Lou Reed 1942-2013
The punk-poet of rock n' roll who profoundly influenced generations of musicians as leader of the 1960s cult band Velvet Underground, and who remained a vital solo performer for decades after, died Sunday, October 27, 2013, in Southampton, N.Y., his literary agent told The Associated Press. He was 71.
And no band did more than the Velvet Underground to open rock music to the avant-garde -- to experimental theater, art, literature and film, to William Burroughs and Kurt Weill, to John Cage and Andy Warhol, Reed's early patron and longtime inspiration.
In addition to his Top 20 hit, "Walk on the Wild Side," Reed's songs included "Heroi," "Sweet Jane," "Pale Blue Eyes" and "All Tomorrow's Parties."
In 1964 Reed, Cale, Morrison (all of whom who had played together in a band called The Primitives) joined with Angus MacLise to form a new band which eventually adopted the name Velvet Underground (the title of a paperback novel). MacLise left the group the following year, to be replaced by Maureen Tucker.
Cale left the group for a solo career in 1968 (replaced by Doug Yule), followed two years later by Reed.
Over the next four decades Reed would release 22 studio albums and 12 live albums.
Reed continued to exert a profound influence on other artists, from Bowie to R.E.M to Talking Heads. But he himself never reached the same level of popular success.
Reed blurred the line between rock & roll and performance art, and wrote some of rock's most explicit lyrics - about drugs ("Heroin," ''Waiting for My Man"), sadomasochism ("Venus in Furs") and prostitution ("There She Goes Again"). His love songs were less stories of boy-meets-girl, than ambiguous studies of the heart, like the philosophical games of "Some Kinda Love" or the weary ballad "Pale Blue Eyes," an elegy for an old girlfriend and a confession to a post-breakup fling.
Reed's trademarks were a monotone of surprising emotional range and power; slashing, grinding guitar; and lyrics that were complex, yet conversational, designed to make you feel as if Reed were seated next to you. Known for his cold stare and gaunt features, he was a cynic and a seeker who seemed to embody downtown Manhattan culture of the 1960s and '70s and was as essential a New York artist as Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen.
His albums in the '70s were praised as daring experiments or mocked as embarrassing failures, whether the ambitious song suite "Berlin" or the wholly experimental "Metal Machine Music," an hour of electronic feedback. But in the 1980s, he kicked drugs and released a series of acclaimed albums, including "The Blue Mask," ''Legendary Hearts" and "New Sensations."
Reed continued to receive strong reviews in the 1990s and after for such albums as "Set the Twilight Reeling" and "Ecstasy," and he continued to test new ground, whether a 2002 concept album about Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven," or a 2011 collaboration with Metallica, "Lulu."
An outlaw in his early years, Reed would eventually perform at the White House, have his writing published in The New Yorker, and win a Grammy in 1999 for best long-form music video. The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 1996, and its debut album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico," was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2006.
Reed died at his home in in Southampton, N.Y., on October 27, 2013, from an ailment related to a liver transplant earlier this year. Reed's literary agent, Andrew Wylie, told the Associated Press that the singer had been in frail health for months.
In 1998 Reed said, "There's a couple things I use as guidelines. One is never be affected by a trend. The other one is, try to write something you could read 20 or 30 years later and not be embarrassed by."
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan. The Associated Press contributed to this report.