Lou Reed Biography Quotes 33 Report mistakes

Early Life
Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. His parents, Toby and Sidney Reed, encouraged conventional success, but their son gravitated toward rhythm and blues, doo-wop, and the raw immediacy of early rock and roll. As a teenager he recorded with a local group, and he developed a distinctive way of writing lyrics that fused street detail with a poet's ear. Reed later spoke candidly about undergoing electroconvulsive therapy in adolescence, an experience that shaped both his defiant streak and his lifelong interest in the edges of human behavior and consciousness.

Education and Apprenticeship
Reed attended Syracuse University, where he studied under the poet Delmore Schwartz. Schwartz's insistence on clarity and emotional truth left a durable mark, encouraging Reed to treat rock lyrics with literary seriousness. After graduating, Reed worked as a staff songwriter for Pickwick Records. A novelty single, The Ostrich, led to a chance meeting with John Cale, Tony Conrad, and Walter De Maria. Reed's rapport with Cale, in particular, drew him toward drone, minimalism, and a tougher, more modernist vocabulary for rock music.

The Velvet Underground
In 1965 Reed co-founded the Velvet Underground with John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Moe Tucker. The group's alliance with Andy Warhol placed them at the center of a vibrant New York avant-garde that included the singer Nico. The band's debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, paired Warhol's pop-art sensibility with Reed's narratives about desire, drugs, sex, and survival. Reed's songs Waiting for the Man, Heroin, Venus in Furs, and later Pale Blue Eyes and Sweet Jane pushed beyond pop convention, while Tucker's spare percussion, Morrison's guitar, and Cale's viola and bass built an uncompromising sonic architecture. Though the group sold modestly at the time, its influence proved seismic. By 1970 Reed had grown weary of the band's internal tensions and industry pressures; he left after the fourth studio album, setting the stage for a solo career.

Breakthrough as a Solo Artist
Reed's early solo records explored a range of approaches. Transformer (1972), produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, sharpened his flair for character-driven songwriting and yielded Walk on the Wild Side, a hit that introduced mainstream audiences to figures from Warhol's circle, including Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, and Jackie Curtis. Perfect Day and Satellite of Love showed Reed's melodic grace and dark wit, qualities that balanced his reputation for provocation. Berlin (1973), produced by Bob Ezrin, was a bleak song cycle about love, addiction, and collapse, initially dismissed but later recognized for its ambition. Live sets like Rock n Roll Animal showcased Reed as a commanding bandleader, with guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner adding dramatic heft.

Experiment and Risk
Metal Machine Music (1975) remains one of Reed's most debated works: an hour of feedback sculpted into an abrasive drone statement. It was read by some as a challenge to record-company expectations and by others as a pure commitment to sound exploration. Although vilified at release, it foreshadowed developments in noise, industrial, and experimental music. Reed continued to recalibrate, writing with candor about urban life, sexuality, and power in albums through the late 1970s.

Craft and Collaboration in the 1980s
The 1980s brought a renewed focus on band interplay and sharply observed narratives. The Blue Mask (1982) and Legendary Hearts (1983) featured taut arrangements and vivid guitar dialogues, notably with Robert Quine, and established a productive partnership with bassist Fernando Saunders. Reed balanced toughness with vulnerability, examining intimacy, sobriety, and ethics in songs that felt both streetwise and literary.

Return to New York and Memorial to Warhol
New York (1989) distilled Reed's perspective on politics, journalism, and city life into a cycle of songs that played like a single report from the avenues and boroughs he loved. Soon after, Reed reunited with John Cale for Songs for Drella (1990), a moving portrait of Andy Warhol told from multiple angles. Their collaboration briefly reopened old bonds and tensions, demonstrating how central Warhol, Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker had been to Reed's sense of artistic purpose. A short-lived Velvet Underground reunion followed in 1993 before dissolving; Morrison died in 1995, deepening the sense of an era's passing.

Maturity and Reflection
Reed's 1990s work showed a focused lyricist wrestling with mortality and grace. Magic and Loss (1992) confronted grief and illness with stark honesty. He continued exploring spoken-word textures, amplified poetry, and guitar minimalism. Onstage he remained commanding, often reimagining earlier songs rather than treating them as museum pieces. He pursued theater-linked projects with director Robert Wilson, experiments that later informed The Raven (2003), his expansive meditation on Edgar Allan Poe's world. Across these years he cultivated a rigorous tai chi practice with Master Ren Guangyi, a discipline he credited with shaping his stamina and clarity. Photography also became a serious pursuit, revealing a quieter visual counterpart to his songwriting.

Late Experiments and Final Years
Reed's later work remained restlessly curious. Ecstasy (2000) carried his guitar language into dense layers of overtones; he recorded collaborative performances and revisited Berlin in a celebrated live staging decades after its initial dismissal. In 2011 he partnered with Metallica on Lulu, a polarizing project that again placed him at the edge of rock's comfort zones. Through it all, he continued to share stages and studios with old comrades and new allies, emphasizing process over consensus.

Personal Life
Reed's relationships informed his art and public image. He married Bettye Kronstad in the early 1970s, had a long and important partnership with Rachel in the mid-1970s, and married filmmaker and musician Sylvia Morales in 1980. In the 1990s he began a partnership with artist Laurie Anderson; they married in 2008 and remained together until his death. The tenderness and intellectual kinship between Reed and Anderson added a grounded counterpoint to his reputation for abrasiveness, and their collaborations reflected mutual curiosity rather than spectacle.

Death and Legacy
Lou Reed died on October 27, 2013, in Southampton, New York, following complications related to liver disease. Tributes hailed him as a central architect of alternative music, a songwriter who gave durable voice to people and subjects that mainstream culture often ignored. The Velvet Underground entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and Reed was inducted posthumously as a solo artist in 2015, acknowledgments that trailed far behind his influence. His work with John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker, Andy Warhol, Nico, David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Bob Ezrin, Robert Quine, Fernando Saunders, Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner, and Laurie Anderson forms a web that runs through nearly every corner of late-20th-century art rock and beyond. Reed's songs remain guideposts for artists who seek unsparing honesty, street-level detail, and the courage to test the limits of sound and self.

Our collection contains 33 quotes who is written by Lou, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Wisdom - Truth - Music - Free Will & Fate.

Other people realated to Lou: Brian Molko (Musician), Lester Bangs (Critic), Denis Johnson (Writer), Aynsley Dunbar (Musician), Lars Ulrich (Musician)