Lou Reed

Author: Anthony DeCurtis
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 031637654X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 512

Book 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.

The Life of Lou Reed

Author: Howard Sounes
Publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1635766419
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 406

Book Description
An illuminating biography of Lou Reed, featuring interviews with over 140 people who knew him intimately, plus previously unpublished photographs. As band leader of the Velvet Underground and later a successful solo artist, Reed was much more than what the general public came to know as the grumpy New Yorker in black who sang “Walk on the Wild Side.” To his dedicated admirers, he was one of the most innovative and intelligent songwriters of modern times—a natural outsider who lived a tumultuous and tortured life. In the course of his deep research into Reed’s life, from a humble upbringing on Long Island to death from liver disease in 2013, Howard Sounes interviewed more than 140 people who knew the artist intimately—some of whom have not spoken publicly about him before. With new revelations from former wives and lovers, family members, fellow band members and celebrities, and music industry figures, this book offers an updated, unfettered look at Reed’s creative process, his mental health problems, his bisexuality, his three marriages, and his addictions to drugs and alcohol. Featuring previously unpublished photographs of some of Reed’s most private moments, this is the definitive account of one of rock ’n’ roll’s most complicated and brilliant prophets. “Compelling . . . Sounes takes pride in carefully debunking the myths that have crept in from Reed’s own fictionalizations.” —The Sunday Telegraph “Controversial . . . Sounes’ book pushes the standard Reed narrative.” —New York Times “A measured chronicle of the life and music of Lou Reed . . . Sounes proves to be an amiable narrator who successfully reveals Reed as an innovative, influential musician.” —Publishers Weekly “A walk on the dark side.” —Independent “A must read . . . Sounes chronicles Reed’s turbulent, and often brutal, relationships with men and women . . . and the wayward talent that produced such classics as ‘Walk On The Wild Side.’” —Daily Mail

Dirty Blvd.

Author: Aidan Levy
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1613731094
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Book Description

Lou Reed

Author: Chris Roberts
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9780634080326
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Book Description
(Book). Lou Reed has been art-rocker, iconoclast, contrary noise merchant, and junkie, yet he's always been fascinating. Only David Bowie, arguably, has re-invented himself as many times as Reed, while ensuring that each image was potent, edgy and dangerous. It's a tribute to Reed's standing that even punk rockers, with their scorched earth policy towards all pre-punk music, had a healthy respect and regard for him. Velvet Underground is one of the all-time greats; but in many people's eyes, Reed has produced his best work solo, after the demise of that band. This groundbreaking book analyzes and celebrates the willful intellect, fierce intelligence, and literary merits of Lou Reed's post-Velvet Underground music. Chris Roberts has written about music for fifteen years for The Guardian , Melody Maker , Sounds , and Uncut . He was also the editor of Idol Worship (Harper Collins), a collection of writings by pop stars (Bono, Thurston Moore, etc.) that has been hailed in some quarters as "The best book about rock 'n' roll ever."

My Week Beats Your Year

Author: Pat Thomas
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781955125468
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
An anthology that uses Reed's own words to craft an intimate portrait of the prickly, intelligent, articulate, and deeply passionate artist. During his first major sit-down with the music press in 1977, between claiming all his songs were about guilt and revenge, Elvis Costello casually remarked, "I don't really listen to Lou Reed's records, but I never miss an interview with him." Indeed, for all his publicly expressed loathing of the press in general and music journalists in particular, during his long career as a rock artist, Lou Reed was never less than entertaining in his dealings with the Fourth Estate. In fact, one could go so far as to claim that, for Lou, the press became as much an implement of expression as singing, composing, and playing music. In a style at times very much informed by his mentor Andy Warhol, Reed could play the media like a Marshall-amped Stradivarius. To the majority of his fans, the apotheosis of Reed's relationship with the press, and most prominently regarded to this day, was the series of combative tête-à-têtes between Lou and the late great music journalist Lester Bangs, published in CREEM Magazine during the 1970s. My Week Beats Your Year: Encounters with Lou Reed features 30+ interviews spanning his solo career, from the golden era of print rock-journalism, to the first online blogs. The compilation is one fan's humble attempt to move beyond the Bangs canon, and delve deeper into the distance and intimacy, cactus and mercury, that constituted Lou's post-Velvet Underground public media image.

Lou Reed

Author: Mick Wall
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 1409153053
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
'This "sincere speed-written, blood-spattered tribute" strings together the raciest anecdotes...and does it rather well' SUNDAY TIMES 'Mick Wall has written in a rough and unsentimental style that suits his subject' THE TIMES Lou Reed died in 2013. This is the critically acclaimed biography of the songwriter, Velvet Underground member and musician. Rock 'n' roll was Lou Reed's life. From recording one of the most critically acclaimed albums of all time with THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO (1967), to heavy drug abuse and performing in front of the Pope, Lou Reed's story is one of great peaks and deep lows. Forever dedicated to his art, he became one of modern music's most legendary and seismic figures. Although a controversial, outspoken and undoubtedly misunderstood musician, Lou Reed's influence on popular culture cannot be overstated. He brought avant-garde to the mainstream with the Velvet Underground and his solo work was pronounced a revelation. Hit albums such as TRANSFORMER, SALLY CAN'T DANCE and BERLIN have cemented his name in the rock pantheon. A testament to his strength of character and true spirit, he was a creative and performer until the end, playing benefit gigs, featuring on new releases and, most poignantly, declaring that he was looking forward to 'being on stage performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and spirits and the universe well into the future.' A true icon of rock 'n' roll - his legacy will live on in this book.

Lou Reed's Transformer

Author: Ezra Furman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501323059
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 185

Book Description
Transformer, Lou Reed's most enduringly popular album, is described with varying labels: it's often called a glam rock album, a proto-punk album, a commercial breakthrough for Lou Reed, and an album about being gay. And yet, it doesn't neatly fit into any of these descriptors. Buried underneath the radio-friendly exterior lie coded confessions of the subversive, wounded intelligence that gives this album its staying power as a work of art. Here Lou Reed managed to make a fun, accessible rock'n'roll record that is also a troubled meditation on the ambiguities-sexual, musical and otherwise-that defined his public persona and helped make him one of the most fascinating and influential figures in rock history. Through close listening and personal reflections, songwriter Ezra Furman explores Reed's and Transformer's unstable identities, and the secrets the songs challenge us to uncover.

Perfect Day

Author: Bettye Kronstad
Publisher: Jawbone Press
ISBN: 9781911036067
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
'Hey, you! Beautiful!' The voice was compelling—an order. So I turned around. 'Yeah, you,' he said. 'What are you doing in here? You look normal.' 'I am,' I said. Bettye Kronstad met Lou Reed in 1968 as a nineteen-year-old Columbia University student; they were married, briefly, in 1973. Their relationship spanned some of the most pivotal years of his life and career, from the demise of The Velvet Underground to the writing and recording of his seminal solo masterpieces Transformer, for which Lou wrote ‘Perfect Day’ about an afternoon they spent together in the park, and Berlin, which draws on tales from Bettye’s childhood. In Perfect Day, Bettye looks back on their initially idyllic life together on the Upper East Side; Lou’s struggle to launch a solo career after leaving perhaps the most influential rock band of all time; his work and friendships with fellow stars David Bowie and Iggy Pop; and his descent into drink and drug abuse following the success of Transformer, which sent him spinning out from gentle soul to rock’n’roll animal and brought a swift and calamitous end to their relationship. The result is a powerful and poignant meditation on love, loss, writing, and music.

Pass Thru Fire

Author: Lou Reed
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786726024
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 610

Book Description
Containing a body of work that spans more than three decades, Pass Thru Fire is a stunning collection of the lyrics of an American original. Through his many incarnations-from proto punk to glam rocker to elder statesman of the avant garde-Lou Reed's work has maintained an undeniable vividness and raw beauty, fueled by precise character studies and rendered with an admirable shot of moral ambiguity. Beginning with his formative days in the Velvet Underground and continuing through his remarkable solo career-albums like Transformer, Berlin, New York, Magic and Loss, and Ecstasy-Pass Thru Fire is crucial to an appreciation of Lou Reed, not only as a consummate underground musician, but as one of the truly significant poets of our time.

Reckless Daughter

Author: David Yaffe
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
ISBN: 0374715602
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 443

Book Description
"She was like a storm." —Leonard Cohen Reckless Daughter is the story of an artist and an era that have left an indelible mark on American music. Joni Mitchell may be the most influential female recording artist and composer of the late twentieth century. In Reckless Daughter, the music critic David Yaffe tells the remarkable, heart-wrenching story of how the blond girl with the guitar became a superstar of folk music in the 1960s, a key figure in the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1970s, and the songwriter who spoke resonantly to, and for, audiences across the country. A Canadian prairie girl, a free-spirited artist, Mitchell never wanted to be a pop star. She was nothing more than “a painter derailed by circumstances,” she would explain. And yet, she went on to become a talented self-taught musician and a brilliant bandleader, releasing album after album, each distinctly experimental, challenging, and revealing. Her lyrics captivated listeners with their perceptive language and naked emotion, born out of Mitchell’s life, loves, complaints, and prophecies. As an artist whose work deftly balances narrative and musical complexity, she has been admired by such legendary lyricists as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen and beloved by such groundbreaking jazz musicians as Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock. Her hits—from “Big Yellow Taxi” to “Both Sides, Now” to “A Case of You”—endure as timeless favorites, and her influence on the generations of singer-songwriters who would follow her, from her devoted fan Prince to Björk, is undeniable. In this intimate biography, drawing on dozens of unprecedented in-person interviews with Mitchell, her childhood friends, and a cast of famous characters, Yaffe reveals the backstory behind the famous songs—from Mitchell’s youth in Canada, her bout with polio at age nine, and her early marriage and the child she gave up for adoption, through the love affairs that inspired masterpieces, and up to the present—and shows us why Mitchell has so enthralled her listeners, her lovers, and her friends.