Lou Reed: Have you listened to it?

PB: Yeah.

LR: The whole thing?

PB: Yup.

LR: Go ahead.

PB: OK. How'd you first get interested in working with the Edgar Allan Poe material?

LR: Hal Wilner does an annual Halloween show here in New York and he always does Edgar Allan Poe. I did The Telltale Heart, and when I did it out loud with an audience, it was the first time I ever really understood it. I realized I had a very superficial understanding of Poe. That sparked it.

PB: But it was originally conceived as some sort of theater piece, right?

LR: Yeah.

PB: How'd that come off?

LR: [Irritated] How did it come off? What do you mean, how did it come off? What does that mean?

PB: Was it a play? Was it performance art? Part concert, part theater? What?

LR: What happened was, the director, Robert Wilson -- do you know who that is?

PB: Yes, I know who Robert Wilson is.

LR: OK. So, he and I had done a play together in Germany called Time Rocker. He wanted to do a second one about Edgar Allan Poe and said I should write it. So I did. We got a commission and he staged it, choreographed it and did a treatment. Then I became very enamored of it and an opportunity came to record it but there was no point in recording a play, so I rewrote the entire thing to make it something you just hear and imagine. The technology available these days is so astonishing that if you listen carefully -- or even if you don't listen carefully -- there are things approaching you from the back, from the sides. It's sounds you've never heard before, which I really enjoy. I don't know about you, but I like doing new things in a new way and bringing a world-class writer into a contemporary setting without making him into street vernacular or something horrible like that. That brings us up to now. Over four years. You get it? This is not overnight, by any stretch. Have you seen the credits?

PB: To the album? Yes, I've seen them. You worked with David Bowie for the first time in a while for The Raven. What made you think of him?

LR: I love the way David sings. I only like working with people where I'm not trying to change them. I like what they do and I'm just bringing them in to do what they do. And I'm a big fan of David's. I love his vocal arrangements.

PB: How was it different working with him now versus the earlier work you guys had collaborated on?

LR: Oh, that's a silly question. I can't answer a question like that. It's silly.

PB: What's silly about it?

LR: Listen, I want to talk about the music. I don't fuckin' know what it was like working with him 30 years ago! Gimme a break!

PB: Fine. By the album's length alone, it demands a somewhat serious listener. Was that the intention?

LR: Well, hopefully it's a lot of fun. More bang for your buck, think of it that way. This isn't like a trial. This isn't like you better pay attention or you get punished. This is supposed to be fun. Think of it this way: You lay out your 10 bucks, or whatever the hell it is, to go to a movie for two hours. So you're there. Are you paying attention? Instead, this [album] you can take home with you, get whacked, be with your lady, whatever. It can't be harder than a movie. And you certainly don't have to know anything about Poe.

PB: Was that an important part of it?

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