Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves (or how I slugged it out with Lou Reed and stayed awake) is an infamous interview with Lou Reed

Lou Reed

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...

 conducted by Lester Bangs

Lester Bangs

Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock 'n' roll criticism....

 and published in Creem Magazine in 1975. It is now regarded as a classic document of music journalism

Music journalism

Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...

.

Approach

In this Gonzo-style

Gonzo journalism

Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to be first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter S. Thompson, who later popularized the style...

 interview Lester Bangs attempts to demythologize rock-n-roll and its stars, by giving the arrogant behavior of rock superstars a more vulnerable, human context.

Content

An extended introduction describes Bangs' complex feelings about the music of Lou Reed, admiring his songwriting genius, but intrigued by some of the anti-social aspects of Lou's more challenging albums, such as Berlin

Berlin (album)

Berlin is a 1973 album by Lou Reed, his third solo album and the follow-up to Transformer. In 2003, the album was ranked number 344 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, though the publication had called the album a "disaster" 30 years prior.-Background and...

and Metal Machine Music

Metal Machine Music

Metal Machine Music, subtitled *The Amine β Ring, is the fifth solo album by Lou Reed. It was originally released as a double album by RCA Records in 1975...

, as well as Lou's sometimes hostile personality.

After fortifying himself with research and drugs, Lester Bangs meets Lou Reed in a hotel room, where they trade barbed personal insults, and argue about the current music scene, amphetamine

Amphetamine

Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...

 formulae, and the background music which Lou has selected (Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

).

In a provocative gesture, Lester finally challenges Lou to remove his sunglasses:

"...Lou's sallow skin almost as whitish yellow as his hair, whole face and frame so transcendently emaciated he had indeed become insectival. His eyes were rusty, two copper coins lying in desert sands under the sun all day with telephone wires humming overhead, but he looked straight at me. Maybe through me..."

Quote

• "A hero is a goddam stupid thing to have in the first place and a general block to anything you might wanta accomplish on your own."