Lou Reed
| Lou Reed | |
|---|---|
 Lou Reed performing at the Arlene Schinitzer Concert Hall Portland, Oregon |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lewis Allan Reed |
| Born | March 2, 1942 Brooklyn, New York United States |
| Genres | Rock, glam rock, art rock, experimental rock, protopunk, noise music, drone music |
| Occupations | Musician, Songwriter, producer, photographer |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, bass, synthesizer, mellotron, keyboard, piano, harmonica |
| Years active | 1965–present |
| Labels | Matador, MGM, RCA, Sire, Reprise, Warner Bros. |
| Associated acts | The Velvet Underground, John Cale, Nico, David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Gorillaz, Laurie Anderson |
| Website | www.loureed.org |
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed[1] (born March 2, 1942) is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which spans several decades and crosses multiple genres. The Velvet Underground gained little mainstream attention during their career, but became one of the most influential bands of their era.[2] As the Velvet Underground's main songwriter, Reed wrote about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined so openly in rock and roll, including a variety of sexual topics and drug culture.
After his departure from the group, Reed began a solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", although for more than a decade he evaded the mainstream commercial success its chart status offered him.[3] Reed's work as a solo artist has frustrated critics wishing for a return of The Velvet Underground. The most notable example is 1975's infamous double LP of recorded feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which Reed later commented: "No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive." He is also responsible for the name and popularization of ostrich tuning.
By the late 1980s, however, he had garnered recognition by the music community as an elder statesman of rock. Since 2008, he has been married to musician, multimedia and performance artist Laurie Anderson.
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[edit] Early life
Reed was born into a Jewish family at Beth El Hospital in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Contrary to some sources, his birth name was Lewis Allan Reed, not Louis Firbanks[4] (that name was a joke started by Lester Bangs for Creem magazine). Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in a number of bands.[5] His first recording was as a member of a doo wop-style group called The Jades.
Reed received electroconvulsive therapy in his teen years to "cure" homosexual behavior;[6] he wrote about the experience in his 1974 song, "Kill Your Sons". In an interview, Reed said of the experience:
They put the thing down your throat so you don't swallow your tongue, and they put electrodes on your head. That's what was recommended in Rockland County to discourage homosexual feelings. The effect is that you lose your memory and become a vegetable. You can't read a book because you get to page 17 and have to go right back to page one again.[7]
Reed began attending Syracuse University in the fall of 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing before finding his true calling when he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called "Excursions On A Wobbly Rail".[5] Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s.[8] Many of Reed's guitar techniques, such as the guitar-drum roll, were inspired by jazz saxophonists, notably Ornette Coleman. Reed graduated from the Syracuse College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. in June 1964.[6]
Noted poet Delmore Schwartz taught at Syracuse and befriended Reed, who in 1966 dedicated to Schwartz the song "European Son", from the Velvet Underground's debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico.[9] In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" as a tribute to his late mentor: "My Dedalus to your Bloom was such a perfect wit." He said later his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album.[10]
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