Imagine being served one of the greatest meals of your life, and then being told you have exactly one-half hour to consume it. That’s pretty much how I felt when informed I’d have 30 minutes to interview Lou Reed in New York (well, actually 35—Lou took a liking to me, and granted the extra five.) Although I briefly spoke to him on the phone five years ago, I’ve waited nearly a decade to meet him in person—and now there wasn’t even time for appetizers (or Velvet Underground trivia). But you take what you can get, and where Lou Reed is concerned, the main course is still a pretty bountiful meal.

As far as the pantheon of rock ’n’ roll is concerned, I’d rate Lou Reed right up there with Lennon and early Elvis. Apart from being pioneers in their field, the one thing the three men had in common was their uninhibited expression of emotional honesty—and this, beyond the politics and all the pretentious meanderings, is what the best rock ’n’ roll has always been about.