Lou Reed refuses to fade into a VH1 “1969 – Best Year Ever” episode, and that’s a very very good thing. Recent collabs with The Killers and Bright Eyes show just how tuned in the godfather of distortion, high volume feedback, and nonstandard tunings is to today’s music.
And after seeing the Sundance film Nanking, about the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China during World War II, Reed sat down and wrote these two songs:
Stream them here
I wasn’t familiar with Nanking prior to hearing about Reed’s songs. Apparently it was a truly barbaric event — remembered by our grandparents as the “Rape of Nanking” — that the new generation has mostly forgotten when we think back to World War II.
The documentary film tells the story using letters and diaries of those who were there and includes “interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and chilling testimonies of Japanese soldiers, interwoven with staged readings of the Westerners’ letters and diaries as performed by Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, Jurgen Prochnow and Stephen Dorff.”
The film will be released in Minneapolis on February 1 for a week-long run at the , and PerfectPorridge.com snagged three (3!) pairs of tickets for you to see the film that week.
What you can win
2 tickets to Nanking at Lagoon Theater.
How to get yourself hooked up with some tickets.
Post a comment below featuring one fact about Nanking. This is an open-Internet quiz.The first three comments win tickets. It’s that easy. Go!
UPDATE: I have one pair of tickets left. Just comment and they’re yours.
