Lewis Allan Reed
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Lou Reed formed The Velvet Underground in 1965, incorporating Andy Warhol’s Factory scene. His 1972 album Transformer produced by David Bowie yielded the hit Walk on the Wild Side. Reed later released acclaimed albums like Berlin 1973 and New York 1989. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and died in 2013.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Lou Reed — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Lou Reed by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Lou Reed — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Lou Reed’s family moved to Freeport, New York when he was 11. He attended Freeport High School and later Syracuse University. As a teenager, his parents committed him to a mental hospital where he received electroshock therapy. He wrote about that experience in songs like Kill Your Sons. In 1958, at age 14, Reed joined the doo-wop band The Shades, recording a single So Blue that got airplay from Alan Freed.
Lou Reed formed The Velvet Underground in 1965 with John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker. The band became part of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene, releasing The Velvet Underground & Nico in 1967. Reed left the band in 1970 and started a solo career. His second solo album, Transformer 1972, produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, gave him his only top 20 hit, Walk on the Wild Side. He followed with albums including Berlin 1973, Rock n Roll Animal 1974, and Street Hassle 1978. In 1980 he married Sylvia Morales, and in 1982 released The Blue Mask. In 1989, New York critiqued American society. The next year, he and John Cale collaborated on Songs for Drella, a tribute to Andy Warhol. The Velvet Underground reunited for a European tour in 1993. Reed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
Lou Reed married three times. His first marriage, to Bettye Kronstadt in 1973, ended in divorce the same year. In 1980 he married Sylvia Morales; they divorced in 1990. He lived with Laurie Anderson beginning in 1995 and married her in 2008. The couple lived in New York City until Reed’s death. In 2013, Reed underwent liver transplant surgery; he died later that year from liver disease in Amagansett, New York.
Lou Reed influenced many artists including David Bowie, Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Nine Inch Nails, U2, David Byrne, and Patti Smith. The Velvet Underground’s four original albums remain milestones in rock history. Reed won Grammy Awards, the Steiger Award, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. He also received the Ivor Novello Special International Award in 2005. Reed was a sharp-tongued rock n roll poet and one of the most important songwriters of his time.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Lou Reed — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Lou Reed — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
You Can’t Beat Two Guitars, Bass, and Drums.
We Had Vast Objections to the Whole San Francisco Scene. It’s Just Tedious, a Lie and Untalented. They Can’t Play and They Certainly Can’t Write . . . You Know, People Like Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead Are Just the Most Untalented Bores That Ever Came Up. Just Look at Them Physically, I Mean, Can You Take Grace Slick Seriously? It’s a Joke! It’s a Joke! the Kids Are Being Hyped.
Meditation Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated. What I Do Is About as Simple as You Can Get. You Could Just Count the Beads, One, Two, Three, with Your Eyes Closed or Open, Whatever Makes You Happy. and No Matter What Happens, Keep Counting. I Personally Like It When I Can Feel That I’m Actually Moving the Beads When I’m Counting. and Once You Make It to a Minute, See If You Can Do a Minute-and-a-half. Eventually You Can Do It Without the Beads.
People Think That I Work Out but It’s All T’ai Chi.
The Music Is All. People Should Die for It. People Are Dying for Everything Else, so Why Not the Music?
One Chord Is Fine. Two Chords Are Pushing It. Three Chords and You’re into Jazz.
I Didn’t Get in It for the Money, and I’m the Same Way Now. I Do It for Me. Because I Like Doing It.
I Think Everybody Has a Number of Personalities, Just in Themselves. It’s Not Just People Having Different Personalities. I Mean You Wake up in the Morning and Say, ‘Wonder Which One of Them Is Around Today?’ You Find Out Which One and Send Him Out. Fifteen Minutes Later Someone Else Shows Up. That’s Why If There’s No One Left to Talk to You Can Listen to a Couple of Them Talking in Your Head.
It’s Been a Long Time Since I Spoke to Any Journalists. They Are a Species of Foul Vermin. I Wouldn’t Hire People Like You to Guard My Sewer. Journalists Are Morons. Idiots. I Don’t Perform to Idiots. Journalists Are Ignorant and Stupid.
I Never Liked the Beatles. I Thought They Were Garbage.
Little-known facts about Lou Reed — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
As a teenager, Lou Reed spent weeks in a mental hospital at his parents’ insistence, undergoing electroshock therapy and medication. He wrote about this experience in songs such as Kill Your Sons.
Lou Reed influenced many artists including David Bowie, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Ian Hunter, R.E.M., Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, The Strokes, and Julian Thome.
In 1958, at age 14, Lou Reed was part of the doo-wop band The Shades, recording a single So Blue b/w Leave Her For Me. Alan Freed played it on his show, and Reed said he got royalties of 78 cents.
Lou Reed lived with Laurie Anderson from 1995; they married in 2008.
Reed produced the album Metal Machine Music as a quick follow-up to his top-ten LP Sally Can’t Dance, as demanded by RCA Records. The hour-plus of electronic noise was nearly released as classical, but instead promoted as pop. The backlash nearly ruined the label and Reed’s reputation; both later apologized, and the album remains an enigma.
In early May 2013, Lou Reed underwent liver transplant surgery.
While performing Heroin at Winterland on November 22, 1974, Reed took out a hypodermic needle, spoon, match, rubber hose, and injected something into his arm; it is unknown if it was heroin.
Lou Reed was with The Velvet Underground until 1970, returning when they reformed in the 1990s.
Lou Reed attended Syracuse University.
Although often disparaging of The Beatles’ music, Lou Reed once called John Lennon’s song Mother one of the best he had ever heard.
Among Lou Reed’s best-known songs are Sweet Jane, Rock and Roll, Femme Fatale, Walk on the Wild Side, and Satellite of Love.
Lou Reed won the Ivor Novello Special International Award in 2005.
In the early days of The Velvet Underground, Reed’s guitar had a built-in electronic tremolo. He sometimes turned it up and tuned all strings to D, calling the resulting sound Ostrich guitar.
Lou Reed lived in New York City.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Lou Reed.
Celebrities similar to Lou Reed — same craft, ranked by reach.
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