Lewis Allen Reed, or more famously known as Lou Reed, was born on March 2nd, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York. On that day, the world did not know how big of an impact that newborn would have on the future of rock and roll. Lou Reed would grow to become a singer and guitarist that is best known as a co-founder of the influential rock group the Velvet Underground. Lou Reed also had a legendary solo career.

Early Life

Reed grew up in a Jewish family in Long Island, New York. As a child, Reed picked up an interest playing the guitar, and this is where his love for distortion and noise started. He was in numerous bands while attending high school. During high school years, Lou Reed was sometimes viewed as “troubled”, and he was ordered to undergo electroshock therapy that was intended to cure him of his bisexuality. He attended college at Syracuse University and he studied writing and film. After college, Reed moved to New York City and began writing for Pickwick Records.

Reed was always said to have “literary aspirations”, and that he always viewed himself in “literary terms”. In fact, Reed studied with poet and short-story writer, Delmore Shwartz. Eventually, however, Reed found his own style of writing that he could identify with, and he started to make his own creations. Shortly after, Reed met vocalist, John Cale. These two became friends, collaborators, roommates, and bandmates of  The Velvet Underground.

The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground started with Lou Reed, John Cale, Maureen Tucker, and Sterling Morrison. After being noticed by artist Andy Warhol, their career took off. Warhol invited him to parties and introduced them to the artistic scene of New York. Reed also learned the strategy of self-invention and  homemade-success from Warhol, which would be vital to Reed, especially in his career as a solo artist. Essentially, Warhol discovered the band. He claimed partial ownership, and even produced their first two albums.

Their first album was The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967). Despite how influential The Velvet Underground was, this first album was considered as a disaster, as it only sold 30,000 copies. This album changed rock and roll, and it influenced artists such as David Bowie, Bono, R.E.M, U2, Pearl Jam, and Radiohead. The album consisted of topics that were “dark”, which was unlike most of the music the world was hearing during the “Summer of Love”.

The band released three more albums, including their hit song “Sweet Jane“, before Reed left the band in 1970 to focus on a what would become a successful solo career. The Velvet Underground would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and they would be credited for creating alternative rock.

Lou Reed

Lou Reed signed with RCA records, and his first album was Lou Reed. In 1972, Reed released Transformer. This album included his most successful hit single, “Take a Walk on the Wild Side“, which was inspired by Warhol’s art studio/warehouse. Reed ended up creating more than 16 albums, and also rerecorded songs from The Velvet Underground.

Lou Reed is known for a variety of things. He is known for experimenting with rock and roll, different sounds, daring and provocative moments, and sensitive, moving, ballads. Reed’s songs were very poetic, and most of them had double-meanings. He is a nonconformist who wrote about the realities of New York City, and topics that were never written before, let alone sung about during that time. These topics included heroin, addiction, homosexuality, and violence. Reed had a large New York City following as well, probably because some could relate to what he was writing. In fact, not only did Reed have a New York City following, but he is known for being from New York. Lou Reed “had” New York, just as Bruce Springsteen is known for the “Jersey Shore”.

Reed’s Persona

It is known that Lou Reed had a “persona” that he often talked about throughout his career. He was said to have an “anger” that disguised a fear of meeting expectations. Reed said this was a self-protection strategy he learned from Bob Dylan. Reed actually joked about his known anger in an interview once. “God forbid I should ever be nice to people, it would ruin everything.” Reed thought that by being “difficult”, people would never ask him things they knew he would not want to do.

His wife, Laurie Anderson, said, “…his anger was one of the biggest parts of his beauty”.

Doug Yule, a former member of The Velvet Underground, also commented about Reed’s “persona”. He said, “[Reed’s toughness] protected his core, the gentleness that comes out in a lot of his work”.

In his career, Reed turned down offers that would have brought him a larger increase in sales and a larger audience. He turned them down because these “offers” were all opportunities to create his work into something “commercial”. His persona and nonconformist qualities lead him to believe that if his work ever turned into something “commercial”, it would drown-out the meanings of his songs.

Later Years

When Reed grew older, his artistic, restless, soul continued to work on a variety of projects. He still continued to perform, but also ventured outside of rock and roll. He collaborated on theater pieces, published photography books, and he composed instrumental music. Reed died on October 27, 2013, from liver disease. The loss of him was felt by so many, and as his life was reflected upon, it became clear how essential his music was to rock and roll.

Reed was honored once again in 2015, as he was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.