Lou Reed

Lou Reed, born in Brooklyn in 1942, started out in 1964 cranking out pop songs to order for Pickwick Records. The following year he formed the Velvet Underground with John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise, and before long Andy Warhol had taken them on as manager and made them the house band at the Factory. Their 1967 debut, with Moe Tucker on drums and the German singer Nico along for the ride, did little business, but it is hard to find an underground or alternative band since that doesn't owe the Velvets something. Reed quit in 1970.

His trademarks were there from the start: that deadpan drawl of a voice, lyrics that wandered into places polite rock songs never went, and guitar playing that treated noise as a legitimate musical choice. Transformer, in 1972, produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, is a landmark of glam rock and the record that finally brought him a wide audience. "Walk on the Wild Side", his biggest single, slinks along lazily, and that year's songs also included the tender, woozy "Perfect Day", the sneering "Vicious" and the dreamy "Satellite of Love".

Berlin, in 1973, was bleaker and sold less but won over the critics, and 1974 brought the live Rock 'n' Roll Animal and Sally Can't Dance. As the records stopped selling, the drinking and drugs took hold, until Reed got sober in the early '80s and clawed his way back with The Blue Mask in 1982 and New Sensations in 1984. Mistrial followed in 1986, and New York, in 1989, the year of "Dirty Blvd." and "Busload of Faith", was the critical and commercial peak of his later career.

Into the '90s he made Songs for Drella in 1990 with Cale, a song cycle about Warhol, and Magic and Loss in 1992, and he took part in the Velvet Underground reunion. He died in 2013. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him twice, with the Velvets in 1996 and on his own in 2015.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.