Rock legend Lou Reed’s tai chi book to be published

NEW YORK

Rock pioneer and poet Lou Reed began writing a book in 2009 on an art at the heart of his lifestyle: tai chi. But the project went unfinished, remaining a collection of scattered notes when the groundbreaking musical experimentalist died in 2013 aged 71, after complications from a liver transplant.

Those unpublished writings, including conversations with his fellow artists, friends and tai chi practitioners, come out this week, a decade after his death.

“He started it, we wanted to finish it,” Laurie Anderson, the composer and artist who was Reed’s longtime partner, told AFP.

“The Art of the Straight Line” features essays and riffs by Reed, a meditation on his three decades as a dedicated tai chi practitioner.

The ancient Chinese tradition helps reduce stress and anxiety and is often described as “meditation in motion,” according to the leading medical center Mayo Clinic.

The book offers insight into the gentler facets of the once hard-living Velvet Underground frontman, whose deadpan demeanor and cantankerous interactions with the press meant his testy side occupied a fair amount of the public’s attention.

“Not to get too flowery here but I want more out of life than a gold record and fame,” he wrote. “I want to mature like a warrior.”

“I want the power and grace I never had a chance to learn. Tai chi puts you in touch with the invisible power of, yes, the universe. Change your energy, change your mind.”