After reading all the touching tributes to Lou Reed, I was jolted out of a near nap by a TV commercial showing a Viking, in a sword battle, singing Reed’s classic “Perfect Day” as he is about to die.
Then, the Viking becomes a race-car driver forcing a rival off the road into a horrific crash. Finally, he is a soldier at war in a destroyed city, all the while singing, “Oh, it’s such a perfect day/ I’m glad I spend it with you/ Oh, such a perfect day/ You just keep me hanging on.”
The PlayStation 4 spot actually debuted two weeks before Reed died. But Reed, a devotee of Tai Chi, was a huge martial arts fan and considered this kind of violence a form of meditation.
Reed’s friend, documentary maker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders told me, “Knowing Lou, he probably liked the irony of the ad.”