Rock legend Lou Reed passed away Sunday as a result of a liver ailment at the young age of 71. "Legend" is actually a colossal understatement. As a member of the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed (along with John Cale, Mo Tucker and Sterling Morrison) changed the trajectory of popular music in a way only rivaled by Bob Dylan and The Beatles. As an adjunct of Andy Warhol's Factory, The Velvet Underground and his later solo work changed the rules for rock music in terms of sonics, subject matter, and general tone with their downtown, avant-garde leanings; and opened the doors for daring artists like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, MC5, and movements like punk and the New Wave, including acts like Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie, and later Joy Division, U2 and R.E.M. (and countless others). Lou's impact on music is literally incalculable.
Born Lewis Allan Reed in Brooklyn in 1942, lifelong New Yorker Reed would study journalism and film at Syracuse University before returning to New York City after graduation to fall in with it's nascent avant-garde music scene. He would go on to meet drone music enthusiast John Cale and form the Velvet Underground with bassist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen "Mo" Tucker before being discovered by Andy Warhol. The Velvets would release The Velvet Underground and Nico in 1967 and three more albums, White Light/White Head, The Velvet Underground, and Loaded, before effectively breaking up in 1970 (the Doug Yule era is not to be spoken of). Lou would then release a series of seminal records throughout the 70's and 80's including Transformer, Berlin, Coney Island Baby, and New York before reunited with the Velvets in the early 90's. His deserved and exalted position in the firmament of rock heroes beyond secure, not even ill advised collaborations with KISS and Metalica and the ensuing critical drubbings stuck to him for long (like many, I'm going to look to Lou's appearance on the last Gorillaz album as his last important musical contribution).
In addition to his immense contribution to music, Lou Reed was noteworthy for his photography, releasing two books of his work, his stage collaborations with a variety of artists, and appeared in a number of films including Wim Wender's Faraway, So Close! and Palermo Shooting as well as the film adapation of Prozac Nation. Reed was also an advocate for human rights, opposing Apartheid in South Africa through the Sun City protest movement as well as participating in Amnesty International's Conspiracy of Hope Tour. Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground are also credited with helping topple communism in Eastern Europe by providing inspiration and a soundtrack (along with Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart) for a Czechoslovakian dissident movement led by Vaclav Havel that would peacefully replace totalitarian communism with democracy in 1989 and lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union two years later.
Buffalo of course enjoys a wonderful connection to Lou Reed through UB Professor Tony Conrad, who legend has it either introduced John Cale to Lou Reed and/or lent Lou his copy of a book called The Velvet Underground and is thus instrumental in the origin of the name Velvet Underground. Tony's Wikipedia page mentions the book, but when I was in UB's Media Study Department __ years ago, the story I heard was about the legendary introduction of Reed and Cale. Whichever was the case (we never directly asked Conrad, it was probably more fun to deal in rock folklore than fact), the Velvets and Lou Reed were unofficially an essential part of the Media Study curriculum, a tangent apart from but entirely of a piece with the department's storied avant-garde history. I don't know if that's still the case. I sure hope so.
Lou Reed is survived by his wife since 2008, performance artist Laurie Anderson, and a body of work that will live on and influence rock as long as rock is worth a damn. Thanks Lou.
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