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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRIP: Lou Reed
Lou Reed, Velvet Underground Leader and Rock Pioneer, Dead at 71
New York legend, who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, underwent a liver transplant in May
By JON DOLAN
October 27, 2013 12:38 PM ET
Lou Reed, a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, died today. The cause of his death has not yet been released, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May.
With the Velvet Underground in the late Sixties, Reed fused street-level urgency with elements of European avant-garde music, marrying beauty and noise, while bringing a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry. As a restlessly inventive solo artist, from the Seventies into the 2010s, he was chameleonic, thorny and unpredictable, challenging his fans at every turn. Glam, punk and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his revelatory example. "One chord is fine," he once said, alluding to his bare-bones guitar style. "Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed was born in Brooklyn, in 1942. A fan of doo-wop and early rock & roll (he movingly inducted Dion into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989), Reed also took formative inspiration during his studies at Syracuse University with the poet Delmore Schwartz. After college, he worked a staff songwriter for the novelty label Pickwick Records (where he had a minor hit in 1964 with a dance-song parody called "The Ostrich" . In the mid-Sixties, Reed befriended Welsh musician John Cale, a classically trained violist who had performed with groundbreaking minimalist composer La Monte Young. Reed and Cale formed a band called the Primitives, then changed their name to the Warlocks. After meeting guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker, they became the Velvet Underground. With a stark sound and ominous look, the band caught the attention of Andy Warhol, who incorporated the Velvets into his Exploding Plastic Inevitable. "Andy would show his movies on us," Reed said. "We wore black so you could see the movie. But we were all wearing black anyway."
Look back at Lou Reed's remarkable career in photos:
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lou-reed-velvet-underground-leader-and-rock-pioneer-dead-at-71-20131027#ixzz2iwcje4q9
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I, for one, am going to listen to The Velvet Underground
ALL DAY LONE!!!
kp
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)A true legend... Very sad.
reddread
(6,896 posts)fuck.
condolences laurie a.
ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)myrna minx
(22,772 posts)Hassin Bin Sober
(26,341 posts)etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)Hoping for a wonderful walk o the wild side
Recursion
(56,582 posts)reddread
(6,896 posts)that one was a deal maker
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)So very sad. He was one of the great ones.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)My heart goes out to Laurie and all his loved ones. An artist passes.
cali
(114,904 posts)Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)They say he didn't have an enemy
his was a greatness to behold
He was the last surviving progeny
the last one on this side of the world
He measured a half mile from tip to tail
silver and black with powerful fins
They say he could split a mountain in two
that's how we got the Grand Canyon
Last great American whale
last great American whale
Last great American whale
last great American whale
Some say they saw him at the Great Lakes
some say they saw him off of Florida
My mother said she saw him in Chinatown
but you can't always trust your mother
Off the Carolinas the sun shines brightly in the day
the lighthouse glows ghostly there at night
The chief of a local tribe had killed a racist mayor's son
and he'd been on death row since 1958
The mayor's kid was a rowdy pig
spit on Indians and lots worse
The old chief buried a hatchet in his head
life compared to death for him seemed worse
The tribal brothers gathered in the lighthouse to sing
and tried to conjure up a storm or rain
The harbor parted, the great whale sprang full up
and caused a hugh tidal wave
The wave crushed the jail and freed the chief
the tribe let out a roar
The whites were drowned, the browns and reds set free
but sadly one thing more
Some local yokel member of the NRA
kept a bazooka in his living room
And thinking he had the chief in his sight
blew the whale's brains out with a lead harpoon
Last great American whale
last great American whale
Last great American whale
last great American whale
Well Americans don't care for much of anything
land and water the least
And animal life is low on the totem pole
with human life not worth more than infected yeast
Americans don't care too much for beauty
they'll shit in a river, dump battery acid in a stream
They'll watch dead rats wash up on the beach
and complain if they can't swim
They say things are done for the majority
don't believe half of what you see and none of what you hear
It's like what my painter friend Donald said to me
"Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"
New York is my favorite Lou Reed album. I have tears in my eyes...
ismnotwasm
(42,014 posts)This one definitely hurts
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)kpete
(72,018 posts)made me cry
love them both
great, great talents
peace, kp
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)Great pics, KW!
Here's a great clip of Lou on Dave back in the day (Busload of Faith - with HORNS!!!):
tenderfoot
(8,438 posts)Rest in Peace Lou!
cbayer
(146,218 posts)The show was rather bizarre, but what else would one expect from Lou Reed.
He will be sorely missed by Lofters like me.
upi402
(16,854 posts)RiffRandell
(5,909 posts)"Strawman"
We who have so much to you who have so little
To you who don't have anything at all
We who have so much more than any one man does need
And you who don't have anything at all, ah
Does anybody need another million dollar movie?
Does anybody need another million dollar star?
Does anybody need to be told over and over
Spitting in the wind comes back at you twice as hard?
Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, going straight to hell
Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman
Strawman
Strawman
Strawman, yes
Does anyone really need a billion dollar rocket?
Does anyone need a $60,000 car?
Does anyone need another president?
Or the sins of Swaggart parts 6, 7, 8 and 9? Ah
Does anyone need yet another politician
Caught with his pants down and money sticking in his hole?
Does anyone need another racist preacher?
Spittin' in the wind can only do you harm, ooohhh
Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, going straight to hell
Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman
Strawman
Strawman
Strawman, yes
Does anyone need another faulty shuttle
Blasting off to the moon, Venus or Mars?
Does anybody need another self-righteous rock singer
Whose nose he says has led him straight to God?
Does anyone need yet another blank skyscraper?
If you're like me I'm sure a minor miracle will do
A flaming sword or maybe a gold ark floating up the Hudson
When you spit in the wind it comes right back at you
Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, going straight to hell
Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman
Strawman
Strawman
Strawman
Tikki
(14,559 posts)Tikki
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)and then some.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)That's too bad - but he lived a lot longer than the other guys from that time, so good on him.
Bryant
RagAss
(13,832 posts)Beaverhausen
(24,472 posts)morningfog
(18,115 posts)nolabear
(41,991 posts)Eyerish
(1,495 posts)pinto
(106,886 posts)pinto
(106,886 posts)Kudos Lou. You were and are a unique asset.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)RIP Lou.
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)pinto
(106,886 posts)Yet it's good to hear all those songs being posted here, fwiw...a slice of a time in my life in music.
Faygo Kid
(21,478 posts)Sadly, it's no hoax.
reddread
(6,896 posts)davekriss
(4,627 posts)RIP Lou!
ismnotwasm
(42,014 posts)And I have my Velvet Underground up and ready. What else *is* there to listen to on this day?
We loved you Lou, you were like no other.
Skarbrowe
(1,083 posts)nighttime, middle of winter, engine running, making out for the first time with a beautiful woman. I was listening to "Hey babe.."Take a Walk on the Wild Side." on the radio. It was 1973 and I had just gotten (briefly, sad to say) the person I wanted most in the world. Eh, that's what youth does to you. She was beautiful, but a strange one. It was definitely a walk on the wild side.
RIP Lou Reed. Your songs seem to mark passages in my life.
BumRushDaShow
(129,478 posts)to an innovator. Hope you are walking on the wild side on the other side.
Response to kpete (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Walk away
(9,494 posts)What a shame. He was still an active artist and a very cool individual.
kpete
(72,018 posts)pinto
(106,886 posts)mtnester
(8,885 posts)And back at the Wilshire, Pedro sits there dreaming
he's found a book on magic in a garbage can
He looks at the pictures and stares at the cracked ceiling
"At the count of 3" he says, "I hope I can disappear"
And fly fly away, from this dirty boulevard