If you look back on Lou Reed’s life, one thing runs through it like a common thread: friction. Starting with his conservative Jewish family, into which he was born Lewis Allan Reed on March 2, 1942 in Brooklyn. His father had changed his last name, from Rabinowitz to Reed, after Lou Reed’s grandparents fled Russia because of anti-Semitism. The family lived in Freeport on Long Island, a small town where everyone knows everyone. You quickly stood out if you stepped out of line, in the truest sense of the word. Rock ‘n’ Roll was still young, as was Lou, but they quickly became inseparable. Looking back at his childhood and youth, the statement that his only god is rock ‘n’ roll seems like more than just a standard rebellion by a teenager against his parents.
Lou Reed’s conservative parents disapproved of the free spirit in their ranks, whose quick-tempered and fragile temperament made him an alien figure. In addition to music, Lou Reed found refuge in drugs. And in the erotic exploration of the male gender. The treatment with electric shocks was intended to rid him of this tendency, but it only resulted in complete isolation from his family. Years later, Lou Reed processed the experiences of the supposed therapy in the song “Kill Your Sons” (1974).
The mentor
At Syracuse University in the early 1960s, Lou Reed studied English with writer Delmore Schwartz. Schwartz became his mentor. From then on, Reed pursued the goal of translating the sensitivity of the novel into rock music. “European Son” by The Velvet Undeground became a musical dedication to the teacher, who also became a personal friend. A sensitive mind felt understood. In the university area, Reed also came across music that was probably not even known in his parents’ house. Free jazz, experimental sounds of all kinds. He had previously been enthusiastic about harmless doo-wop, but now new doors were opening.
Then the move to New York City. Reed made his living as a songwriter for Pickwick Records and dabbled in the nightlife. It must have had a liberating effect on him, like a world that was finally filled with color after the first stains at the university. One day, more by chance than planning, Lou Reed and the Welsh musician John Cale met. Cale had already worked with Reed’s idol La Monte Young. They understood each other straight away and communicated in the same dimensions, interpersonally and musically. An early form of the Velvet Underground classic “Heroin” is said to have been created at one of the first meetings, well before the debut album with the famous Warhol banana. First there were The Primitives, the caterpillar who soon later became The Velvet Underground.
The Velvet Underground
In 1965, Reed and Cale played together for the first time as The Velvet Underground, with Moe Tucker on drums and Sterling Morrison on bass. Word of her unusual appearance and quirky music got around in Manhattan’s artistic circles. It so happened that from 1966 onwards Andy Warhol was looking for a band he could support and he found them in The Velvet Underground. Contrary to today’s perception of the collaboration, the liaison was initially considerably less successful than pop culture tradition would suggest. “Stoic electric harmony, if not noise, with the sonorous singing of a blonde German Valkyrie was the very last thing needed in the psychedelic Summer of Love. “Today the album is ranked among the top ten rock records of all time in every canon in the world,” said ROLLING STONE editor Arne Willander about the 1967 debut “The Velvet Underground & Nico.”
Nico, initially Warhol’s muse, then Lou Reed’s lover, was Warhol’s condition for his support, but above all a “pain in the ass” for Moe Tucker. It caused a lot of attention, but wasn’t a musical factor. There it was again, the ever-present friction in Reed’s life. Now with the zeitgeist, also with the conflict between his artistic work in The Velvet Underground and his relationship with Nico. Neither Nico’s membership in the band nor her dalliance with Reed survived the year 1967.
Lou Reed and David Bowie
John Cale also left after the second album. Lou Reed stayed until “Loaded” (1970), and then devoted himself to his solo career. Again with moderate success at the beginning. Willander on Reed’s rise in the following years: “Then he met David Bowie, an admirer who was at the height of his fame and produced ‘Transformer’: Reed’s bone-dry songs met Bowie’s emphatic glam rock, and alongside ‘Walk On The Wild Side’, the later anthem of international fashion fairs, porn conventions and provincial ice cream parlors, gave rise to such touching, golden songs as ‘Satellite Of Love’ and ‘Perfect Day’.”
Lou Reed had made himself heard with “Transformer” (1972), and he wanted to back it up with “Berlin” (1973). However, the love story of two junkies in the German capital became the decisive break between Reed and the music press as well as his own audience, whose collective dislike the album met with. First your own parents, then the hippie culture and finally the critics. Reed retreated into defiance and made life difficult for any journalist who dared approach him, let alone ask him questions. Especially not about drugs, which usually ended in hateful tirades.
Between the spotlight and denial
After the pleasing “Sally Can’t Dance” (1974) then the complete rejection of all conventions of the commercial record industry. “Metal Machine Music” (1975), an album that consists primarily of guitar feedback and is often adapted by New Music as a pop culture borrowing, was a resounding middle finger. The immediately following “Coney Island Baby” rehabilitated Reed in the next breath, almost like disguising a statement as a joke when it may not be well received by the audience.
From the 80s onwards, Lou Reed liked to portray himself as an artist who found discipline. The extensive renunciation of the excesses of the previous decades once again made him the favorite enemy of the press, which left almost only his music to write about him. Through albums like The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts and Mistrial, the decade ultimately ended in what many consider to be Reed’s masterpiece. “New York” (1989) was the celebrated reckoning with the political situation in his hometown. He was even able to reconcile things with the journalists for a while.
For a moment, the founding members of The Velvet Underground even reunited after John Cale and Lou Reed recorded the album “Songs for Drella” to mark the death of Andy Warhol. In 1992 they toured with U2, but they quickly got lost in arguments. The end of a long career was ultimately an album that the public once again lost their teeth over. “Lulu” in collaboration with Metallica was torn apart in 2011 with a few exceptions. Now he finally has no fans left, joked Reed.
Lou Reed’s cause of death
After decades of drug use and drinking, Lou Reed suffered from hepatitis and diabetes. Shortly before his death, he developed liver cancer, which made a new organ transplant necessary. After the operation he expressed confidence, but on October 27, 2013, the most infamous Grantler in pop history died of liver failure. He was 71 years old. All his life he had explored boundaries, defined them and exceeded them. He crossed the last one in the presence of his third wife, Laurie Anderson.
In response to his death, numerous companions and admirers paid their respects, including Patti Smith, David Byrne, David Bowie, Morrissey and Iggy Pop. On the evening of October 27th, Peal Jam dedicated “Man of the Hour” to him at their show in Baltimore and, across the Atlantic, the Arctic Monkeys played “Walk on the Wild Side” in Liverpool.