The Loud Stereo by Sheila Martin The song battered Rachel’s head—“Heroin” with its electric viola and cello bow screeching over three guitar strings, so loud she was drowning in it, her aching, throbbing skull crashing against the rocks, Lou Reed’s drugged-out voice singing, “It’s my wife and it’s my life, because a mainer to my vein leads to a center in my head, and then I’m better off than dead …” screeching louder and faster, the pitch of manic intoxication.