NEW YORK - Lou Reed, the punk poet of rock ’n’ roll who profoundly influenced generations of musicians as leader of the Velvet Underground and remained a vital solo performer for decades after, died Sunday at 71.
Reed died in Southampton, N.Y., of an ailment related to his recent liver transplant, according to his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, who added that Reed had been in poor health for months. Reed shared a home in Southampton with his wife and fellow musician, Laurie Anderson, whom he married in 2008.
Reed never approached the commercial success of such superstars as the Beatles and Bob Dylan, but no songwriter to emerge after Dylan so radically expanded the territory of rock lyrics.
Indie rock essentially began in the 1960s with Reed and the Velvets. Likewise, the punk, new wave and alternative rock movements of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90swere all indebted to Reed, whose songs were covered by R.E.M., Nirvana, Patti Smith and many others.
Reed’s trademarks were a monotone of surprising emotional range and power;slashing, grinding guitar; and lyrics that were complex yet conversational, designed to make listeners feel as if Reed were seated next to them.
He had one Top 20 hit, “Walk on the Wild Side,” and many other songs that became standards among his admirers, including “Heroin,” “Sweet Jane,” “Pale Blue Eyes” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties.”
An outlaw in his early years, Reed would eventually perform at the White House, have his writing published in The New Yorker and win a Grammy in 1999 for best long-form music video. The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and its debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, was added to the Library of Congress’ registry in 2006.
He was one of rock’s archetypal tough guys, but he grew up middle class - an accountant’s son raised on Long Island.
At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, whom Reed would call the first “great man” he ever encountered. He credited Schwartz with making him want to become a writer and to express himself in the most concrete language possible.
Reed moved to New York City after college and traveled in the pop and art worlds, working as a house songwriter at Pickwick Records and putting in late hours in downtown clubs. Fellow studio musicians included a Welsh-born viola player, John Cale, with whom Reed soon performed in such makeshift groups as the Warlocks and the Primitives.
They were joined by a friend of Reed’s from Syracuse, guitarist-bassist Sterling Morrison, and by an acquaintance of Morrison’s, drummer Maureen Tucker.
They renamed themselves the Velvet Underground after a Michael Leigh book about the sexual subculture. By the mid-1960s, the band was rehearsing at Andy Warhol’s “Factory,” a meeting ground of art, music, parties and screen tests for films.
Reed made several albums with the Velvet Underground before leaving in 1970. Cale was pushed out by Reed in 1968 and was replaced by Doug Yule. Its sound turned more accessible, and the final album with Reed, Loaded, included two upbeat musical anthems, “Rock and Roll” and “Sweet Jane.”
His albums in the ’70s were praised as daring experiments or mocked as embarrassing failures. But in the 1980s, he kicked drugs and released a series of acclaimed albums, including The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts and New Sensations.
He played some reunion shows with the Velvet Underground and in 1990 teamed with Cale for “Drella,” a spare tribute to Warhol. He continued to receive strong reviews in the 1990s and later for such albums as Set the Twilight Reeling and Ecstasy, and he continued to test new ground, as in his 2002 concept album about Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven, and a 2011 collaboration with Metallica, Lulu.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 10/28/2013