

In August of 1970, a 28-year-old Lou Reed quit the Velvet Underground, moved home to Long Island, New York, and embarked on a fascinating alternate creative path: poetry. Spending months in relative isolation, the musician refashioned himself, publicly vowing to never again play rock and roll. Reed wrote verse and contributed his work to journals and small press publications. Im a poet, he proclaimed from the stage of St. Marks Church in March 1971. Though his retirement from music wouldnt lastonly six months later he began recording his debut solo albumReeds passionate identification with the written word was solidified, and would last the rest of his life. Gathering poems, photographs and ephemera from this era and featuring a foreword by Anne Waldman and an afterword by Laurie Anderson, this book provides a window to a little-known chapter in the life of one of the most singular and uncompromising voices in American popular culture.The book, which also includes photos and other ephemera, is a fascinating glimpse into a tangent that Reeds biographers tend to gloss over.- Pitchfork These Are the Best Lou Reed Books Striking portraits and fascinating ephemera - Mojo UKLeaping from the quotidian to the profound in the space of a line [Reeds poems often bury their wisdom in deadpan humour]- Dazed DigitalAs a poet, he must be counted as a solitary artist. And so, Lou, thank you for brutally and benevolently injecting your poetry into music.-The Guardian A line that could have been written by an angry young poet from Trumps America... penned decades previously, by the bard of New Yorks grimy rocknroll underbelly: Lou Reed. Don Fleming, The Guardian