For all of the chaos in his music—and regardless of his famously combative fame—Lou Reed was a devoted practitioner of yoga, meditation, and martial arts. He started learning tai chi as a part of an effort to get off pace and booze and strengthen his wrecked physique because the Nineteen Seventies drew to an in depth. An early trainer remembers Reed’s palms shaking so exhausting he might barely maintain the positions, however he caught with it. When he toured, he introduced alongside his swords and educational VHS tapes, practising in lodge gyms and convention rooms; upon returning residence he was identified to take the taxi straight from the airport to class. Within the last six years of his life, he intensified his focus, doing six days of tai chi adopted by someday of yoga, week in and week out. Laurie Anderson, his companion of 21 years, stated he was “searching for magic.” He was doing breathwork when he died, the truth is—eyes large open and palms in a tai chi place, with Anderson’s arms round him.
Newly remastered and reissued with intensive liner notes by Gentle within the Attic, Hudson River Wind Meditations was first launched in 2007, on a small Louisville, Colorado, label specializing in self-help and spirituality. However to start with, it wasn’t meant for public consumption in any respect. Based on Anderson, Reed made early variations of those items to accompany guided meditations recited by Shelley Peng, an herbalist and acupuncturist. The music ultimately morphed right into a soundtrack for his tai chi observe, though not all his classmates had been on board. Some fellow college students most well-liked the standard Chinese language music that their trainer, Grasp Ren GuangYi, usually performed, and requested for Reed’s tape to be turned off. One scholar walked out the door and by no means got here again. (Reed’s drone music all the time did have a polarizing impact on listeners.)
However Reed and Ren saved enjoying the tape, and in line with Anderson, anyway, a few of his classmates ultimately got here round, saying that it was one of the best tai chi music they’d ever heard. One wonders to what extent Reed’s fame—or maybe merely his legendary stubbornness—greased the wheels. In an amusing anecdote within the liner notes, yoga teacher Eddie Stern says that when he labored with Reed, “Whether or not we had been doing yoga or meditating, the Hudson River Wind Meditations got here on, and regardless that I’m a silent meditator and don’t usually advocate listening to music when meditating, I might let it slide for Lou.”
