Rock ‘n’ roll giant, Lewis Allan ‘Lou’ Reed

Lewis Allan “Lou” Reed (March 2 1942 – October 27 2013) was an American rock musician and songwriter.

After being guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Velvet Underground, his solo career spanned several decades.

The Velvet Underground were a commercial failure in the late 1960s, but the group has gained a considerable cult following in the years since its demise and has gone on to become one of the most widely cited and influential bands of the era—hence Brian Eno’s famous quote that while the Velvet Underground’s debut album only sold 30 000 copies, “everyone who bought one of those 30 000 copies started a band.”

After his departure from the group, Reed began a solo career in 1972. He had a hit the following year with Walk on the Wild Side but subsequently lacked the mainstream commercial success its chart status seemed to indicate.

In 1975, Reed released a double album of feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which he later commented, “No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive.”

Reed was known for his distinctive deadpan voice, poetic lyrics and for pioneering and coining the term ostrich guitar tuning.

Reed was born at Beth El Hospital (now Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island, New York.

Contrary to some sources, his birth name was Lewis Allan Reed, not Louis Firbanks, a name that was coined as a joke by Lester Bangs in Creem magazine.

Reed is the son of Toby (née Futterman) and Sidney Joseph Reed, an accountant.

His family was Jewish, and although he said that he was Jewish, he added, “My God is rock ‘n’ roll. It is an obscure power that can change your life. The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.”

Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands.

His first recording was as a member of a group called The Jades.

In 1956, Reed, who was bisexual, received electroconvulsive therapy as a teenager, which was intended to cure his bisexuality; he wrote about the experience in his 1974 song, Kill Your Sons.

In an interview, Reed said of the experience:

“They put the thing down your throat so you don’t swallow your tongue, and they put electrodes on your head. That’s what was recommended in Rockland State Hospital to discourage homosexual feelings.

“The effect is that you lose your memory and become a vegetable. You can’t read a book because you get to page 17 and have to go right back to page one again.”

Reed began attending Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing.

He was a platoon leader in ROTC and later booted from the programme for holding an unloaded gun to his superior’s head.

In 1961 he began hosting a late-night radio programme on WAER called “Excursions on a Wobbly Rail”.

Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the programme typically featured rhythm and blues and jazz developed in the mid-1950s.

Many of Reed’s guitar techniques, such as the guitar-drum roll, were inspired by jazz saxophonists, such as Ornette Coleman.

Reed graduated with honours from Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences with a BA in June 1964.—Wikipedia