Recommendations of the Editorial team
The best songwriters of all time (21): Lou Reed
“I wanted to write the great American novel, but I had also lost my heart to rock’n’roll,” Lou Reed explained in a 1987 interview. “So I wanted to put everything on a record that people usually ignored. I wanted to write rock’n’roll that you could still listen to as an adult. Rock’n’roll that was timeless in terms of both content and language.”
And that’s what he did. As a student, he attended a creative writing seminar. Also played cover versions in bar bands. And briefly worked as a pop songwriter in the legendary Brill Building. Reed drew his inspiration from literature (Sacher-Masoch’s “Venus in Furs”, William Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch”) and his own encounters – for example with the colorful characters from Warhol’s Factory, which were reflected in classic Reed songs such as “Candy Says” and “Walk On The Wild Side”.
“Candy Says”:
In addition to studies about polymorphic sexuality and the psychology of drug addicts, he was also able to write touchingly simple love songs (like “Pale Blue Eyes” or “I’ll Be Your Mirror”), which are among the most successful examples in pop history.
On top of that, Reed developed an almost scientific obsession when he tried to explore the unexplored sound possibilities of the electric guitar – initially with the Velvet Underground, but later also solo. His creative pioneering spirit would never tire: one of his last projects was the joint album with Metallicaon which he helped “Lulu” (Frank Wedeking’s late 19th century play) to an unexpected revival.
Arne Willander about Lou Reed
“Every music journalist who should do an interview with him has a story about meeting Lou Reed. He was considered a bad-tempered misanthrope and cynic, an aging rock star with airs and graces, a diva who got bored easily. His moods were random or followed a secret plan – those who came away were amazed to report that he was a tidy and pleasant man who wanted to talk a little longer.
But most of them didn’t get away with it. You were never allowed to talk to him about drugs – if you did, Reed became a beast, and even Prozac didn’t help. Author Sylvie Simmons documented a tantrum in which the artist called her a whore. Maybe it was the electric shocks that Lou Reed was given in his youth to combat his latent homosexuality, maybe it was all the drugs he later consumed: he wasn’t good with eating cherries.”