Lou Reed

Singer, songwriter, guitarist

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

Lou Reed gained limited notoriety in the late 1960’s as the songwriter and guitarist of the Velvet Underground. Unfortunately the group lasted only four years, breaking up in 1970 with the release of their fourth album. Their impact, however, continues as artists like David Bowie and Iggy Pop, virtually the entire punk movement, and many heavy metal bands reflect the Velvet Underground’s influence.

After attending Syracuse University in New York, Reed began writing songs for the Long Island-based Pickwick Records, where he met fellow 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 LP, 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, 7969 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 RCA signed him to a solo contract and Reed was off to London to record his self-titled debut LP. 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

For the Record…

Real name, Louis Firbank; born March 2, 1942, in Brooklyn, N.Y.; son of Sidney Joseph (an accountant) and Toby (Futterman) Firbank; married Sylvia Morales (second wife), February 14, 1980. Education: Syracuse University, B.A., 1964.

Songwriter, Pickwick Records, New York City, 1965; recording artist, band member, founder of the Velvet Underground, 1966-70; solo recording artist, 1970—; performer, Farm Aid benefit concert, 1985, Amnesty International Tour, 1986; published poet; appeared in motion pictures; member: Musician’s Union Local 802; Screen Actor’s Guild.

Awards: Received Best New Poet award from Council on Small Literary Magazines, 1977.

Addresses: Home —New York, N.Y. Office –c/o Warner Bros. Records, 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank, Calif. 91510.

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 LPs 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 on 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 LP, 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.

Reed played all six dates on the 1986 Amnesty International tour and was also a contributor to the Artists Against Apartheid Sun City record. It seems as if Reed has finally come clean (he even did ads for Honda scooters) but with such a complex personality, it’s hard to tell where he’ll be next. As Rolling Stone’s Billy Altman wrote, “One’s opinion of Reed’s solo work changes constantly, because his constant shifts of stance and style continually confound any sense of perspective.”

Selected discography

Lou Reed, RCA, 1972.

Transformer, RCA, 1972.

Berlin, RCA, 1973.

Rock ‘N’ Roll Animal, RCA, 1974.

Sally Can’t Dance, RCA, 1974.

Lou Reed Live, RCA, 1975.

Metal Machine Music, RCA, 1975.

Coney Island Baby, RCA, 1976.

Rock and Roll Heart, Arista, 1976.

Take No Prisoners—Lou Reed Live, Arista, 1978.

Street Hassle, Arista, 1978.

The Bells, Arista, 1979.

Growing Up In Public, Arista, 1980.

The Blue Mask, Arista, 1982.

Legendary Hearts, Arista, 1983.

New Sensations, RCA, 1984.

Mistrial, RCA, 1984.

New York, Warner Bros., 1988.

Also appeared on several recordings with the Velvet Underground, including:

The Velvet Underground and Nico, Verve, 1967. The Velvet Underground, MGM, 1969. Loaded, Cotillion, 1970.

Sources

Books

Christgau, Robert, Christgau’s Record Guide, Ticknor & Fields, 1981.

Dalton, David and Kaye, Lenny, Rock 100, Grosset & Dunlap, 1977.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, Harmony, 1977.

The Rolling Stone Record Guide, edited by Dave Marsh and John Swenson, Random House/Rolling Stone Press, 1979.

Periodicals

Rolling Stone, March 25, 1976; April 8, 1976; September 23, 1976; December 2, 1976; April 6, 1978; February 6, 1979; March 22, 1979; June 14, 1979; August 23, 1979; September 25, 1986.

—Calen D. Stone