Remembering Lou Reed

Last week, the women of the Pussy Power Hour decided to change it up a bit. Instead of solely focusing on women, we felt it was appropriate to do a show that focused on the late great Lou Reed. Hopefully you have heard of him or of his music, but if you haven’t, let me give you a little background. 

Lou Reed was born in Brooklyn in the early 40s. He learned to play guitar by listening to the radio as a kid.  His family was Jewish, and when asked he said he was, but that his “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.” He founded the Velvet Underground in the mid-1960s with a few other friends. Reed and early bandmates John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker delivered work variously featuring screeching feedback and meditative guitar mantras, droning viola, metronomic drumming and gently strummed lullabies. After lineup shifts resulted in the Velvet Underground disbanding. The band was never considered to be commercially successful, but Reed continued to dabble in guitar rock from countless angles for the rest of his life, tackling major and minor projects to varying degrees of success.

His personal life has always been somewhat of a mystery, with rumors of his sexual orientation in question, but he was always able to keep it private. He was a man ahead of his time.

As a solo artist, Reed became the king of downtown cool. He made failed stabs at commercial albums in the 1970s and '80s, and even Reed acknowledged their artistic shortcomings.For many, Reed fed a craving that we didn't know we had. Others passed judgment; he reveled in the grit that interested him, and though some cast his expressions as too difficult or depressing, Reed disagreed. Reed paved the way for rockers to come after him and expressed himself the best way he knew how, through music. Because of his realism, American music was changed forever.