Lou Reed Explains the Lyric "There's No Oedipus Today"

This one resurfaced on-line just as critics have been bad mouthing Lou Reed's work with Metallica, and apparently as Metallica fans send him death threats. At one point record companies sent out albums that are one sided interviews with artists, along with a script that went with it for the DJ to read. This interview was in support for the Blue Mask album in the early 80's. This is well worth giving a listen to. Lou Reed has given many of the most annoying and pretentious interviews I've ever heard. http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/2006/11/Lou_Reed_Blue_Mask_Interview_Side_1.mp3 This interview actually reveals something I've wondered before. Reed is talking about the lyrics to the songs "The Gun" and "The Blue Mask". They are both about very sick, diseased minds in his view, but makes the distinction that the main character in "The Gun" (which is about a guy with a gun raping another man's wife) is stupid and the main character "The Blue Mask" (something about really extreme homosexual sado-masochism and castration) is quite smart. The line which I'd never understood in the song "The Blue Mask" is the line "Spit upon his face and screamed there's no Oedipus today". Reed explains that the character in that one is familiar with psychoanalysis and Freud and that that this is a situation which is beyond all that. That's some warped stuff, if you know what he's talking about and thinking about it for a second. I think these metal people should give Lou another listen, that's what I think. I'd love to see him play this one with Metallica. That'd wake people up.