Lou Reed: From Pickwick Hack to Velvet Underground

Lou Reed started out as a pop songwriter for hire. In 1964 he was writing for Pickwick Records, years after his first recording as a guitarist and backing singer in a doo-wop trio called the Jades. Born in Brooklyn in 1942 and raised in Freeport on Long Island, he felt isolated and bullied at school. His sister remembered panic attacks and a fragile temperament, combined with intense focus on music. He taught himself guitar from the radio and played in garage bands.

In 1965 he formed the Velvet Underground with John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise. Andy Warhol took notice, became their manager and made them a fixture at his art studio, The Factory. The first album arrived in 1967 with drummer Moe Tucker and the German singer Nico. Reed quit in 1970 after several lineup changes. The band sold little during its lifetime, yet it came to be seen as one of the most influential in underground and alternative rock.

His solo breakthrough was Transformer in 1972, produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, anchored by “Walk on the Wild Side”, his most successful single. Berlin reached number seven in the UK, Rock 'n' Roll Animal sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance reached number ten in the US. Then sales faded while drug addiction and alcoholism deepened.

He achieved sobriety in the early 1980s and returned through The Blue Mask and New Sensations, reaching what the source calls a critical and commercial peak with New York in 1989. Songs for Drella, made with Cale about Warhol, followed in 1990, and Magic and Loss became his highest-charting UK album at number six. He joined the Velvet Underground's 1990s reunion, and later created an album called The Raven. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 with the Velvet Underground and again in 2015 as a solo artist, Reed left behind a deadpan voice and poetic, transgressive lyrics that became trademarks of everything he made.