Read Patti Smith's tribute to Lou Reed in the New Yorker

Following Lou Reed’s sad passing last month, friend and fellow musician Patti Smith has penned a tribute to the man in an essay for the New Yorker.

In it, Smith describes finding out about the former Velvet Underground frontman’s death (“I had seen him with his wife, Laurie, in the city recently, and I’d sensed that he was ill. A weariness shadowed her customary brightness. When Lou said goodbye, his dark eyes seemed to contain an infinite and benevolent sadness”), as well as the instance of their first meeting (“A complicated man, he encouraged our efforts, then turned and provoked me like a Machiavellian schoolboy. I would try to steer clear of him, but, catlike, he would suddenly reappear, and disarm me with some Delmore Schwartz line about love or courage”).

Smith continues:

“I understood his devotion to poetry and the transporting quality of his performances. He had black eyes, black T-shirt, pale skin. He was curious, sometimes suspicious, a voracious reader, and a sonic explorer. An obscure guitar pedal was for him another kind of poem.”

You can read the tribute in full here. Reed died of a liver-related illness, he was 71 years old.

Above is the last ever photo taken of the musician, shot by Jean Baptiste Mondino a few weeks before his death.