Morrissey has announced that he will release a live cover of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" on December 5 as a tribute to the late alt-rock icon. It also marks the release of his audiobook version of Autobiography.
According to NME, the Morrissey covered and recorded the song at The Chelsea Ballroom at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on Nov. 25, 2011. It originally appeared on Reed's 1972 album Transformer.
Upon Reed's death October 27, Morrissey wrote a tribute to him on his fan site. "No words to express the sadness at the death of Lou Reed. He had been there all of my life," he wrote. "He will always be pressed to my heart. Thank God for those, like Lou, who move within their own laws, otherwise imagine how dull the world would be. I knew the Lou of recent years and he was always full of good heart. His music will outlive time itself. We are all timebound, but today, with the loss of liberating Lou, life is a pigsty."
He also mentioned Reed's impact on music in Autobiography, saying, "The daring brilliance of early Lou Reed takes its place with the literary greats, partly because he denied all tradition in his writing and physical presentation," he wrote. "With his Velvet Underground, life itself was the moveable stage; lowbrow, imaginer, maker, self-regarding, susceptible to the will to corrupt."
"Satellite of Love" will be available for digital download on December 2 and on vinyl in January via Parlophone. The physical release also includes a :You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side" and other unreleased live songs. Autobiography will be out December 3 in the U.S. with the audiobook version scheduled for December 5.
Watch Morrissey's 2011 Vegas cover of "Satellite of Love" here, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!
