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Lou Reed

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Lou Reed

Lewis Allen "Lou" Reed (born March 2 1942 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. As a member of the The Velvet Underground in the 1960s, Reed broke new ground for the rock genre in several important dimensions, introducing more adult and intellectual themes to what was then considered a genre for children and teenagers.

Reed first found prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter of The Velvet Underground (1965 - 1973). The band gained relatively little notice during its life, but is widely considered to be the seed from which much alternative rock music sprang. [1] As the Velvets’ principal songwriter, Reed wrote about such then-taboo subjects as S&M ("Venus in Furs"), transvestites ("Sister Ray"), transsexuals ("Lady Godiva's Operation"), prostitution ("There She Goes Again"), and drug use (“I’m Waiting for the Man”, "White Light/White Heat", “Heroin”). As a guitarist, he made innovative use of abrasive distortion, volume-driven feedback, and nonstandard tunings. Reed's deep voice - lacking superficial emotional inflection and, much like Bob Dylan's, flaunting its lack of conventional training - was no less important to his music's influence.

Reed began a long and eclectic solo career in 1971. He quickly produced a hit that same year through "Walk on the Wild Side", though for more than a decade he seemed to willfully evade mainstream commercial success. [2] One of rock's most volatile personalities, Reed has made inconsistent albums that have 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." Despite erratic turns, by the late 1980s Reed's had won wide recognition as an essential elder statesman of rock.

Early life

Reed's birth name is sometimes given as Lewis Allen Firbank, but this is misinformation he himself provided an interviewer[citation needed]; he was born Lewis Allen Reed. Born into a Jewish family (originally Rabinowitz) in Brooklyn, he grew up in Freeport, Long Island, New York. He developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in a number of bands. His first recording was as a member of a doo wop-style group called The Shades.

There is evidence suggesting that Reed received shock treatment at a young age. According to his own account;

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 recomended 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 seventeen and have to go right back to page one again. [3]

Reed attended Syracuse University and graduated with a degree in English. Delmore Schwartz, then in the last years of his life, taught at Syracuse and befriended Reed, who would later sing, "My Dedalus to your Bloom was such a perfect wit." Schwartz's influence on the aspiring writer seems to have been through encouragement, but Reed also credits him for insisting on use of colloquial language in his writing. While at Syracuse, Reed also developed a taste for free jazz and experimental music. He said later his goals were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music," or, to write the Great American Novel in a record album.

In 1963, Reed moved to New York City, and began working as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. In 1964 he scored a minor hit with "The Ostrich", a parody of then-popular dances. His employers had felt the song had hit record potential, and arranged for a band to be assembled around Reed to promote the recording. The ad hoc group, called The Primitives, included future Velvet Underground member John Cale, who was then playing with the avant-garde composer La Monte Young, after having emigrated from Wales to study avant garde music under Aaron Copland. Cale was surprised to find that for a supposed novelty song, Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note. This technique, which he referred to as ostrich guitar, created a drone effect similar to that which Cale's avant-garde ensemble had been experimenting with. When Cale heard the rest of Reed's early repertoire, which included "Heroin," he sought to join Reed as a collaborator.

Career

The Velvet Underground

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L-R: The Velvet Underground: Maureen Tucker, Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, John Cale

Reed and Cale rented an apartment on the Lower East Side and, adding Reed's college acquaintance Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker to the group, formed The Velvet Underground. Though internally unstable (Cale left in 1968; Reed in 1970) and never commercially viable, the V.U.'s reputation as one of the most influential underground bands in rock history has long been established. [4]

Playing in downtown clubs, the group caught the attention of Andy Warhol, who raised their profile immeasurably, if not their immediate fortunes. Reed fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene, and rarely gives an interview today without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor figure. Still, conflict emerged when Warhol had the idea for the group to take on a "chanteuse," the German former model Nico. Reed and the others registered their objection by titling their debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico. Despite his resistance, Reed wrote several delicate songs for Nico to sing, which have since become classics, and the two were briefly lovers.

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By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had been dropped and Warhol fired. Warhol's replacement as manager, Steve Sesnick, was a more typical industry figure who in a bid for control next convinced Reed to drive out Cale. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the group. Replacing Cale was a less imposing personality, Doug Yule, whom Reed would often facetiously introduce as his younger brother. Not as abrasive, the group now acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft, as shown on the intensely intimate third album, The Velvet Underground, and the finale, Loaded, which included Reed's signature pair of rock classics, "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll".

Reed left the Velvet Underground in 1970, and though the group continued without him for several years, their post-Reed efforts were negligible. Reed was exhausted by pressures from himself and Sesnick toward mainstream success. Loaded had taken more time to record than the previous three albums together, and was written and produced to be "loaded with hits," but had not broken the band through to a wider audience. Reed retired to his parents' home on Long Island for a quiet period.

Solo career

1970s

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Reed pictured for the cover of 1972's breakthrough Transformer album

In 1972, now a solo artist, Reed released the career-making glam rock album Transformer. David Bowie and Mick Ronson co produced, and introduced Reed to wider mainstream pop audience. The hit single "Walk on the Wild Side," was both a salute and swipe at the misfits, male hustlers and transvestites of Andy Warhol's Factory. It rapidly became Reed's signature song, and only in recent years has he begun to regularly perform without its inclusion. The song came about as a result of his having been commissioned to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name, though the play subsequently failed to materialize.

"Perfect Day" featured a string arrangement by Mick Ronson which was lauded by Reed in the Transformer episode of the BBC's "Classic Albums" series. The song was later included on the soundtrack of the film Trainspotting (in a scene in which protagonist Mark Renton's overdoses on heroin), and was also used in a promotional campaign by the BBC.

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The Transformer album was recorded with David Bowie and Mick Ronson during Reed's 1972 move to London

He followed Transformer with the darker Berlin, which tells the love story of two junkies in the city of the same name. The album features themes of violence ("Caroline Says II"), prostitution, drug addiction ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed.")

Reed's persona and image were often ahead of his time. He preferred black leather, cropped his hair, dying it blonde (and even silver), and dressed in S&M-like gear. For many years Reed affected a deliberately "camp" manner and image, sometimes colloquially referred to as his "junkie fag" look. It was this version of Reed that greeted the public on the cover of Rock n Roll Animal, a successful live album that consolidated the commercial gains he had made with "Walk on the Wild Side."

Frustrated and bored by the types of questions the press typically asked him, Reed's idiosyncratic media persona solidified during this period. His style was no doubt influenced to some extent by Bob Dylan's famously provocative approach to press conferences and interviews (cf D.A. Pennebaker's Dont Look Back), and Reed rapidly became known in the 1970s as one of the most difficult of all rock personalities to interview (a reputation he has maintained.) His distanced persona was not entirely put on: increasing drug use and apathy were evident on Sally Can't Dance, an R&B-inflected glam stab that clawed its way into the Top Ten, the only Reed product to meet with such public approval.

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In 1975, he produced a double studio album of electronically generated audio feedback, Metal Machine Music. Some regarded it as an attempt to break his record company contract, although Reed has stated on several occasions that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even going so far as to suggest that passages taken from classical music could be found buried deep within the feedback. The rock journalist Lester Bangs declared it "genius"; however the sincerity of Bangs' admiration can be debated. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands after a few weeks. {Lou Reed in interview with Anthony DeCurtis at 92Y, New York on Sept 18, 2006} Though admitting that the liner notes' list of instruments used is fictitious and intended as parody, Reed maintains that MMM was and is a serious album.

1976's Coney Island Baby was one of Reed's most accessible albums, and featured strong melodies and lyrics. It represented a total volte-face from Metal Machine. Many of his albums from the late 1970s are often regarded as a mixed affair by rock critics, [citation needed] owing at least partly to the addictions that were by then overtaking him. During this time he was also involved with a transvestite who went by the name Rachel. He/she is mentioned in the song "Coney Island Baby" and appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. While Rock 'n' Roll Heart (1976) fell far short of expectations, Street Hassle (1978) was a return to form in the midst of the punk music revolution he had helped to inspire. The Bells (1979), featured jazz great Don Cherry, and what was allegedly Reed's last "substance abuse" album, Growing Up in Public came out the following year. Around this period he also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One Trick Pony.

1980s

In 1980 Reed married Sylvia Morales, though they divorced more than a decade later. While together, Morales inspired some of Reed's strongest love songs, particularly on 1982's The Blue Mask. After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984) fared adequately on the charts, Reed was sufficiently rehabilitated as a public figure to become spokesman for Honda scooters. In 1986 he joined the Amnesty International A Conspiracy of Hope Tour, he was outspoken on his New Yorks's political issues on the 1989 album New York, commenting on crime, AIDS, Jesse Jackson, Kurt Waldheim, and even Pope John Paul II. Lou Reed also provided the singing voice for the character Mok in the 80s film Rock & Rule, and wrote the songs My Name Is Mok and Triumph for the film's soundtrack.

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Following Warhol's death during routine surgery in 1987, Reed again collaborated with John Cale on 1990's Songs for Drella (Drella being Warhol's nickname - a combination of the words "Dracula" and "Cinderella"). The album marked an end to a 22-year estrangement. The album took the shape of a Warhol biography, on the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, but also criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and the would-be Warhol assassin, Valerie Solanas.

1990s to present

In 1990, following a 20-year hiatus, the Velvet Underground reformed for a Cartier benefit in France. In 1993, the band again reunited and toured throughout Europe, though plans for a North American tour were cancelled following another falling out between Reed and Cale. Cale has since been quoted as saying that he could not understand how Reed could write such "tender and heartfelt" songs, and yet "could be the complete opposite as a human being." [citation needed]

In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the induction ceremony, Reed performed a song entitled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend" alongside former bandmates John Cale and Maureen Tucker, in dedication to VU guitarist Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. Reed has since been nominated for the Rock Hall as a solo artist twice, in 2000 and 2001, but did not get inducted. [1]

Reed continued on those dark notes with Magic and Loss, an album about mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1997, over 30 artists covered "Perfect Day" for the BBC's "Children in Need" appeal. 1996's Set the Twilight Reeling received a lukewarm reception, but 2000's Ecstasy drew praise from most critics, including Robert Christgau.

Since the later part of the 1990's, the musician, muti-media and performance artist, Laurie Anderson, has become romantically linked with Reed, and the two have subsequently collaborated on a number of recordings together. Laurie Anderson contributed to "Call On Me" from Lou Reed's collaborative project, The Raven, and on the tracks "Rouge" and "Rock Minuet" from Reed's, Ecstasy, and "Hang On To Your Emotions" from Reed's, "Set the Twilight Reeling"; Lou Reed contributes to the tracks "In Our Sleep" from Anderson's Bright Red and on "One Beautiful Evening" from Anderson's, Life on a String.

In 2003, he released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song, "Satellite of Love" (called "Satellite of Love '04") was released. It reached #10 in the UK singles chart.

Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of an overdose.

After Hours: a Tribute to the Music of Lou Reed was released by Wampus Multimedia in 2003.

At the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, Reed performed "White Light/White Heat" with The Raconteurs. Later in the night, while co-presenting the award for Best Rock Video with P!nk, he exclaimed, apparently unscripted, that "MTV should be playing more rock n' roll".

Discography

With The Velvet Underground

For full discography, please see the Velvet Underground article.

Solo

Studio albums

Live albums

Collaborations

Appearances

Best-of and previously unreleased tracks compilation

References

  1. ^ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2000). "The Velvet Underground". Retrieved 2006-09-15.
  2. ^ Richie Unterberger & Greg Prato (2005). "Lou Reed Biography". Retrieved 2006-09-15.
  3. ^ Please Kill Me: The Uncensord Oral History of Punk (1996)
  4. ^ Black, Johnny. Time Machine: Velvet Underground (1997), Mojo Magazine
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