Life's Pleasures Quote by Lou Reed

Reed tosses this off like a confession and a punchline, and the timing matters: the late '70s is when rock’s glamorous self-destruction started to look less like liberation and more like brand identity. By framing his earlier self as "mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle", he’s not just distancing himself from excess; he’s skewering the myth that excess is artistry. The list is deliberately tabloid - quick, lurid nouns - as if he’s quoting the press back at itself, then quietly changing the subject to craft.

"Perfect sound" is the real tell. He undercuts it immediately with "whatever that might be", a shrug that keeps the goal from turning into classic-rock pomposity. Reed’s perfection isn’t a pristine studio ideal; it’s a moving target, a way of naming discipline without pretending discipline is pure. Coming from a guy who made a career out of abrasive beauty and narrative grime, the line implies that clarity can be as radical as chaos. The subtext is that "insanity" was once a pose and sometimes a reality, but the work survives only when the pose stops driving.

Contextually, Reed had already lived the Warhol factory laboratory and the Velvet Underground’s anti-commercial ethos; by the late '70s he’s wrestling with adulthood, recovery narratives, and a punk landscape that made authenticity competitive. The quote reclaims authorship: not the lifestyle as destiny, but the sound as intention. It’s an artist insisting that the real rebellion is showing up, listening harder, and admitting you don’t yet know what you’re chasing.