Young Lou Reed with his father, Sidney, and his mother, Toby Around 1950.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1953
United States
Lou Reed as a kid. Early-mid 1950s.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1959
Freeport, New York, United States
Lou Reed as a high school senior in 1959.
College/University
Career
Gallery of Lou Reed
1965
New York City, New York, United States
The Velvet Underground perform for 'Venus in Furs', an underground film by Piero Heliczer, New York, November 1965. Photo by Adam Ritchie.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1966
Nico, Maureen Tucker, Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, and John Cale. Photo by Steve Schapiro.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1966
32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, United States
Velvet Underground perform with Edie Sedgwick and Gerard Malanga dancing at NY Filmmakers' Cinematheque, New York, February 1966. From left to right: Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Malanga, Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, and John Cale. Photo by Adam Ritchie.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1966
New York City, New York, United States
Pop artist Andy Warhol and rock singer, musician, and songwriter Lou Reed pose for a portrait with one of Warhol's iconic pop sculptures, a helium-filled silver pillow entitled Silver Clouds, in March 1966 in New York City, New York. Photo by David Gahr.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1972
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Portrait photo of Lou Reed in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1972. Photo Gijsbert Hanekroot.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1972
London, United Kingdom
Lou Reed portrait photo in London in January 1972. Photo by Michael Putland.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1973
140 E 14th St, New York, NY 10003, United States
Singer and songwriter Lou Reed poses for a portrait wearing a hat, sunglasses and a studded leather jacket for the cover of his album "Lou Reed Live" which was released in March of 1975 and recorded on December 21, 1973, at Howard Stein's Academy of Music in New York City, New York.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1973
New York City, New York, United States
Lou Reed poses for an RCA publicity photo circa 1973 in New York City, New York.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1973
10 Air St, Soho, London W1B 4DY, United Kingdom
At the party given by David Bowie at the Cafe Royal here following Bowie's final tour concert. American singer Lou Reed, Mick Jagger, and David Bowie. Standing is Lulu.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1974
Turnhoutsebaan 286, 2140 Antwerpen, Belgium
Lou Reed at Roma, Antwerpen, Belgium, 1974. Photo by Gie Knaeps.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1975
Portrait of American rock and roll musician Lou Reed on stage with a guitar in the 1970s.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1975
New York City, New York, United States
John Cale and Lou Reed perform together in a rehearsal studio in New York in 1975. Photo by Richard E. Aaron.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1976
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Lou Reed posing smoking a cigarette in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1976 Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1976
New York City, New York, United States
Patti Smith and Lou Reed pose together in New York in 1976. Photo by Richard E. Aaron.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1976
New York City, New York, United States
Lou Reed poses for the cover session for his album Coney Island Baby circa 1976 in New York City.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1977
254 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019, United States
American Pop artist Andy Warhol speaks with singer and musician Lou Reed during an event in the Studio 54 nightclub, New York, 1977. Photo by Rose Hartman.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1979
110 Central Park South, New York, United States
Lou Reed and Andy Warhol at WPIX Radio in New York City on September 23, 1979. Photo by Ebet Roberts.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1980
New York City, New York, United States
Musician Lou Reed poses for a portrait on the street in May 1980 in New York City, New York. Photo by David Gahr.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1980
New York City, New York, United States
Rock singer, musician, and songwriter Lou Reed poses for a portrait in May 1980 in New York City, New York. Photo by David Gahr.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1985
Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Randy Newman posing on September 22, 1985, in Champaign, Illinois. Photo by Deborah Feingold.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1985
United States
Promotional portrait of American rock singer and songwriter Lou Reed, standing in front of a wooden fence, holding a motorcycle helmet. He wears a black leather jacket.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1995
1941 Broadway at, W 65th St, New York, NY 10023, United States
Lou Reed and David Bowie at CM J backstage at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on September 8, 1995. Photo by Ebet Roberts.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1996
4 W 58th St, New York, NY 10019, United States
David Bowie and Lou Reed attending the movie premiere of "Basquiat" at the Paris Theater. Photo by Richard Corkery.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1996
520 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009, United States
Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and Dean Wareham at Josie's bar. Photo by Ebet Roberts.
Gallery of Lou Reed
1997
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001, United States
Lou Reed and David Bowie during David Bowie's 50th Birthday Celebration Concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, United States.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2003
239 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019, United States
Robbie Williams, Peter Gabriel, Michelle Ngdecello, and Lou Reed at the MTV Rock The Vote 10th Annual Patrick Lippert Awards. Photo by Jeff Kravitz.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2004
1126 Queens Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90802, United States
Musician Lou Reed performs at All Tomorrow's Parties at the Queen Mary on November 6, 2004, in Los Angeles, California. The two-day music festival was curated by Modest Mouse. Photo by Karl Walter.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2005
United States
Full-length portrait of Lou Reed with a pet dog. Photo by Steven Dewall.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2006
691 Madison Ave., 4th fl., New York, NY 10065, United States
Lou Reed and David Bowie attend the opening of Lou Reed NY photography exhibit at the Gallery at Hermes on January 19, 2006, in New York City. Photo by Andrew H. Walker.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2006
New York City, New York, United States
Ali Hewson, Lou Reed, Bono, and Laurie Anderson pose at the Edun Fall 2006 Presentation during Olympus Fashion Week on February 5, 2006, in New York City. Photo by Brad Barket.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2007
201 Park Ave S, New York, NY 10003, United States
Lou Reed and David Bowie during Lou Reed is Awarded George Arents Pioneer Medal, Syracuse University's Highest Alumni Award at W New York Union Square in New York City, New York, United States. Photo by L. Busacca.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2007
425 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10003, United States
Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed during Pete Townshend of The Who and Rachel Fuller Hold Attic Jam Show at Joe's Pub - February 20, 2007, at Joe's Pub in New York City, New York, United States. Photo by Hal Horowitz.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2007
425 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10003, United States
Pete Townshend of The Who and Lou Reed during Pete Townshend of The Who and Rachel Fuller Hold Attic Jam Show at Joe's Pub - February 20, 2007, at Joe's Pub in New York City, New York, United States. Photo by Hal Horowitz.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2009
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001, United States
James Hetfield of Metallica and Lou Reed perform onstage at the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert at Madison Square Garden on October 30, 2009, in New York City. Photo by Theo Wargo.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2010
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, Bishop's, London SE1 8XX, United Kingdom
Musician Lou Reed performs music inspired by his seminal 1975 experimental album 'Metal Machine Music' with the Metal Machine Trio, as part of the Ether festival at the Royal Festival Hall on April 19, 2010, in London, England. Photo by Jim Dyson.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2010
Bennelong Point, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
American musician Lou Reed attends a Tai Chi session led by his personal teacher Master Ren Guan Yi at the Sydney Opera House forecourt on June 7, 2010, in Sydney, Australia. Members of the public were invited to take part in the free event as part of the Lou Reed-curated Vivid LIVE festival. Photo by Mark Metcalfe.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2010
Bennelong Point, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
American musician Lou Reed attends a Tai Chi session led by his personal teacher Master Ren Guan Yi at the Sydney Opera House forecourt on June 7, 2010, in Sydney, Australia. Members of the public were invited to take part in the free event as part of the Lou Reed-curated Vivid LIVE festival. Photo by Mark Metcalfe.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2010
Bennelong Point, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
American musician Lou Reed attends a Tai Chi session led by his personal teacher Master Ren Guan Yi at the Sydney Opera House forecourt on June 7, 2010, in Sydney, Australia. Members of the public were invited to take part in the free event as part of the Lou Reed-curated Vivid LIVE festival. Photo by Mark Metcalfe.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2011
166 2nd Ave #3a, New York, NY 10003, United States
Lou Reed in the center with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich of Metallica attend the Lou Reed and Metallica "Lulu" listening party for Bowers & Wilkins Sound Sessions at Steven Kasher Gallery on October 24, 2011, in New York City. Photo by Kevin Mazur.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2012
Dieselstraße 30-40, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Lou Reed looks on during his photo exhibition at Frank Landau Gallery on November 3, 2012, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Photo by Hannelore Foerster.
Gallery of Lou Reed
2013
New York City, New York, United States
Mick Rock and Lou Reed attend John Varvatos Presents Transformer By Lou Reed And Mick Rock on October 3, 2013, in New York City. Photo by Theo Wargo.
Achievements
Lou Reed on a Rolling Stone magazine cover.
Membership
Awards
Ivor Novello Special International Award
2005
86-90 Park Ln, Mayfair, London W1K 7TN, United Kingdom
Lou Reed accepts the Special International Award at the 50th Ivor Novello Awards at Grosvenor House on May 26, 2005, in London. Photo by Gareth Davies.
Velvet Underground perform with Edie Sedgwick and Gerard Malanga dancing at NY Filmmakers' Cinematheque, New York, February 1966. From left to right: Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Malanga, Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, and John Cale. Photo by Adam Ritchie.
Pop artist Andy Warhol and rock singer, musician, and songwriter Lou Reed pose for a portrait with one of Warhol's iconic pop sculptures, a helium-filled silver pillow entitled Silver Clouds, in March 1966 in New York City, New York. Photo by David Gahr.
Singer and songwriter Lou Reed poses for a portrait wearing a hat, sunglasses and a studded leather jacket for the cover of his album "Lou Reed Live" which was released in March of 1975 and recorded on December 21, 1973, at Howard Stein's Academy of Music in New York City, New York.
At the party given by David Bowie at the Cafe Royal here following Bowie's final tour concert. American singer Lou Reed, Mick Jagger, and David Bowie. Standing is Lulu.
American Pop artist Andy Warhol speaks with singer and musician Lou Reed during an event in the Studio 54 nightclub, New York, 1977. Photo by Rose Hartman.
Promotional portrait of American rock singer and songwriter Lou Reed, standing in front of a wooden fence, holding a motorcycle helmet. He wears a black leather jacket.
1126 Queens Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90802, United States
Musician Lou Reed performs at All Tomorrow's Parties at the Queen Mary on November 6, 2004, in Los Angeles, California. The two-day music festival was curated by Modest Mouse. Photo by Karl Walter.
86-90 Park Ln, Mayfair, London W1K 7TN, United Kingdom
Lou Reed accepts the Special International Award at the 50th Ivor Novello Awards at Grosvenor House on May 26, 2005, in London. Photo by Gareth Davies.
691 Madison Ave., 4th fl., New York, NY 10065, United States
Lou Reed and David Bowie attend the opening of Lou Reed NY photography exhibit at the Gallery at Hermes on January 19, 2006, in New York City. Photo by Andrew H. Walker.
Ali Hewson, Lou Reed, Bono, and Laurie Anderson pose at the Edun Fall 2006 Presentation during Olympus Fashion Week on February 5, 2006, in New York City. Photo by Brad Barket.
Lou Reed and David Bowie during Lou Reed is Awarded George Arents Pioneer Medal, Syracuse University's Highest Alumni Award at W New York Union Square in New York City, New York, United States. Photo by L. Busacca.
425 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10003, United States
Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed during Pete Townshend of The Who and Rachel Fuller Hold Attic Jam Show at Joe's Pub - February 20, 2007, at Joe's Pub in New York City, New York, United States. Photo by Hal Horowitz.
425 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10003, United States
Pete Townshend of The Who and Lou Reed during Pete Townshend of The Who and Rachel Fuller Hold Attic Jam Show at Joe's Pub - February 20, 2007, at Joe's Pub in New York City, New York, United States. Photo by Hal Horowitz.
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001, United States
James Hetfield of Metallica and Lou Reed perform onstage at the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert at Madison Square Garden on October 30, 2009, in New York City. Photo by Theo Wargo.
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, Bishop's, London SE1 8XX, United Kingdom
Musician Lou Reed performs music inspired by his seminal 1975 experimental album 'Metal Machine Music' with the Metal Machine Trio, as part of the Ether festival at the Royal Festival Hall on April 19, 2010, in London, England. Photo by Jim Dyson.
American musician Lou Reed attends a Tai Chi session led by his personal teacher Master Ren Guan Yi at the Sydney Opera House forecourt on June 7, 2010, in Sydney, Australia. Members of the public were invited to take part in the free event as part of the Lou Reed-curated Vivid LIVE festival. Photo by Mark Metcalfe.
American musician Lou Reed attends a Tai Chi session led by his personal teacher Master Ren Guan Yi at the Sydney Opera House forecourt on June 7, 2010, in Sydney, Australia. Members of the public were invited to take part in the free event as part of the Lou Reed-curated Vivid LIVE festival. Photo by Mark Metcalfe.
American musician Lou Reed attends a Tai Chi session led by his personal teacher Master Ren Guan Yi at the Sydney Opera House forecourt on June 7, 2010, in Sydney, Australia. Members of the public were invited to take part in the free event as part of the Lou Reed-curated Vivid LIVE festival. Photo by Mark Metcalfe.
166 2nd Ave #3a, New York, NY 10003, United States
Lou Reed in the center with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich of Metallica attend the Lou Reed and Metallica "Lulu" listening party for Bowers & Wilkins Sound Sessions at Steven Kasher Gallery on October 24, 2011, in New York City. Photo by Kevin Mazur.
(After his first book of photographs was published, Lou Re...)
After his first book of photographs was published, Lou Reed told a journalist for The Independent on Sunday that "I live on intuition and taking pictures is intuitive." Here, we see Lou Reed's intuitive take on New York, the city that has been the fulcrum of his creative world for decades and with which he has become indelibly identified. We've heard about the streets and characters for so long through his words and music, and now we can see it through his eyes. Over 100 of Reed's photographs comprise New York, an intimate view of what inspires him.
(One of the most influential and innovative recording arti...)
One of the most influential and innovative recording artists of the past three decades, Lou Reed has always offered a shrewd view of life in the big city in all its colors. It is no surprise, then, that he considers Edgar Allan Poe a spiritual forefather.
In The Raven, Reed immerses himself in Poe’s enigmatic world and sets out to reimagine his work to mesmerizing effect. In 2001 Lou Reed, legendary theater director Robert Wilson, and an all-star cast presented the musical POEtry at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Reed’s subsequent studio adaptation, The Raven, has been hailed as one of his more daring and challenging albums. Here, accompanied by photographs by the acclaimed artist and director Julian Schnabel, is the definitive text of the CD release. The Raven includes Reed's distinctive takes on Poe’s most celebrated works, as well as song lyrics written for the musical. It is a fascinating meeting between a dark chronicler of the twentieth century and his nineteenth-century counterpart; the work of one iconoclastic genius offering a haunting exploration of another.
(Out of print for several years, a comprehensive volume of...)
Out of print for several years, a comprehensive volume of Lou Reed's lyrics, now updated in a new text design to include the lyrics from his final album with Metallica, Lulu. Through his many incarnations-from proto-punk to glam rocker to elder statesman of the avant-garde Lou Reed's work has maintained an undeniable vividness and raw beauty, fueled by precise character studies and rendered with an admirable shot of moral ambiguity. Beginning with his formative days in the Velvet Underground and continuing through his remarkable solo albums like Transformer, Berlin, and New York, Doin' The Things We Want To is crucial to an appreciation of Lou Reed, not only as a consummate underground musician but as one of the truly significant visionary lyricists of the rock n roll era. Containing a body of work that spans more than four decades and facsimile pages from late-career lyrics, this is a monument to the literary qualities of an American original whose images and storytelling genius are now embedded in the counter-cultural narrative.
(Emotions is that rare book that displays virtually unknow...)
Emotions is that rare book that displays virtually unknown work by a famous, familiar artist - it is very much Reed's first photo book. His work in other art fields has been well recognized, however: Reed has acted in and composed music for film and is the recipient of the Chevalier Commander of Arts and Letters from the French government. The author of Pass thru Fire and the play The Raven, Lou Reed lives in New York City.
(Berlin is a concept album that represented a brave depart...)
Berlin is a concept album that represented a brave departure from the familiar sounds and themes of Lou Reed’s earlier solo work, a tragic tale about heartbreak and addiction meant to be played live as a rock opera, in the vein of The Who’s Tommy. But its poor reception meant that plans for a live performance were put on hold until 2007, when, with a renewed confidence in the material, Reed toured with a full orchestra and choir, giving some of the most personal and powerful performances of his career. The tour was filmed by legendary artist Julian Schnabel, a longtime friend of Reed’s who also designed the spare and beautiful set, and whose daughter Lola contributed moving images projected behind the stage. This immeasurably powerful book draws on stills from Schnabel’s film, photographs of the set design, printed lyrics of Reed’s original verse, and images from Schnabel’s projections to tell the twin stories of Berlin as rock opera and as unique collaboration between two geniuses of contemporary art, music, words, and film. The book also includes a rare conversation between Reed and Schnabel.
(In Romanticism, Lou Reed's third photo collection, the su...)
In Romanticism, Lou Reed's third photo collection, the subjects are various landscape and architectural motifs encountered and documented in travels through Scotland, Denmark, Spain, Rome, China, and Big Sur in California. The approach is at once formal and steeped in feeling. As Reed states, recalling the contexts for these images, "The trees and the wind billowing and dancing in Edinburgh reminding me of the storm I fell in love with in Cork. The perspectives and range of blacks and whites the perfect thing for a film noir fan." Lou Reed was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and is a founding member of the legendary band, the Velvet Underground. He has acted in and composed music for a number of films and is the recipient of the Chevalier Commander of Arts and Letters from the French government. He is the author of Pass thru Fire: The Collected Lyrics and the play The Raven. His previous books of photography, both published with Steidl, include Lou Reed's New York and Emotion in Action.
('Transformer' is the signed large-format book signed by L...)
'Transformer' is the signed large-format book signed by Lou Reed and showcasing Mick Rock's photography. Lou said about these images, "I like Mick and I like what he photographs, so shooting with him was never a problem. All these moments would be gone forever if it wasn't for him." This book is just one of a finite number that Lou personally signed.
Lou Reed: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations
(In this collection of powerful interviews given over thir...)
In this collection of powerful interviews given over thirty years - including his final interview - Lou Reed oscillates between losing patience with his interviewers (he was famous for walking out on them) and sharing profound observations on the human experience, especially as he reflects on poetry and novels, the joy of live performances, and the power of sound. In conversation with legendary rock critics and authors, he respected, Reed’s interviews are as pithy and brilliant as the man himself.
(In August of 1970, a 28-year-old Lou Reed quit the Velvet...)
In August of 1970, a 28-year-old Lou Reed quit the Velvet Underground, moved home to Long Island, New York, and embarked on a fascinating alternate creative path: poetry. Spending months in relative isolation, the musician refashioned himself, publicly vowing to never again play rock and roll. Reed wrote verse and contributed his work to journals and small press publications. “I’m a poet,” he proclaimed from the stage of St. Mark’s Church in March 1971. Though his retirement from music wouldn’t last - only six months later he began recording his debut solo album - Reed’s passionate identification with the written word was solidified and would last the rest of his life. Gathering poems, photographs, and ephemera from this era and featuring a foreword by Anne Waldman and an afterword by Laurie Anderson, this book provides a window to a little-known chapter in the life of one of the most singular and uncompromising voices in American popular culture.
Lou Reed was an American musician, singer-songwriter, and poet. He formed the cult rock band Velvet Underground in 1965. Following the group's demise in the 1970s, he pursued a solo career.
Background
Lou Reed was born Lewis Allan Reed on March 2, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, United States to a middle-class Jewish family of an accountant Sidney Joseph Reed and Toby Futterman. His father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed became infatuated with rock and roll and rhythm and blues during his teens. He wrote his own songs and performed with bands like the Shades during the 1950s; he also frightened his parents with his behavior. According to Victor Bockris’s 1995 biography Transformer: The Lou Reed Story - excerpted in Interview - the teenager turned his family’s world upside down. Tyrannically presiding over their middle-class home, he slashed screeching chords on his electric guitar, practiced an effeminate way of walking, drew his sister aside in conspiratorial conferences, and threatened to throw the mother of all moodies if everyone didn’t pay complete attention to him. The Reeds sent Lou to a mental institution, believing that treatment there would cure their son of his attitude problems and apparent homosexuality. At Creedmore State Psychiatric Hospital, the troubled teen underwent electroshock therapy; the trauma of this “cure” would never entirely leave him.
Education
Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School.
In 1959, while beginning his music studies at New York University, Reed underwent further treatment. After transferring to Syracuse University in 1960, he fell into the circle around the poet and short-story writer Delmore Schwartz, one of his English professors. Reed would later resist being pigeonholed, but his college profile suggests a distinct type: an early-'60s East Coast hipster, a middle-class suburban rebel in love with pre-Beatles rock ‘n’ roll, jazz and street-life writers: William S. Burroughs, Hubert Selby Jr., Raymond Chandler, Allen Ginsberg. He clearly absorbed and, at least at times, admired Bob Dylan.
At Syracuse Reed studied journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in Reserve Officers' Training Corps; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in English in June 1964.
After graduating from Syracuse University, Reed began writing songs for the Long Island-based Pickwick Records, where he met fellow a musician (bass and viola) John Cale; together they formed the Warlocks in 1965. With the addition of guitarist-bassist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker, the group changed their name to the Primitives and later the Falling Spikes. In 1966 they settled on the Velvet Underground a name taken from the title of a pornographic novel. The Group was signed by Verve Records and artist Andy Warhol was assigned to produce their first album. Warhol brought in German-born singer Nico to round out the vocals. After recording the album the group toured with Warhol’s multi-media project, The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Their music was stark in contrast to the hippie-style love songs of the west coast. With subject matter like sadomasochism, drugs and street life played at deafening volumes, the Velvet Underground shocked its audiences.
Warhol and Nico left in 1967 before the group’s second album, White Light/White Heat, which featured the heavy metal sound almost two years before the so-called fathers of the genre, Led Zeppelin, had even formed. The album became a favorite among avant-garde music fans but was ignored by the general public. Meanwhile, Cale left before the third long-play, The Velvet Underground, and was replaced by Doug Yule. Even though their sound mellowed slightly, they were still trapped under the “cult-favorites” category. Ironically, their final studio effort, Loaded, which produced classics like “Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll,” sold reasonably well, but Reed had decided to quit the band even before the album was released. Two subsequent live albums were issued after the Velvet Underground’s breakup; of these, 1969 captured an excellent performance in a small Texas club.
After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed worked for a time with his father’s accounting firm in Long Island, but in 1971 the Radio Corporation of America Records Label (RCA) signed him to a solo contract and Reed was off to London to record his self-titled debut long-play. Backed by British session musicians, Reed’s work was again ignored by radio stations, but it featured some outstanding writing and depictions of inner-city life. Reed stayed in England and eventually met Bowie, who openly expressed his admiration for Reed’s talents and even offered to produce his next record, Transformer, which featured Reed’s well-known song, “Walk on the Wild Side.” Transformer helped to re-establish Reed in the music world and placed him in the public eye, where the dark side of his personality began to emerge. According to The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, “after Transformer he hooked himself firmly into his role as Elder Statesman of Ersatz Decadence and deteriorated at a rapid pace. This was a sobering sight for aficionados: Reed in eye-liner and phantom drag, aping Bowie the disciple of Reed.”
A collage of sex, drugs, and death, Reed’s third album, Berlin, sold poorly despite a tour and heavy promotion. Oddly enough, this record, which did so much to harm Reed commercially, also contributed to his ensuing comeback. The 1973 tour to promote Berlin included one of the finest bands ever assembled. With the dual guitars of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner weaving in and around Reed’s poetry, the tour produced one of the most powerful live albums ever, Rock ’n’ Roll Animal. Another album from the same tour, Lou Reed Live, concentrated on ballads and was released a year later in 1975. Sandwiched between the two live long plays was Sally Can’t Dance, which stereotyped Reed as the “street-poet of rock.” The song “Kill Your Sons” chronicled Reed’s experience during high school when his parents submitted him to electroshock therapy. Although the album climbed to number ten on the charts, it is not regarded by Reed or his fans as one of his better efforts.
In the spring of 1975, Reed unleashed Metal Machine Music in the world. This album was Reed’s powerful commentary on the music industry - four album sides (16:01 each) of what he described in Rolling Stone as “the all-time feedback guitar solo unrestricted by key or tempo.” Needless to say, reviews of the album were extremely positive, but once again Reed seemed to be his own worse enemy, lashing out at anyone who doubted the enormous chip on his shoulder. His verbal battles with the press (who tended to believe Reed’s songs were mostly autobiographical) were by now legendary. In 1976 he told Rolling Stone’s Tim Ferris, “If only they (critics) knew that not only am I such a worthless churl as to write songs about these things but on top of that, I stole it all. Stole it from people.”
In 1976 Reed ended a short-lived marriage, changed managers and released a new album, Coney Island Baby. With Reed on guitar and piano, it was a mixture of bitter ballads, twisted love songs, and restrained rockers. After a switch from the RCA label to Arista, Reed released his seventh studio long play, the directionless and enigmatic Rock and Roll Heart. Playing against a background of television sets, Reed called the Rock and Roll Heart tour a “full-fledged attack, a seething assault. I call it germ warfare. I think of it as the Clearasil on the face of the nation. Jim Morrison would have said that if he was smart, but he’s dead.”
In 1978 Reed released his most honest album up to that point, Street Hassle. Rolling Stone’s Tom Carson wrote, “the recognition of his own self-destruction has been made integral to Street Hassle’s concept, and the effect is double-edged; as we respond to the album’s excellence, we are never allowed to forget just how much it cost.” The public was finally starting to see the true Lou Reed.
Things would get even better on his 1979 album, The Bells, which contained three songs co-written by guitarist Nils Lofgren. The late critic Lester Bangs compared The Bells to Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks and the Rolling Stones’Exile on Main Street, calling it “great art.” In the next four years, Reed released three more fine albums, Growing Up In Public, The Blue Mask, and Legendary Hearts. He summed this trio up as “the absolute end of everything from the Velvet Underground up.” He began to take a brighter outlook on life and his next two albums, New Sensations, and Mistrial contained up-tempo songs and a happier Lou Reed.
At the onset of the 1980s, Reed recruited his finest post-Velvets band, including guitarist Robert Quine and bassist Fernando Saunders, and reimmersed himself in raw guitar rock on The Blue Mask (1982), addressing his fears, ghosts, and joys with riveting frankness. No longer bedeviled by his addictions, Reed adopted a more-serious if less-daring tone on his recordings, peaking with three releases that were less concept albums than song cycles: New York (1989), about the spiritual death of his hometown; Songs for Drella (1990), an elegy for his 1960s mentor, Pop art conceptualist Andy Warhol, done in collaboration with former Velvets bandmate John Cale; and Magic and Loss (1991), inspired by the deaths of two friends. A romantic relationship with American performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson rejuvenated him again in the mid-1990s, resulting in the playful Set the Twilight Reeling (1997) and the harder-hitting Ecstasy (2000).
In 2000-2001 Reed collaborated with director Robert Wilson to bring to the stage POEtry, which was based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe. The songs from the show were also packaged, with spoken-word interludes, on The Raven (2003) - an ambitious if critically panned experiment. It was followed by Animal Serenade (2004), an excellent live recording that echoed Reed’s landmark 1974 concert album Rock ’n’ Roll Animal. In 2006 Reed celebrated New York City in a book, Lou Reed’s New York, which collected his photography.
Reed teamed with heavy metal icons Metallica on the two-disc collection Lulu (2011). The album, inspired by the plays of German dramatist Frank Wedekind, was derided by critics, but it demonstrated that Reed’s experimental tendencies remained as audacious as ever.
In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust," the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on.
Lou Reed was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Brooklyn. He made contradictory remarks about his Jewishness. He once reportedly told journalist Lester Bangs that he didn’t know any Jewish people. But, on another occasion, asked whether he was Jewish, he was said to have responded, “Of course, aren’t all the best people?”
But if his faith was a factor in his music, Reed himself played it down: “My God is rock ’n’ roll. It’s an obscure power that can change your life,” he was once quoted as saying. “The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.”
Politics
Reed showed up for benefit concerts, for Tibet House and Tibetan Freedom, for Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union. He was there to recall the Freedom Riders, and to condemn apartheid as part of Little Steven Van Zandt’s “Sun City” project. He was there to defend human rights and to decry attacks on artistic freedom. He was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities.
Views
Earlier in his career, Reed’s image was often compared to that of a Bowie-like androgyne that served to reinforce his “masculine” identity. The same could be said on behalf of the glam rock style that Reed adopted in the initial stages of his solo career with albums such as Rock’n’Roll Animal.
Reed elevated hedonism to high art. As the founder and lead singer of the Velvet Underground, he used rock music to find the poetry in modern-day misery and urban decay. Throughout his unpredictable career, he relentlessly explored new styles in a multitude of genres.
From the beginning of his career, Reed identified himself as an artist who was determined to explore and explain the great societal taboos. He wrote songs about sex and sexuality, addiction, abuse, disease and communities that refused to conform or capitulate. His 1972 hit, “Walk on the Wild Side,” took AM radio and a generation of young Americans to places they had never been before. That wasn’t an explicitly political song by most measures, yet it achieved a remarkable political end: transforming how people saw one another, and themselves.
Reed focused largely on AIDS and LGBT issues, joining forces with Bono and U2, Rufus Wainwright and others to help raise money to eliminate AIDS in Africa. He also partnered with and supported Cyndi Lauper‘s True Colors Fund, raising awareness and funds for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, Look to the Stars reported.
Reed headlined a 12-hour charity concert following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Also an animal lover, he has supported the ethical treatment of turkeys through Farm Sanctuary by partnering with Russell Simmons.
Quotations:
"You can't beat two guitars, bass, and drums."
"Meditation doesn't have to be complicated. What I do is about as simple as you can get. You could just count the beads, one, two, three, with your eyes closed or open, whatever makes you happy. And no matter what happens, keep counting. I personally like it when I can feel that I'm actually moving the beads when I'm counting. And once you make it to a minute, see if you can do a minute-and-a-half. Eventually, you can do it without the beads."
"People think that I work out but it's all t'ai chi."
"The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music?"
"One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."
"I didn't get in it for the money, and I'm the same way now. I do it for me. Because I like doing it."
"I think everybody has a number of personalities, just in themselves. It's not just people having different personalities. I mean you wake up in the morning and say, 'Wonder which one of them is around today?' You find out which one and send him out. Fifteen minutes later someone else shows up. That's why if there's no one left to talk to you can listen to a couple of them talking in your head."
Personality
Lou Reed is known to be a controversial person. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed suffered his first nervous breakdown in his freshman year in college, which was quickly followed by his much-chronicled experience with electroshock therapy. The treatment decimated his short-term memory and inspired “incredible rage” toward his parents, particularly his father, Sid, according to Reed’s sister, Merrill Reed Weiner. (Weiner, however, disputed her brother’s claim that the therapy was forced on him “to discourage homosexual feelings.” “My parents were many things - anxious, controlling - but they were blazing liberals,” she is quoted as saying.)
If Reed harbored deep-seated anger after this trauma, it was likely aggravated by his early experiences with fame - if such a word applies to his tenure in his seminal ’60s band, the Velvet Underground. The band’s albums are now considered among the most influential in rock history. But at the height of the hippie era, they were ignored by many critics and the public, which was more interested in flower power than the Velvets’ brooding art-rock. The failure to break through left him bitter.
Reed's ex-wife says he had resolved to free himself from his addictions starting around 1979.
Since the 1980s Reed has been an avid martial artist, and most recently he has become a student of Chen style Tai Chi Chuan; even having his teacher Ren Guang Yi perform tai chi forms onstage during his concerts.
Physical Characteristics:
Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterwards, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71.
Quotes from others about the person
I learned loudness from working with Lou Reed." - Robert Wilson
"Lou Reed was a hero because he was an anti-hero." - Tom Stoppard
"Lou Reed is the most important definitive writer in modern rock. Not because of the stuff that he does, but the direction that he will take it." - David Bowie
"Lou Reed's music has been in the lives of millions of people all over the world for decades. He had a truly universal presence and was respected by musicians across all genres." - Henry Rollins
Interests
Tai Chi Chuan
Politicians
Nelson Mandela
Writers
William S. Burroughs, Hubert Selby Jr., Raymond Chandler, Allen Ginsberg
Artists
Andy Warhol
Sport & Clubs
basketball
Music & Bands
Bob Dylan
Connections
Lou Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. They divorced the same year. Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. In 1994 he and Morales were divorced. From the late 1990s, Reed was romantically linked to musician, multimedia and performance artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. Lou Reed had no children.