Lou Reed: A Life

by Anthony DeCurtis

Hardcover, 2017

Call number

BIO REED

Collection

Biography

Genres

Biography & Memoir

General Nonfiction

History

Publication

Little, Brown and Company (2017), Edition: First Edition, 528 pages

Description

"The essential biography of one of music's most influential icons: Lou Reed. As lead singer and songwriter for the Velvet Underground and a renowned solo artist, Lou Reed invented alternative rock. His music, at once a source of transcendent beauty and coruscating noise, violated all definitions of genre while speaking to millions of fans and inspiring generations of musicians. But while his iconic status may be fixed, the man himself was anything but. Lou Reed's life was a transformer's odyssey. Eternally restless and endlessly hungry for new experiences, Reed reinvented his persona, his sound, even his sexuality time and again. A man of contradictions and extremes, he was fiercely independent yet afraid of being alone, artistically fearless yet deeply paranoid, eager for commercial success yet disdainful of his own triumphs. Channeling his jagged energy and literary sensibility into classic songs--like "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Sweet Jane"--and radically experimental albums alike, Reed remained desperately true to his artistic vision, wherever it led him. Now, just a few years after Reed's death, Rolling Stone writer Anthony DeCurtis, who knew Reed and interviewed him extensively, tells the provocative story of his complex and chameleonic life. With unparalleled access to dozens of Reed's friends, family, and collaborators, DeCurtis tracks Reed's five-decade career through the accounts of those who knew him and through Reed's most revealing testimony, his music. We travel deep into his defiantly subterranean world, enter the studio as the Velvet Underground record their groundbreaking work, and revel in Reed's relationships with such legendary figures as Andy Warhol, David Bowie, and Laurie Anderson. Gritty, intimate, and unflinching, Lou Reed is an illuminating tribute to one of the most incendiary artists of our time."--Jacket.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Big_Bang_Gorilla

It's quite a challenge to think of any rock musician greater than Reed, or more than a handful of equals. Legendarily difficult (after his liver transplant, The Onion headlined "New liver reports difficulty working with Lou Reed"), this abrasive, controlling man is a hard genius to like. The author

is an outstanding writer who knew his subject and seemingly was able to access every major person in Reed's life. And given Reed's passion for substance abuse, sexual aberration, and knack for leaving a trail of angry colleagues in his wake--at times, I thought we might set the record for appearances of the word "asshole" in a book--he has no shortage of colorful opinions to draw on to depict Reed, for the man was clearly also able to inspire deep affection; Steve Goodman's line about Richard Daley ("There never was a man alive who could inspire such love and hate") seems appropriate here. I wish the book had been a little shorter--though it's not easy to think of significant chunks which could be excised, and, especially at the book's beginning, letting us know what year it was would have been appreciated, those are quibbles about a masterpiece of the biographical form.

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LibraryThing member muddyboy

This is the consummate biography of this musical pioneer that many give credit to for all manner of alternative music. After a troubled youth during which his parents make him undergo electroshock treatments. He uses his rage and musical talents to found the Velvet Underground and later his solo

career. We meet many characters in his life including Andy Warhol.(his mentor of sorts) David Bowie and Metallica with which they jointly put out an album. Never mainstream with limited album sales he remains a musical icon for many. If you are into rock you will learn a lot.

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LibraryThing member annbury

A great book. DeCurtis is a writer for Rolling Stone, and he knows 'the subject well. He does a review of all of the albums that Lou recorded after he left the Velvets and he goes through every song describing iit sd s bsllsf or a rocker,

LibraryThing member rsairs

This book was hard to enjoy. Lou Reed was complex, and this book doesn't spend a lot of time looking deeply into his soul and flakes out or is at least a little thin at critical junctures--his residual anger toward his family, his interior life in early days before he became an icon, and most

especially his final illness and death. It does do a fine job of tracking him musically. Unfortunately, I was a casual admirer of his music, knew the major songs, and little more. A musician myself, I admired his reputed individualism, but never regarded him as a personal musical inspiration. The book has 469 pages, and that's about 169 more than I probably wanted to know.

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