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Real Life Parallels
Aug. 30th, 2004 12:15 amscript:
CECIL
(voice-over)
According to legend, when Curt was fourteen - he was discovered by his mother in the family loo, at the ‘service’ of his older brother - and promptly shipped off for eighteen months of electric shock treatment.
That's the legend of the film but there are no real life parallels for this in the prototypes for Curt's character, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, since neither of them have a brother.
However, the electroshock treatment is not folklore or legend and actually happened to Lou Reed. Reed is, of course, well known as a solo artist as well as a member of the legendary Velvet Underground. He was born in Long Island, New York, in 1942 to middle class parents, his father was an accountant. He has a younger sister. He studied five years of classical piano while growing up and then as a teenager he discovered Rock and Roll, forming his own band while in High School. His parents disapproved of the direction in which he was heading and took him to a psychiatrist when he was eighteen for treatment of homosexuality and moody behavior. Lou has been pretty straightforward about this event, sometimes even flip, "I didn't have the bad ones where they don't put you to sleep first. I had the fun ones where they put you to sleep first. You count backwards, and then you're out. It was shocking, but that's when I was getting interested in electricity anyway." However he documents the events quite bitterly in the song ( Kill Your Sons )
In this (rather purple) excerpt from Victor Bockris' Transformer, The Lou Reed Story, there is a vivid depiction of the event. However, knowing the source, how much of this is verbatim from Lou or a colorful recreation is debatable.
According to legend, when Curt was fourteen - he was discovered by his mother in the family loo, at the ‘service’ of his older brother - and promptly shipped off for eighteen months of electric shock treatment.
That's the legend of the film but there are no real life parallels for this in the prototypes for Curt's character, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, since neither of them have a brother.
However, the electroshock treatment is not folklore or legend and actually happened to Lou Reed. Reed is, of course, well known as a solo artist as well as a member of the legendary Velvet Underground. He was born in Long Island, New York, in 1942 to middle class parents, his father was an accountant. He has a younger sister. He studied five years of classical piano while growing up and then as a teenager he discovered Rock and Roll, forming his own band while in High School. His parents disapproved of the direction in which he was heading and took him to a psychiatrist when he was eighteen for treatment of homosexuality and moody behavior. Lou has been pretty straightforward about this event, sometimes even flip, "I didn't have the bad ones where they don't put you to sleep first. I had the fun ones where they put you to sleep first. You count backwards, and then you're out. It was shocking, but that's when I was getting interested in electricity anyway." However he documents the events quite bitterly in the song ( Kill Your Sons )
In this (rather purple) excerpt from Victor Bockris' Transformer, The Lou Reed Story, there is a vivid depiction of the event. However, knowing the source, how much of this is verbatim from Lou or a colorful recreation is debatable.
