Monday, October 28, 2013

Lou Reed (R.I.P.) Performs the Dagger Speech from Macbeth

Reed, Lou. "The Dagger Speech." Macbeth. Unknown origin. Unknown date.

I enjoy collecting versions of the Dagger Speech from Macbeth. That speech alone can reveal a great deal about the direction the rest of the production is pursuing (cf., for example, this post, one of a series addressing various dagger speeches).

I also enjoy The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed's foundational, inspirational Rock 'n' Roll band. Saddened to learn of his death yesterday, I mentioned it to Shakespeare Geek, who often knows odd celebrity Shakespeare connections.  He nearly instantly pointed me to this clip of Lou Reed reciting the Dagger Speech:


Flabbergasted is not too strong a term to describe how I felt on seeing that. I wanted to share it right away—even though the scholarly side wanted to wait until I knew more about where it came from. I'll try to track that information down; in the meantime, Candy Says that Stephanie Says that Lisa Says that Sweet Jane (Who Loves the Sun), Found a Reason that Lou Reed (and Sister Ray) are Beginning to See the Light—After Hours.  And That's the Story of my Life.  R.I.P., Lou Reed.

Note: Here's a second video file in case the file above vanishes:

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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
All material original to this blog is copyrighted: Copyright 2008-2039 (and into perpetuity thereafter) by Keith Jones.

The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service; there resides, / To make me slave to it; and, for your sake, / Am I this patient [b]log-man.

—The Tempest