Flashback: Lou Reed Plays ‘Candy Says’ At His Final Performance

Today marks the two-year anniversary of Lou Reed’s death. He spent the last few years of his life battling liver cancer, but refused to give into the disease and remained active until nearly the end, devoting himself to tai chi, music, art and his many friends. “Even his very closest friends didn’t actually knew he was dying,” Tony Visconti told Rolling Stone. “But he knew.”

Just seven months before Reed passed away, he joined Antony and the Johnsons onstage at a Paris gig to sing the Velvet Underground classic “Candy Says.” It wound up being his final public performance. “I’m going to watch the blue birds fly,” Reed sang. “Over my shoulder/I’m going to watch them pass me by/Maybe when I’m older/What do you think I’d see/If I could walk away from me.”