RIP Lou Reed

Lou Reed has left us. Reed passed away at the age of 71 on October 27^th. No cause of death has been released yet, but Reed had been suffering from liver problems, having undergone a liver transplant in April.

Reed's contributions to rock and experimental music can't be understated. His musical career was a rocky one, and started ignobly. His love for 50s doo wop music got him into recording and one of his first gigs was for the cut rate Pickwick label, writing music without credit. It even spawned a minor hit for him in 1964 called “The Ostrich”.

It wasn't until Reed met Welsh cellist John Cale that his star began to rise. Together with Moe Tucker and Sterling Morrison, Reed and Cale formed The Velvet Underground, Cale had been part of Reed's band in “The Ostrich” sessions, and introduced him to New York's avant-garde scene through La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music. After some performances, the band caught the attention of Andy Warhol, who paired the band with Nico, and helped put out their debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico in 1966.

The Velvet Underground were unlike any band at the time. Reed's penchant for classic rock merged with Cale's instincts for free-jazz, neo-classical and general musical experimentation and formed something very unique for the time, something so forward looking that it almost had no place in the mid 60s. The Velvets put out several albums through multiple line-ups, all of them commercial failures, but they inspired a decade of influential musicians, from prog rockers to punks. Without the early experiments of the Velvet Underground, there would be no punk scene, or art-rock scene, or perhaps any type of scene in New York.

Reed left the band in 1970, in pretty acrimoniously fashion. Earlier, new manager Steve Sesnick convinced Reed to fire Cale. Feuding with Cale, Reed left and the rest of the band followed suit in the next few years, leaving it to shamble around under new band leader Doug Yule, who had replaced Cale, until 1973.

Reed's solo career has been up and down, but contains many landmarks and stellar recordings. His first big album was 1972's Transformer, produced by Mick Ronson and David Bowie. This album contained his first hit “Walk on the Wildside” and one of his best known and loved songs “Perfect Day”. Reed followed this with the critically acclaimed Berlin, a dark album about the seedy underbelly of Berlin.

Reed released Metal Machine Music in 1975 to derision. The album is a difficult listen, two albums of electronic and guitar noise with little structure. The album remains a highly influential album to avant-garde and noise musicians though.

The 80s saw Reed mellow after his marriage to Sylvia Morales. He recorded The Blue Mask in 1982, probably his best album of the 80s. His material in the mid 80s had a poppy quality to it. The 80s culminated with a reunion with Cale for 1990's Songs for Drella, a tribute album to Warhol, and his concept album New York in 1989, about the lives of people he saw in New York.

The early 90s saw the Velvets reunite for some benefit concerts, then an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Reed continued to record through the 90s and 2000s, and he married electric-violinist Laurie Anderson in 2008.

Reed's career was very hit and miss and quite iconoclastic. He had a bristly personality, often scathing of his critics and fans. Among my friends, we had a term called “Lou Reed syndrome”. For us, it seemed like Lou Reed lacked a certain internally critical voice. For every album he produced, there seemed to be one brilliant track, then 10-12 songs of indulgent and tuneless songs. Whenever I run into an album with one track and then 10 songs of dreck, I tend to say the artist caught “Lou Reed syndrome”.

For me, Reed's most stellar work was his work with the Velvets, with Loaded and White Light/White Heat being his best work. Upon hearing “The Gift” for the first time in the late 80s, my mind was opened even more to the possibilities of music as art. His work in experimentation in music is legendary. He will be missed.

RIP Lou Reed