Watch Lou Reed’s Incredible Cover of One of John Lennon’s Most Vulnerable Songs

Lou Reed and John Lennon both had a tendency to border on the subversive. Though their chosen genres were quite different, they weren’t all that different as people. They both had their damage. And it makes perfect sense that Lou Reed would cover one of John Lennon’s most vulnerable and painful songs of his career.

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The song in question is “Mother”, a standout track from John Lennon’s famed 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

The Arresting and Emotional John Lennon Song That Lou Reed Covered

“Mother” is not an easy song to listen to. The song was written by Lennon after attending “primal therapy” sessions designed to help him with his childhood trauma. Basically, this form of psychotherapy involves screaming to deal with one’s pain due to traumatic experiences.

For those who know John Lennon, it’s not exactly shocking that the therapy had an effect on him. Lennon had serious abandonment issues from his childhood. His father left his family when he was just a baby, and his mother died when he was only 17 years old.

“Mother” was the result of that therapy. In a way, a lot of his music was a lot more vulnerable after the fact. “Mother” was allegedly written about parenthood in general, but one can’t help but think Lennon was singing straight from his heart about his own parents.

Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground was taken aback by the song. And that’s saying a lot; Reed was not the kind of artist who was impressed by much. He had a strong standard when it came to art, and believed it needed to be controversial and unique to be worthwhile. Reed was so enamored with Lennon’s “Mother” that he covered it himself in a slow, steady, and similarly emotional way.

“That was a song that had realism,” Reed later said of the song. “When I first heard it, I didn’t even know it was him. I just said, ‘Who the f*ck is that? I don’t believe that.’ Because the lyrics to that are real. You see, he wasn’t kidding around. He got right down to it, as down as you can get. I like that in a song.”

You can watch Lou Reed’s rendition of John Lennon’s “Mother” below:

Reed performed the song more than once, too. Sometimes, even the biggest mainstream artists can come up with a disruptive tune good enough for artists like Lou Reed.

Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns

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