Outsider Whose Dark, Lyrical Vision Helped Shape Rock ’n’ Roll

[WillyT]

Outsider Whose Dark, Lyrical Vision Helped Shape Rock ’n’ Roll
By BEN RATLIFF - NYT
Published: October 27, 2013


Lou Reed performing in New York City in 2009.

<snip>

Lou Reed, the singer, songwriter and guitarist whose work with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s had a major influence on generations of rock musicians, and who remained a powerful if polarizing force for the rest of his life, died on Sunday at his home in Amagansett, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 71.

The cause was liver disease, said Dr. Charles Miller of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where Mr. Reed had liver transplant surgery this year and was being treated again until a few days ago.

Mr. Reed brought dark themes and a mercurial, sometimes aggressive disposition to rock music. “I’ve always believed that there’s an amazing number of things you can do through a rock ‘n’ roll song,” he once told the journalist Kristine McKenna, “and that you can do serious writing in a rock song if you can somehow do it without losing the beat. The things I’ve written about wouldn’t be considered a big deal if they appeared in a book or movie.”

He played the sport of alienating listeners, defending the right to contradict himself in hostile interviews, to contradict his transgressive image by idealizing sweet or old-fashioned values in word or sound, or to present intuition as blunt logic. But his early work assured him a permanent audience.

The Velvet Underground, which was originally sponsored by Andy Warhol and showcased the songwriting of John Cale as well as Mr. Reed, wrought gradual but profound impact on the high-I.Q., low-virtuosity stratum of punk, alternative and underground rock around the world. Joy Division, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, R.E.M., the Strokes and numerous others were descendants. The composer Brian Eno, in an often-quoted interview from 1982, suggested that if the group’s first album, “The Velvet Underground & Nico,” sold only 30,000 copies during its first five years — a figure probably lower than the reality — “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.”

Many of the group’s themes — among them love, sexual deviance, alienation, addiction, joy and spiritual transfiguration...

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More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/arts/music/lou-reed-dies-at-71.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all

[sarcasmo]

1. Lou rocking my Ipod tonight.

[Erose999]

2. The thought of Lou using that space age Steinberger guitar to play a 3 chord song like Sister Ray

makes my day, LOL. I guess he's probably not plugged in to the same amp as the bassist. Thats what I love about the Velvets, they just did it their own way and didn't let what "establishment" musicians would call limitations hold them back. They threw out the rule book and just made music with what they had, for the sake of making music.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Yep.

RIP Lou.

[Voice for Peace]

4. ...

[Heidi]

5. Kick!

RIP.