LOU REED
Name: Lou Reed
Born: 2 March 1942 Brooklyn, New York
Lou Reed, (born March 2, 1942), is an influential American rock singer-songwriter
and guitarist. He first came to prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter
of The Velvet Underground (1965-1973). The band gained little mainstream
attention during their career, but in hindsight became one of the most
influential of their era. As the Velvets principal songwriter, Reed wrote
about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined in rock and
roll, including bondage and S&M ("Venus in Furs"), transvestites ("Sister Ray"
and "Candy Says"), drug culture ("Heroin" and "I'm Waiting for the Man"), and
transsexuals undergoing surgery ("Lady Godiva's Operation"). As a guitarist, he
was a pioneer in the use of distortion, high volume feedback, and nonstandard
tunings.
Reed began a long and eclectic solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following
year with "Walk on the Wild Side", though for more than a decade Reed seemed to
willfully evade the mainstream commercial success its chart status offered him.
One of rock's most volatile personalities, 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." By the late 1980s, however, Reed had won
wide recognition as an elder statesman of rock.
Name: Lou Reed
Born: 2 March 1942 Brooklyn, New York
Lou Reed, (born March 2, 1942), is an influential American rock singer-songwriter
and guitarist. He first came to prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter
of The Velvet Underground (1965-1973). The band gained little mainstream
attention during their career, but in hindsight became one of the most
influential of their era. As the Velvets principal songwriter, Reed wrote
about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined in rock and
roll, including bondage and S&M ("Venus in Furs"), transvestites ("Sister Ray"
and "Candy Says"), drug culture ("Heroin" and "I'm Waiting for the Man"), and
transsexuals undergoing surgery ("Lady Godiva's Operation"). As a guitarist, he
was a pioneer in the use of distortion, high volume feedback, and nonstandard
tunings.
Reed began a long and eclectic solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following
year with "Walk on the Wild Side", though for more than a decade Reed seemed to
willfully evade the mainstream commercial success its chart status offered him.
One of rock's most volatile personalities, 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." By the late 1980s, however, Reed had won
wide recognition as an elder statesman of rock.