Back in the halcyon, pre-PETA days, it was a sign—real or imagined–of being a part of the 1% for women to wrap themselves in fur.  Think of it in the context of Mad Men.  One fur company, Blackgama, ran a series of ads featuring actresses ensconced in mink, with the headline: “What Becomes a Legend Most?”

While that is largely a thing of the past*, that headline still has relevance and resonance.

“What Becomes a Legend Most?”

Headphones?

Lou Reed is a legend.

Arguably, of his post-Velvets work, Berlin stands as a masterpiece.  He could have musically retired on that work alone.  Of course, like regular people, Reed undoubtedly needs to make some money for the necessities of a non-rock-and-roll lifestyle, too, like food and dental checkups and whatnot.  So he has continued to work.

His most recent album, his collaboration with Metallica, is Lulu.  He’s dark and gritty.  They’re dark and gritty.  He has a small but solid following.  They have a larger and solid following.  So the math seems to work.

But apparently, a record predicated on the work of Frank Wedekind, a late-19^th, early 20^th-century German playwright, just didn’t work out as well in the market as planned.

Maybe Lou was thinking back to his performance of “September Song” from Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill, and figured that working with long-dead Germans is a way to go (although even Sting realized that after that compilation he’d be better off doing madrigals and lute music).

Anyway, he would have probably been better off working with Lulu on an updated version of “To Sir With Love” than creating Lulu.

So “What Becomes a Legend Most?”

Headphones.

Klipsch is coming out with a limited-edition “Klipsch Signature Audio Edition Lou Reed X10i” headphones.  These $399.99 headphones are not only for listening to music, but also for talking on an iPhone.  Maybe you don’t want to listen to what you’re listening to, so the phone call would be more gratifying.

Said Reed of the purple finished headset with copper accents, “I have been a fan of Klipsch products for eons.”  Perhaps not a good word choice, as that would mean pre-Wedekind.  “I’ve always admired the unhyped bass, along with the clarity, depth of detail and extraordinary comfort of the company’s headphones.  With Klipsch’s help, my dream headphone will soon be available to all my fans—a serious model for the serious listener.”

Take that, Dr. Dre. This is serious.

The Lou Reed headphones will become available on klipsch.com December 10.  The first 50 people to buy them on the site will get. . . an autographed copy of Lulu.

Maybe you’d rather take a call.

*Blackgama brought back the campaign with Janet Jackson in 2010, and on November 21, 2011, announced that it was launching the Janet Jackson Blackgama collection of coats, vests, jackets, gloves, scarves, but no dysfunctional undergarments.  Blackgama, incidentally, points out that its minks are farm-raised.