Lou Reed
| Lou Reed | |
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Reed performing live at the Hop Farm Music Festival, 2011
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lewis Allan Reed |
| Born |
March 2, 1942 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Origin | Freeport, New York, U.S. |
| Died | October 27, 2013 (aged 71) Southampton, New York, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1958–2013 |
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Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed (March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was the guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Velvet Underground, and his solo career spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was unsuccessful during their active years, but gained a significant cult following to become one of the most widely acclaimed and influential bands in rock history.Brian Eno famously stated that, while the Velvet Underground's debut album sold only 30,000 copies, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band".
Reed's solo career began in 1972. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", but this level of mainstream commercial success was not repeated. Reed was known for his distinctive deadpan voice and poetic lyrics, and for pioneering and coining the term ostrich guitar tuning. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included two albums by Reed as a solo artist: Transformer and Berlin, and also included the Velvet Underground albums The Velvet Underground & Nico, White Light/White Heat, The Velvet Underground and Loaded.
Reed was born on March 2, 1942 at Beth El Hospital (now Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. 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 was 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's an obscure power that can change your life. The most important part of my religion is to play guitar." Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School, notorious for its gangs. His sister said that as a teenager, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked – principally music.
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