Murder as Muse: How Valerie Solanas’ attempted killing of Andy Warhol inspired Lou Reed
An undisputed icon of New York City, on par with the Statue of Liberty or the subway rats, Andy Warhol was among the most influential figures in American pop culture. Through his artwork, films and teachings, the pop art progenitor certainly left his mark on the cultural landscape of NYC. Of all the many people he encountered throughout his career, perhaps his greatest influence was over The Velvet Underground songwriter Lou Reed, who has a lot to thank Warhol for.
It would be bold to say that Reed largely owes his career to Warhol, but it would not be wholly inaccurate. After all, the artist was instrumental in bringing together and promoting The Velvet Underground, which gave Reed his first taste of the rock and roll lifestyle he would soon come to represent. Although the pair had a somewhat tumultuous relationship – as is to be expected when two intense creatives come together – it seems as though Reed never forgot the inspiration and opportunity that Warhol afforded him.
The Velvet Underground, and Warhol’s involvement in it, was fairly short-lived, culminating in Reed sacking the pop artist as the band’s manager before leaving himself to pursue a solo career. The solo discography of Lou Reed is a pretty mixed bag, with some absolute masterpieces sandwiched between more than a few forgettable efforts. Throughout his songwriting, Reed would draw upon everything from sadomasochism to the Vietnam War, but he often used Warhol as his muse.
In particular, Reed seemed to enjoy writing about the attempted murder of Warhol by the radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas, author of SCUM Manifesto, who shot Warhol in the chest in 1968. Obviously, the artist was not killed as a result, though she did hit him in the stomach and spleen, causing serious injury and earning her a year spent behind bars. Despite being a pretty harrowing occurrence, Reed was not swayed by the potentially tragic consequences and would often use the shooting as fuel for songwriting.
Most notably, Reed revisited the attempted murder on the track ‘Andy’s Chest’ from his seminal solo record Transformer. As the title implies, the song is not awash with ambiguity, equating Solanas to a “venom sniper” and “cheap bloodsucker” while making some pretty thinly veiled links to the attempted murder. Interestingly, though, the track does not feel at all melancholic or dark – as you might expect a song about a near-fatal shooting to be – with the songwriter taking an endearingly light-hearted approach to the topic.
The songwriter would once again draw upon the Solanas incident on the song ‘Nobody But You’. The track is taken from Songs for Drella, the collaborative album which saw Reed reunite with his former Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale. Warhol is a constant theme throughout the record, but on ‘Nobody But You’, Reed plays the part of a recently shot Warhol, singing, “The bullet split my spleen and lung, the doctors said I was gone, inside I’ve got some shattered bone”.
‘Nobody But You’ is probably the most blatant example of Lou Reed drawing upon the near-death experience of Andy Warhol. The fact, then, that the song was released as recently as 1990 would suggest that Warhol acted as a constant inspiration for the songwriter throughout his long and illustrious career. There were many documented spats between the two creatives, but it seems like Lou Reed, deep down, always held some love for Warhol.