In 1969, Lou Reed looked right at me
He and I go way back.
A little more than 40 years to be exact.
We met at a drab hotel on Denman Street in Vancouver, overlooking English Bay.
Lou and I sat on the floor, him eating from a box of Sunkist Raisins while I held up the microphone from my Sony cassette tape recorder.
The other two guys and one girl from The Velvet Underground just listened.
The conversation lasted more than an hour, talking about Warhol, heroin, astrology and Ouspensky.
The interview was printed in the local underground newspaper, and is now long forgotten.
If only I had known then what I know now, having studied at the Jian Ghomeshi School of Perpetual Self-Promotion.
Why, today, I would be … almost famous.
And I’d know who Ouspensky was.
Posted to commemorate Jian’s interview with Lou earlier today, on the phone from New York.
42 Comments
The parents who let her sing at a folkfest at such a young age were missionaries, don’t you think she was probably presenting something pretty wholesome?
Lights isn’t just chasing fame and money. She wants the freedom to share her creativity, and that’s why she’s signed on a small label that will give her room to make her own choices about her music, image, touring. She gets to have the final say rather than people trying to mold her into something she is not. As a manager, Ghomeshi has fostered that freedom and not pushed her to do anything before she was ready.
I’m biased because I know them both, but some of these speculations are really out there. Puts perspective on the things I’ve assumed about the famous/semi-famous.
what kind of model is ghomeshi dating… A sears girl…where’s she from…hard to c any woman ever loving or giving him respect!she must be Unique like him…cant wait to see her in hello with him….more to trash
Being Light’s father might make sense of discovering a 14-year-old & developing her talent for 9 years…& there’s a similarity around the nose & their love of Bjork.
Well if he “signed a contract” under duress to manage his daughter, that would explain his laissez-faire attitude. It might also explain why during their nine+ year relationship only one album has been produced.
She legally changed her name to Lights!? That’s just dumb. John Ghomeshi never legally changed his name to Jean or Jian, the two other names that he’s used, so why would she?
Uh Oh, Poongirl! Jian’s following another woman on Twitter. A model.
Lights is Jian’s granddaughter.
Side-by-side photos might show the family resemblance…
…unless he was touring with Tall New Buildings.
I’m confused. She was born in 1987, & his band wasn’t formed until 1989, so he couldn’t have been on tour….
Is lights JIan GHomeshi’s Daughter,I heard she is and he owed lights mother as he screwed off on tour when she was born!so instead of big legal battles he signed a contract to flog his daughter!
Makes sense. She has a big nose and no discernible talent – just like him.
Is that why she legally changed her name to Lights, “family name” issues? Why would they bother keeping this a secret, though? Many musicians have kids & then take off. So he didn’t “discover” her at a folk festival?
That would make dating awkward, having a secret daughter.
Yay!! Lights/Spacegirl/Spacewoman has multiple noms for 2010 Canadian Independent Music Awards!!! Maybe it’s a good thing she isn’t signed to a label??
Gibby is taking this website verrry seriously everyone! So be sure to eliminate all humour and witty words from your comments. Gibby is all business. Grrrrrrrrrr!
David and Ghomeshi not bloody likely,David would rather watch an apple turn brow!!!Ghomeshi thoughts are infected and dark and we do not need his psychotic notions around and we must protect our young innocent daughter from that smelly ferret!
Fellow Teamakers,
Your all very right about what you have said about Jian Ghomeshi….
its a shame that he dose not realize that there’s only ONE Cilene D no one can ever come near with what her husband have created/molded!!!
Mutt Lange is another I think Ghomeshi is trying to emulate but unfortunately u can tell he’s just pasting and copying!!!his dream for his child project will probably not go much further as he has never been devoted to what’s true/right!
Sickening but he picked up the poor young thing at a folk festival….
Big question/statement; what kind of parents would let their 14year old sell her wears at the country fair!?
Ghomeshi must be connected politically to still be on the CBC after messing around with lights when she was a mere child!Looks like we have another Phill Spector on our hands Canada!!
Sincerely, Miss.Ottis
Jian has no pull in the music business. He couldn’t even get Lights signed to a major label. She’s signed to a small independent label which is why there’s no money for promotion, music videos and travel expenses, i.e. having to travel around the country in a van. Jian’s brand isn’t worth a dime in the music biz.
Unlike Lou Reed, Jian didn’t inspire a generation of junkies.
Wow Gibby, that oversimplifies Lou Reed’s artistic contribution, doesn’t it? And becoming a junkie requires the negation of all inspiration (like the snake consuming itself).
Actually it’s a lyric from a Butthole Surfers tune. But you wouldn’t know that, would you, now, commenter who starts each comment with the word ‘wow’ (thein feigns some type of moral superiority).
You must work at CBC Radio music to live in such a humourless cultural black hole.
Wow, commenter. You suck!
Gibby, you seem to be the one who is feigning moral superiority at this point.
Wow, Armchair psychologist. It’s great to see that “I know you are but what am I?” is your best tactic in clearing up a spat with another commenter. That’s great fucking psychology.
Why don’t you go learn something about popular music and culture outside your fucking lame-ass bubble of rock press music appreciation and go from there? Oh, right, because you’re lazy, or you’re some Donlon-esque conformo major-label bullshite-r.
Blah blah blah Berlin blah blah Metal Machine Music, blah blah, blah Songs for Drella …
Did Jean come up with the Spacewoman concept? Borrowing from Space Oddity era Bowie (Jean’s idol)? Jian is really out of touch with the youth of today if he thinks that they want their female singers to be cartoon space chicks.
No…she’s just insecure about being herself in public and it’s easier to hide behind a persona. Either that or she completely dissociates from herself and is selling her “space persona” as a product, rather than her “real” self…like a split-personality. EEeeeep!
…& those social networking sites make it look like Spacegirl (or rather Spacewoman) is more excited and involved with video games than she is with music.
Her association with Jian turns off more people than it turns on. Jian is not well liked or respected in the music industry. If he was, he’d still have a career in music.
Maybe she hopes that his “fame” & notoriety will open doors for her & get her noticed.
It’s a dumb move on her part to hire a manager that wants the spotlight to always be on himself and no one else. She didn’t hire a manager, she hired a saboteur.
Lights probably doesn’t have a publicist because neither she nor Jian want to delegate = control/power issues. And how is that working for them?
True enough! For a Juno winner, she & Jian sure didn’t make hay while the sun shines! Why isn’t she participating in any of the Olympic festivities, when she would be on the world stage (rather than touring around in the world in a van)? Especially because her family is in Vancouver?!?
This website is one of the few places that Lights gets any publicity these days. Instead of hiring a publicist, Jian makes her promote herself on social networking sites (Myspace, Twitter, Facebook). I think Spacegirl should get herself a new manager.
Actually, LetItBe, Lights is a 22-year-old woman, not a girl. Oh the melodrama….
CBC had exclusive rights to an interview with Cohen, in return for a ton of free promotion of his concerts and new CD.
That’s the only connection between Ghomeshi and the great poet.
Jian transcribed his interview and sold it to the National Post.
Another way to further hype himself and make a few extra bucks.
Double dipping.
And the CBC is “cool with that”.
Stop it with defaming that poor young girl Lights….were any of u nominated 4 a Juno?Lights is old enough to be JIan Ghomeshi’s CHILD/daughter!!!stop hurting that innocent girl!!!….I just find this all hard to digest as if he was all truly that bad I’m sure u would be front page news with ur quips on the poor Dude!!
I think he also studied the “Useless Abbrevation’s and Over Use of the Word Mammal” course at York.
I see he took the “How to Insert Myself Into a Story” course at York.
Well, LetItBe, as least you used a more acceptable font than I did…no dealbreaker for you!
Maybe he interviewed to impress the woman he loves, errr, I meant Lights.
He even gives himself top billing! Total douche move by Ghomeshi. The picture says it all, Jian’s big ugly mug up front and Leonard over Jian’s shoulder in the background.
Lights keeps wearing a Lou Reed shirt…is that to commemorate this interview on Q, too?