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Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band The Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades.
- “I’m Waiting For The Man”
- “Sister Ray”
- “Pale Blue Eyes”
- “Satellite of Love”
- “Walk on The Wild Side”
- “Vicious”
- “Sad Song”
- “Sweet Jane”
- Metal Machine Music
- “Street Hassle”
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Start with $26 in your hand and this clattering track from the Velvet Underground‘s first album (The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967): an urgent rocker about going uptown to score drugs. With John Cale pounding away on the piano, Reed laid out the blueprint for his career: tough, urban, noisy, taboo, poetic.
On the Velvet Underground’s second album,White Light/White Heat, Reed pushed the group as far as he could with this epic of noise and debauchery: seventeen and a half improvised minutes, with lyrics about a drug-fueled transvestite orgy. It would serve as a blueprint and inspiration for countless bands in the following decades – but on its release ...
The flip side to Reed’s endless supply of deadpan venom was his ability to write gorgeous, yearning ballads, such as this one, from the Velvet Underground’s self-titled third album (1969). The song has been covered by R.E.M., Hole, and Patti Smith – but the original remains unsurpassed.
From Transformer, Reed’s breakthrough 1972 solo album, produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson. Is it a science-fiction tale of infidelity and voyeurism, a space-age lullaby, or an allegorical lament? For 41 years now, it’s been a riddle, wrapped in a melody, inside an enigma.
Reed’s most famous song, a sweetly nostalgic tale of the transvestites in Andy Warhol’s entourage coming to New York City and giving backroom blowjobs. The single, drawn from Transformer, was so transgressive in so many ways, it seems like a small miracle that it ever got played on the radio – yet it was Reed’s only American Top 40 hit.
The leadoff track on Transformer, remembered for the famous couplet, “Vicious / You hit me with a flower.” (The lyric was drawn from a conversation Reed had with Andy Warhol.) This live version features Reed in full-on bleached-hair speed-freak mode.
While many musicians have made Berlin albums, Lou Reed’s Berlin(1973) is the wrist-slashing standard against which they’re all judged. When the record concluded with the epic ballad “Sad Song,” it felt like the whole world was shutting down.
This live version of a Velvet Underground favorite (from 1974’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal) was a rock-radio staple for many years, in large part because of the lengthy introduction: guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter weaved licks together and played off each other like they were attached with surgical glue.
One of the most hostile moves any musician has ever made towards his fans and his record company: in 1975, Reed followed up his highest-charting album ever (Sally Can’t Dance) with a double album of squalling white noise. MMMinspired some of the best writing ever by legendary critic Lester Bangs, who said “sentient humans simply find it impossible ...
A miniature rock opera (from Reed’s 1978 album of the same name), starting with just orchestral strings and gradually swelling into a full rock band. A tale of lust, death, misogyny, and lies – and it includes a monologue spoken by an uncredited Bruce Springsteen.
A look back at the legendary rocker's best moments from the Velvet Underground and beyond, from "I'm Waiting for the Man" to "Strawman". Learn about Reed's career, influences, and legacy as one of rock's leading songwriters and visionaries.
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Apr 29, 2024 · Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter whose place in the rock pantheon rests primarily on his role in guiding the Velvet Underground, a New York City-based quartet that produced four poor-selling but enormously influential studio albums under Reed’s direction from 1965 to 1970.
4 days ago · LOU REED: (Singing) They said, hey, sugar, take a walk on the wild side. INSKEEP: That was a big hit for Lou Reed, who made the pop charts in 1973 with "Walk On The Wild Side," after years on the ...
Oct 2, 2023 · The author of LOU REED: The King of New York recounts the legendary rocker's last years, from his health struggles to his collaborations with Metallica and Laurie Anderson. Learn how Reed created his final album, Lulu, inspired by a German playwright, and how he faced his mortality with defiance and creativity.
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Oct 27, 2013 · A tribute to the influential songwriter and guitarist who shaped nearly fifty years of rock music with his band the Velvet Underground and his solo career. Learn about his life, career, influences, controversies and legacy in photos and words.
Oct 27, 2013 · By HILLEL ITALIEAP National Writer. Published 12:58 PM PDT, October 27, 2013. NEW YORK (AP) — Lou Reed, the punk poet of rock ‘n’ roll who profoundly influenced generations of musicians as leader of the Velvet Underground and remained a vital solo performer for decades after, died Sunday at 71.
