To Old to Rock and Roll

Business and rock and roll should have nothing to do with each other, even if that business is a web enterprise, staffed by ostensily hip engineers and finger-on-the-pulse marketers.

This is something that you'd think uber-cool rockster Lou Reed would be well aware of. Here's a man who once jokingly released an double LP of guitar feedback to fulfill a contract obligation. So you'd think that Mr. Reed would know how to flip the bird at coporate types if they asked him to be the entertainment at one of their (decidedly un-rock and roll) conferences.

But, sadly, that didn't happen.

Just yesterday, Mr. Reed was trotted out as the entertainment at AOL's Web 2.0 conference. It was likely a favor he was doing for a friend, his "kung fu brother," who introduced him to a lackluster reception. According to this review much of the "buttoned-up" audience ignored him and talked loudly during his performance, inciting the performer.

“You can keep on talking, I’ve only got 20 minutes," he berates the audience, "Or I can turn up the music. I can turn it up so loud it will hurt. Do you want me to turn it up? Do you want me to make it hurt?”

At some point during his performance, it must strike Mr. Reed how ridiculous all this is. Here he is, a former rock star, a rebel, a minion of the underwold, transformed into a corporate shill for friendship and money. “Who would have thought it would come to this," he is quoted as saying, "[that] I’d be playing at a cyberspace conference, brought here by AOL, introduced by my kung-fu brother.”