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Lou Reed

Lou Reed

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Lou Reed: Rock N Roll Animal

Review by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, May 1974

AND IT CAME TO PASS in the 1970's that rock culture began to doubt whether it existed at all, and every time that two or ...

Lou Reed: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Ian Fortnam, bol.com, 18 May 2000

THE PREMIER PARAGON OF subterranean New York cool’s post-Velvet Underground career has never been anything other than unpredictable. For every Berlin there’s been a Metal ...

Audio interviews

Lou Reed (1989)

Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, January 1989

Lou talks about his new album, New York: getting the right sound; modified guitars and amps; playing with fellow guitarist Mike Rathke; producer Fred Maher, and finding the right studio; his lyrical concerns, and writing and rewriting; having Mo Tucker play on the album; on Andy Warhol, and working on Songs for Drella with fellow ex-Velvet John Cale,

File format: mp3; file size: 27.8mb, interview length: 28' 57" sound quality: ***

Lou Reed (2003)

Interview by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages audio, 25 February 2003

On The Raven, the ups and, mostly, downs of CDs, mp3s and (re)mastering and more.

File format: mp3; file size: 24.9mb, interview length: 27' 11" sound quality: ***

List of articles in the library

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That Shock Of Recognition Tells You Where He's Been

Interview by Geoffrey Cannon, The Chicago Sun-Times, 7 February 1971

Author's note, 2018: I met and interviewed Lou Reed twice, in early 1971 and mid-1972, in New York. He gained a reputation for being horrible ...

Lou Reed: Reed the Lyrics

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, 1972

LOU REED looked out of his seventh floor window down onto six floors of other people’s windows. He asked what the weather was like outside. ...

Lou Reed — End of the Black Comedy

Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 22 January 1972

LOU REED is the founder member of the Velvet Underground. Together with John Cale, he wrote New York as he saw it from Greenwich Village ...

Lou Reed: Lou Reed (RCA)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1972

THIS IS one of those albums you have to have spent at least a year waiting breathlessly for to appreciate the full import of. This ...

Lou Reed: A Voice From The Underground

Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 17 June 1972

ONCE HE wore black, tinselled clothes and was a human screen for movies. He sang and wrote about evil characters; sometimes happier ones. But always ...

Lou Reed Talking About His First Solo Album

Interview by Geoffrey Cannon, unpublished, July 1972

Author's note, 2018. This was my scoop. New York, June 1972. Lou discusses all the tracks, one by one, in detail and with diversions, on ...

Lou Reed: Lou Reed

Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, July 1972

IF I WERE thirteen, or Lou was, or better still if we both were, this would be great, everything I wanted to think about life, ...

Lou Reed, Brinsley Schwartz, Gnidrolog: King's Cross Cinema, London

Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 22 July 1972

THIS WAS one of the few gigs I can remember where all the acts deserved a full-length review to themselves. The teaming of Reed, Gnidrolog ...

Broken Reed? Lou Reed, Duncan Browne: Sundown Theatre, Edmonton, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972

THE FACT is that his association with David Bowie has done Lou Reed no good at all. Despite the adulation from the audience at Edmonton's ...

Lou Reed: Edmonton Sundown, London

Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 7 October 1972

EDMONTON IS NOT exactly the rock capital of the world, and when Phillip Goodhand-Tait took the stage, the auditorium was somewhat underpopulated. This was somewhat ...

The Stones, Bowie, Roxy and Mott. And What They Owe To The Inspiration of This One Man

Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 14 October 1972

NICK KENT analyses the growing influence of America's LOU REED ...

Lou Reed: The Black Sheep of New York

Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 21 October 1972

THE INTERVIEW is to take place in a pub just off London's Curzon Street at around lunch-time. Lou Reed arrives late, looking papery. He's not ...

Lou Reed: Transformer (RCA)

Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 December 1972

THOSE OF you kind enough to read the idiocies I write to introduce the live gigs will know that, as far as I'm concerned, Lou ...

Lou Reed: Transformer (RCA)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 16 December 1972

LOU REED WITH COLOURED GIRL DAVID BOWIE... ...

Lou Reed: Transformer (RCA)

Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 4 January 1973

A REAL COCKTEASER, this album. That great cover: Lou and those burned-out eyes staring out in grim black and white beneath a haze of gold ...

Lou Reed: Transformer

Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, February 1973

Their faces drooping in disbelief, the fans shook their baffled, bewildered heads. "If we hadn't seen him with our own eyes we never would have ...

Lou Reed: Scotch & Sympathy At Tully Hall

Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 1 March 1973

NEW YORK — For weeks, the sinister-looking poster haunted the subway stations. Taken from the cover of Lou Reed's latest album, Transformer, it showed an ...

Lou Reed: The Sinatra Of The 70's

Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 28 April 1973

LOU REED SURE is a card. The day before this interview was supposed to take place, an associate of mine phoned up the Reed management ...

A Walk On The Wild Side Of Lou Reed

Comment by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 9 June 1973

"I HAVE ALWAYS thought it would be kinda fun to introduce people to characters they maybe hadn't met before, or hadn't wanted to meet, y'know. ...

Bob Ezrin: The Square And The Faggots

Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 18 August 1973

"DETACHMENT. Yes, that's it exactly. We were both talking about that. Lou said last night: 'This album is an exercise in detachment and apathy'. I ...

Lou Reed's New Deco-Disk: Sledgehammer Blow to Glitterbugs

Report and Interview by Larry Sloman, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973

NEW YORK — At 10 AM on a muggy New York morning, in Studio A of the Record Plant, a slight, dark, intense young man ...

Lou Reed, James Taylor, Beck Bogert & Appice, et al: Crystal Palace Bowl, London

Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 29 September 1973

  LOU REED and James Taylor on the same bill? What a masterstroke of pure gonzo rock n' roll strategy! ...

Lou Reed: Berlin (RCA)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 6 October 1973

JUST WHEN you think your ex-idol has slumped into a pitiful display of gross terminal self-parody, Lou Reed comes back and hits you with something ...

Lou Reed: A Deaf Mute In A Telephone Booth

Interview by Lester Bangs, Let It Rock, November 1973

YOU WALK into the dining room of the Holiday Inn filled with expectation at finally getting to meet one of the musical and psychological frontiersmen ...

Lou Reed Stuns Listeners with the Horrifying Story of Berlin

Report and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus, December 1973

Confronted by the velvet shadow-master's terrifying movie without pictures, one employee ran from the studio in tears, Julie Christie stayed up all night talking about ...

The Head Doll talks about Lou Reed's Berlin

Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, December 1973

Note: Marty Cerf and I conceived of a series of these for Phonograph Record: I think Iggy may have done Aladdin Sane for PRM. I ...

Lou Reed: Berlin

Review by Michael Gross, Crawdaddy!, January 1974

LOU REED IS the grand ghoul of them all. He happens to scare people. He stands in the same relation to Bowie and Iggy and ...

Lou Reed: Berlin (RCA APL1-0207)

Review by Wayne Robins, Zoo World, 3 January 1974

HEARD ANY good jokes lately? Here's one from Lou Reed. "She put her fist through the window pane/It was such a funny thing." That's from ...

Lou Reed: A Stumble on the Wild Side

Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 9 March 1974

A sort of... uh, you know, interview with... uh, LOU REED, who's lost three stone but still has problems ...

Lou Reed: Man Of Few Words

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 March 1974

UP ON THE 37th floor of a Park Avenue office block which faces north and thus commands an extensive view of New York's Central Park ...

Farewell Androgyny n. hermaphroditism (Gr. Gyne, woman)

Overview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 16 March 1974

Is it time to shut the closet door? OUR HERO SEES THROUGH THE SEE-THROUGHS AND COMES TO THE CONCLUSION THAT ELEGANCE IS MORE THAN A LIMP ...

Lou Reed: Rock N Roll Animal

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1974

LOU REED'S LAST album, Berlin, vividly demonstrated how his talent can be misrepresented and abused. Berlin failed not because of its theme or its viewpoint, ...

Lou Reed: Rock N Roll Animal (RCA)

Review by Wayne Robins, Zoo World, 25 April 1974

IT'S JUST like Lou Reed to follow the worst album by a major artist in 1973 (Berlin), with what might be his best album since ...

Tony DeFries: Bowie's MainMan

Profile by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 18 May 1974

Tony DeFries is Mr Big of today's rock —the 70s' Col. Parker. He deals in STARS, the most glittering of whom is David Bowie. He ...

Lou Reed: Olympia, Paris

Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974

Resuscitated zomboid wows Gallic crowd ...

Lou Reed

Overview by Mick Gold, Let It Rock, July 1974

YOU COULD hardly miss him on the first album: his rubber-stamped signature was the only wording on the front cover, while on the back his ...

Lou Reed: Sally Can't Dance

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1974

LINES. A LINE here, a line there. Sometimes it seems that the best songwriters are the ones who are sure to pop up with a ...

Lou Reed: Sally Can't Dance (RCA Import)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 28 September 1974

"Life is such monotony/Without a good lobotomy" – Roy Harper ...

Lou Reed: Felt Theater, New York

Live Review by Wayne Robins, The Village Voice, 17 October 1974

LOU REED stepped out on the Felt Forum stage Friday night looking like something out of a Casey Donovan movie. ...

Lou Reed: Sally Can't Dance (RCA CPL1-0611)

Review by Arthur Levy, Zoo World, 24 October 1974

At the Point Where the Velvet Underground Leaves Off And Lou Reed Begins ...

Glitter Rock's Lingering Shadow

Report by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 3 November 1974

I like sex, because sex is not dangerous. Violence is dangerous, that's why I leave my violence on stage. But we've never been into glitter. ...

Lou Reed Does Not Want Anyone To Know How He Writes His Songs

Interview by Bruce Pollock, Modern Hi-Fi and Music, 1975

LOU REED THINKS he's gone as deep as he wants to go for his own mental health. If he got any deeper, he'd wind up ...

Lou Reed: Ladies and gentlemen... the interview of the year (already)!

Interview by Lester Bangs, New Musical Express, 8 March 1975

"Lou Reed is a completely depraved pervert and pathetic death dwarf — a wasted talent living off the dumbell nihilism of a '70s generation that ...

Nick Kent – A Limey in LA #1: Hey Man, You With A Gwoop?

Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 15 March 1975

Speech impediments are the thing in Los Angeles this year. There are quite a lot of naked men jumping out of bushes – whereas more ...

Lou Reed: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 26 March 1975

IN THE case of Lou Reed I must confess – why shouldn't I – a prejudice. ...

Lou Reed at the Hammersmith Odeon

Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 5 April 1975

THERE'S AN ILLUMINATED sign outside the Hammersmith Odeon that says: "It's all too much. Lou Reed in Concert." Wry humour or someone taking a subtle ...

An Afternoon With Lou Reed And Metal Machine Music

Report and Interview by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 9 August 1975

Quite simply – there were no survivors ...

Lou Reed

Discography by Andy Childs, ZigZag, September 1975

THERE WAS once a time when I thought that Lou Reed was the single most important person working in contemporary American rock 'n' roll. I ...

Lou Reed: Coney Island Baby

Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 17 January 1976

Coney Island Baby finds Lou Reed in buoyant mood, the feeling that lilted through his first solo album, Lou Reed, and flashed intermittently in Sally ...

Lou Reed

Interview by Lenny Kaye, New Musical Express, 24 January 1976

HIS HAIR IS short, coloured black and closely cropped, though not unnaturally so. He wears a red T-shirt and his body, which has fluctuated from ...

Lou Reed: Coney Island Baby

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 24 January 1976

ARGUABLY, THERE IS no more exciting rock artist to listen to than one whose time has come; one whose art (not to mention attitude, appearance, ...

Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music

Review by Lester Bangs, Creem, March 1976

IT HAS BEEN suggested that in my annual regress report to the stockholders, published here last month, I neglected in all five thousand words to ...

Lou Reed: Coney Island Baby (RCA APL1-0915-B)

Review by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, March 1976

LOU REED is back. Coney Island Baby is the new wimp non-rock of the New Year. 'Crazy Feeling' is George Harrison Meets Buddy Holly's 'Everyday'. ...

Lou Reed: Say It Again, Lou

Interview by John Morthland, Creem, December 1976

LOU REED should have a new album out by the time you read this, and unless Lou has had a change of Rock and Roll ...

Lou Reed: How Lou Saw The White Light

Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 18 December 1976

LOU REED, the crafty old rock 'n' roll fox, is alive and kicking. In fact, he's standing in the lobby of the Los Angeles Hyatt ...

Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart (Arista)

Review by Stephen Demorest, Creem, January 1977

OH, BUSHWAH. I liked Lou's last album, Coney Island Baby, for its integrity, combativeness, and character, but Rock and Roll Heart flashes none of these qualities. ...

The Sex Pistols: Lou Reed Joins Pistols Furore

Report and Interview by uncredited writer, Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 26 March 1977

LOU REED claims he has been banned from the London Palladium because of the continuing controversy surrounding the Sex Pistols and punk rock. ...

Rock Stars Talk Back

Comment by Susan Whitall, Creem, May 1977

Dozens listen. ...

Lou Reed: Street Hassle

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 11 March 1978

WHAT DO you expect from someone who's been playing rock'n'roll for nearly 15 years, in a business where age is to be feared rather than ...

Lou Reed: From Genius to Jerk and Back

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 12 March 1978

LOU REED has been called everything from genius to jerk, and in the course of his career he's lived up to it all. With New ...

Lou Reed: Bottom Line, New York NY

Live Review by Susin Shapiro, The Village Voice, 20 March 1978

A FUNNY THING happened to Milton on the way to Paradise. He discovered the devils to be more fascinating than the angels, and that gave ...

Lou Reed In Cloning Sensation!

Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 6 May 1978

PETE SILVERTON goes to Philadelphia to borrow a book from Lou Reed (That's not what it said on his expenses — Ed.) ...

Lou Reed: Live – Take No Prisoners (Arista Import)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978

AH, LOU, we meet again. How long it's been. Ah, of course, don't tell me – Rock 'n' Roll Heart, wasn't it? A right piece ...

Lou Reed: Live – Take No Prisoners

Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, January 1979

"I DO LOU REED better than anybody else, so I thought I'd get in on it." ...

Lou Reed: The Bells

Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 24 January 1979

LOU REED IS one of the major influences on '70s rock, but consistency has never been his strong point. As the creative catalyst of the ...

Lou Reed & the Secret Life of Plants: Cross-Pollination at the YMCA

Interview by Stephen Demorest, Creem, March 1979

"WHERE DOES this put me with the punk-rockers?" Lou Reed mutters, not caring much, as he helps himself to another blini. ...

Lou Reed at Hammersmith Odeon

Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 21 April 1979

ANOTHER YEAR, another Lou Reed in a different toilet. ...

Lou Reed: I Love It When You Talk Dirty

Report and Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 21 April 1979

WHY DOES SUCH A MAN LIVE? ...

Lou Reed: The Bells (Arista)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 28 April 1979

AH, THE BELLS, the bells…somehow I don't think this is what Victor Hugo had in mind all those years ago. However, what Slick Vic had ...

Lou Reed: The Bells (Arista)

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 5 May 1979

WHAT DO you buy when you buy Lou Reed, and do you still need to buy him? ...

Lou Reed: Growing Up In Public (Arista)***

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 3 May 1980

THIS BUGGER don't give up, and, like poseurs of antiquity, rumours of his death have been greatly exaggerated. ...

Will The Real Lou Reed Please Speak Up?

Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 22 May 1980

"I don't especially tell the truth most of the time, anyway." — Lou Reed Creem interview, July 1973 ...

Lou Reed: Growing Up In Public (Arista)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 12 July 1980

GROWING UP IN PUBLIC finally spells out what Lou Reed's records since 1976's Coney Island Baby have been murmuring in varying dissonances: that the inspiration ...

Lou Reed Tilts The Machine

Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, September 1980

"There's a lot of very funny things floating around my albums." ...

Lou Reed: Clean Living And Dirty Looks

Report by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 6 March 1982

FLANKED BY his wife Sylvia to his right and his management on his left, Lou Reed lords it over the press gathering from a sofa ...

Lou Reed: Blue Reedo A La Talk

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 3 April 1982

LOU REED has a song on his new album about the day President Kennedy was shot. His manager looks like the kind of guy who ...

Lou Reed: Legendary Hearts (RCA)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 19 March 1983

What made The Blue Mask Lou Reed’s watershed album was his choice of musicians, a new wave super-set of them – Fernando Saunders on bass, ...

Lou Reed: Legendary Hearts (RCA)

Review by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 27 April 1983

ON THE cover and sleeve photos for Legendary Hearts, Lou Reed, Darth Vadar helmet under his arm and guitar and amp strapped to his motorcycle, ...

Lou Reed: Live in Italy

Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 18 February 1984

GROWING UP in public (a further instalment). ...

Lou Reed: New Rock Sensations

Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, November 1984

IMAGINE BEING served one of the greatest meals of your life, and then being told you have exactly one-half hour to consume it. ...

Robert Quine: Red Red Quine

Interview by Richard Kick, ZigZag, April 1985

WILD MEN of rock come and wild men of rock fizzle out. Or, rebels don't – their voices just fade away. Robert Quine, mild mannered ...

Fernando Saunders' Lead Bass

Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, June 1985

Pop Royalty's First-Call Bassist Is Into More Than Keeping Time. ...

Robert Quine: Newark's Reverent Iconoclast

Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar Player, January 1986

"YOU'VE GOT to hear this," insists Robert Quine, as he finds what he's looking for on a wall full of shelves sprouting thousands of records. ...

U2, Sting et al: Amnesty International, Conspiracy of Hope Benefit, Cow Palace, San Francisco CA

Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1986

Amnesty's rock & roll roadshow All-star lineup gives America the message ...

Lou Reed: The Ritz, New York

Live Review by Abby Weissman, East Coast Rocker, 30 July 1986

"THIS IS THE new improved, nice-guy version of Lou Reed," Reed announced at his sold-out Ritz gig, the kick-off for a major tour. Some people in ...

Lou Reed: The Prince of Darkness Lightens Up

Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, GQ, September 1986

I NEVER SAW the Velvet Underground during their five-year lurch through the New York music scene. From 1965 to 1970 I was on the left ...

Sam & Dave & Lou

Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Blues & Soul, 3 February 1987

Golden oldies never die, but they come back in different guises. Sam Moore and Lou Reed are currently scoring with 'Soul Man' — a veritable ...

Lou Reed (1989) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages transcripts, January 1989

This is a transcript of Martin's audio interview with Lou. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Lou Reed: Saga Of A City

Interview by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 29 January 1989

FIVE-YEAR-OLDS take guns to school, 10-year-olds sell crack. Homelessness, Howard Beach, Joel and Hedda, Tompkins Square, Tawana, AIDS. Lou Reed didn't make this world, but ...

Lou Reed: New York State of Mind

Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, 6 February 1989

Lou Reed's Sire/WB debut, New York, marks a welcome return to the wild side for the veteran Velvet Underground founder and street bard. It is ...

Lou Reed: New York

Review by Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1989

NEW YORK is Lou Reed's rock & roll version of The Bonfire of the Vanities. But whereas Tom Wolfe maintains an ultimately cynical distance from ...

Lou Reed and John Cale: Deja VU

Comment by Byron Coley, Spin, April 1989

POPULAR RUMOR has long held that Lou Reed and John Cale are mortal enemies. ...

Lou Reed, The Feelies: St James' Theatre, New York NY

Live Review by Tony Fletcher, Record Mirror, 8 April 1989

PROOF MAY no longer be needed that Lou Reed's former group the Velvet Underground are the most influential band in the field of rock 'n' ...

Velvet Memories of Andy Warhol

Report and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 22 April 1990

Simon Reynolds on Lou Reed's reunion with John Cale. ...

Lou Reed & John Cale: Songs For Drella (Sire WX 345)

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 April 1990

Andy Warhol looks a scream ...

Lou Reed/John Cale: Songs For Drella

Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 28 April 1990

DETERMINED TO reclaim the remains of their sometime friend and one-time manager Andy Warhol from the beady gaze of the culture vultures, John Cale and ...

John Cale and Lou Reed: Songs For Drella

Review by Mark Cooper, Q, May 1990

ANDY WARHOL'S NAME was all over the famous banana sleeve of The Velvet Underground's debut album. ...

Lou Reed and John Cale: Songs for Drella (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard C. Walls, Musician, May 1990

Forty-five Minutes of Fame — Reed and Cale Build Warhol a Velvet Coffin ...

Nelson Mandela Tribute Concert, Wembley Stadium, London

Live Review by Robert Sandall, Rolling Stone, 31 May 1990

WHILE THE black south African leader Nelson Mandela was still in jail, his seventieth birthday, in June 1988, inspired the starriest gathering of rockers since ...

John Cale/Lou Reed: 15 Minutes With You

Interview by Mark Kemp, Option, July 1990

THE HECKLER'S voice sounded its fury like a cannon about midway through Lou Reed and John Cale's performance of Songs For Drella, a pop requiem ...

Once-cool songs now politically incorrect

Comment by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 9 January 1992

IT'S TIME TO re-evaluate that good ol' time rock 'n' roll. Or, as you may discover, not so good ol' time rock 'n' roll. ...

Lou Reed: Magic And Loss (Sire/All formats)

Review by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 11 January 1992

LOU REED may have abandoned his 'Phantom Of Rock' image long ago, but the search for his creative mainline has continued unabated. ...

Cool Hand Lou: The Transformations of Lou Reed

Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Vogue, February 1992

SINCE THE RELEASE of Growing up in Public in 1980, Lou Reed has pretty much grown up in private. In 1981 he not only ...

Lou Reed

Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, February 1992

THESE DAYS, PREPARING for a Lou Reed interview is like joining the Civil Service. First, the specially run-off CD of the new album, Magic And ...

Lou Reed: Magic And Loss

Review by Robert Sandall, Q, February 1992

SINCE POWERING HIS WAY BACK info everybody's good books three years ago with the New York album, Lou Reed has become more creatively focused than ...

Lou Reed: Alchemical Engineering

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, February 1992

Lou Reed is one of the few 60s figures who has kept up any serious exploration of rock's sounds and words. In this exclusive New ...

Lou Reed: Mourning Glory

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pulse!, February 1992

On Lou Reed's touching elegy to two recently departed friends, Magic and Loss, he grapples with the age-old question: What is the meaning of death? ...

Lou Reed: Reed 'Em And Weep

Interview by Max Bell, Vox, February 1992

At the age of 48, Lou Reed is better disposed to write sedate six-string symphonies about mortality than feedback musings on the subject of scoring ...

The Velvet Undertaker: Lou Reed at the Palace Theatre, Manchester

Live Review by Jim Arundel, Melody Maker, 28 March 1992

A CURSORY listen to Lou's latest, Magic And Loss, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that Tragic Old Toss might have been a better title. ...

Lou Reed: Re-issues

Review by Andy Gill, Q, May 1992

IT'S OFTEN OVERLOOKED in the face of the wholesale "decadent" mythology that has surrounded him since the early Velvet Underground, but of all the poets ...

Lou Reed: The Lion in Winter

Interview by Frank Broughton, i-D, February 1996

He's been a junkie, a beatnik, a Rock & Roll Animal. But these days, Lou Reed is taking a walk on the mild side. ...

Lou Reed: Walk on the Mild Side

Interview by Ian Penman, The Guardian, 16 February 1996

Lou Reed was the ultimate rock'n'roller who mimed shooting up on stage. Now he's clean and sober, but what kind of shape is his music ...

A Dark Prince at Twilight: Lou Reed

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, March 1996

THE DAY DOES not begin auspiciously. The first flakes of a snowstorm descend as I open the curtains in my hotel room, adding yet another ...

Lou Reed: Set The Twilight Reeling (Warner Bros.)

Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, March 1996

LOU REED is old-school about albums; he looked the word up in a dictionary, found it meant a binder of blank of pages used for ...

Contract Breakers

Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, June 1996

2005 note: Savage Pencil did a nice illustration for this: John and Yoko hilariously naked, among other excellent things. It also elicited an angry postcard ...

Lou Reed

Interview by Paul Zollo, Performing Songwriter, 2000

"Music was what bothered me, what interested me. I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it. That's why I ...

Lou Reed: Ecstasy (WEA)

Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 24 March 2000

IT BEGINS WITH a grumble: not Lou himself, but a bass guitar attempting to clone the sound of an OAP getting on a downtown bus, ...

Lou Reed: Ecstasy

Review by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 10 April 2000

LIKE THE ALEWIFE and the manatee, Lou Reed has enjoyed a sort of protected status in the wake of punk rock. The truth is, he's ...

Lou Reed: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Barbara Ellen, The Times, 21 May 2000

IN THE BAR, the bets were on for what would be Lou Reed's token "old one" encore number. We know he's going to be mainly ...

Lou Reed: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, August 2000

BACK IN the Seventies – revelling in junkie debauchery – Lou Reed shows were a notoriously ghoulish spectacle, He was the wayward poet of sleaze, ...

Lou Reed: The Velvet Evolution

Retrospective by Kieron Tyler, Mojo Collections, Fall 2001

Even the coolest stars had to learn their craft at some point and Lou Reed was no exception. Kieron Tyler picks the dark one's early ...

Lou Reed: Transformer

Review by Jon Young, Blender, August 2002

New Yawk maverick gets commercial makeover from Ziggy Stardust, reaps chart reward. ...

Lou Reed: The Raven

Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 17 January 2003

IF ANYONE IS still wondering, more than a quarter of a century later, what Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music was all about, they need look ...

10 Questions for Lou Reed

Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, MOJO, February 2003

The Dark Prince entertains Jaan Uhelszki with tales of rewriting Poe, not punching David Bowie and understanding the emotional history of the amplifier. ...

Lou Reed: The Raven

Review by Max Bell, Uncut, February 2003

Reed shows off "heavy bear" side on two-CD tribute to 19th-century poet ...

Lou Reed: The Artist on the Biz

Report and Interview by Larry Jaffee, Medialine, March 2003

AT THE 45th annual Grammy Awards ceremony last month, Lou Reed was introduced by his co-presenter of the Best Pop Song category as a "true ...

LOU REED's new album…

Interview by Gavin Martin, Uncut, March 2003

… is a sprawling epic inspired by the work of drugged-up 19th-century horror writer Edgar Allen Poe. Is it a marriage made in heaven, or ...

Lou Reed: NYC Man -The Ultimate Lou Reed Collection

Review by Richard Riegel, Harp, July 2003

FOR "QUINTESSENTIAL New Yorker" Lou Reed, the irony he's directed toward his fans has often been less subtle patronization than his hectoring middle finger thrust ...

Lou Reed: Walk On The Mild Side

Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 Fall 2003

These days, he's more addicted to herbal tea than drink and drugs. So how, at 60, has Lou Reed remained on of the most enigmatic ...

Lou Reed: Animal Serenade

Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, April 2004

Yet another live album from that model of maturity, Library Lou ...

Lou Reed: The Uncut Questionnaire

Interview by Jon Wilde, Uncut, May 2004

UNCUT: Didn't you once remark that being interviewed by an English journalist was the definition of abject misery? ...

Lou Reed

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, May 2005

Listen up limeys! From the Velvets to The Raven, Lou Reed has remained pure, "professional" and the scourge of "asshole journalists". And he's still here. ...

Another Brick in the Wall: An interview with Lou Reed about Berlin

Interview by Mark Mordue, unpublished, Fall 2006

This story appeared in various edited versions in Rolling Stone Australia, December-January 2006-07, New York magazine, USA December 11, 2006, and The Word, UK February ...

Lou Reed: Iron Glove, Velvet Fist

Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 26 May 2007

The legendarily cantankerous Lou Reed's definition of abject misery is being interviewed by an English journalist. But get him on the right subject and he ...

Lou Reed's Berlin live

Preview by John Lewis, Metro, June 2007

IT'S 1973. Your name's Lou Reed and you've just released a classic album called Transformer, featuring a huge international hit single 'Walk On The Wild ...

Lou Reed: Berlin live at Forest National, Brussels

Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 24 June 2007

THE BRUSSELS equivalent of Wembley Arena was nearly full for what had been billed as a "European premiere": Lou Reed performing his 1973 album Berlin ...

The Music of 2007

Special Feature by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 28 December 2007

GIGS OFTHE YEAR LOU REED: Hammersmith Apollo, London Critically mauled on its original release, Berlin – Reed’s 1973 masterpiece of drug-addled despair, emotional and physical breakdown – ...

Lou Reed: Waiting for the Man

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 8 June 2008

Lou Reed's live version of Berlin, now a film, is hailed as his masterpiece. So, is he any easier to interview? Not really... ...

GQ Icons: Lou Reed

Profile by Robert Sandall, GQ, August 2008

ROCK STARS were never supposed to be regular guys, though that's the way most of the ones who stick around usually end up. It's hard ...

Recycling Albums

Report by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 26 October 2008

Van Morrison's revival of Astral Weeks is the latest example of yesterday's cult LPs being turned into today's sell-out concerts. ...

Lou Reed: Transformed

Interview by Holly Gleason, American Songwriter, 2 January 2009

HE IS sitting right there on the sidewalk, eating red snapper, heavy-lidded eyes taking in the world around him and engaging with the various people ...

Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music

Retrospective by Kris Needs, Clash, April 2010

IN 1975, LOU Reed was the most dangerously fascinating figure in rock 'n' roll. With his old associates Bowie and Iggy having turned respectively into ...

Lou Reed: Back On The Road At 68

Interview by Mark Paytress, The Times, 10 April 2010

In a rare interview, the rock icon is as challenging as the album he is re-releasing. ...

"It has so much rage": Metallica And Lou Reed Talk About Their New Album

Interview by Edward Helmore, The Guardian, 20 October 2011

It's a collaboration that has prompted much head-scratching, but Lou Reed and Metallica tell Edward Helmore that teaming up to make their new album was a ...

Lou Reed & Metallica: Lulu

Review by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 20 October 2011

LET'S BE HONEST: ever since Lou Reed brought out his Tai Chi master for some muscle flexing as part of his live act, alarm bells ...

Writing To Reach You

Overview by Graeme Thomson, The Word, March 2012

Because sometimes the only way musicians can actually talk to each other is by writing songs ...

Various Artists: Oh Yes We Can Love – A History Of Glam Rock

Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Universal Records, August 2013

GLAMOUR HAS always been pivotal to pop music. Elvis Presley was Glam, and so were Little Richard ('Ooh My Soul') and Billy Fury ('Jealousy'). The ...

Lou Reed: On The Wild Side

Retrospective by Jim Sullivan, Rock's Backpages, October 2013

I WAS TALKING with Lou Reed in his New York office, Sister Ray Enterprises, in 1996 and Reed was dressed, as usual, in a plain ...

Lou Reed, Mick Rock and John Varvatos launch Transformer in New York

Report by Jeff Slate, Examiner.com, 4 October 2013

"THESE ARE amazing images," host John Varvatos said at the opening of the Q&A at the launch party for Transformer, the new deluxe book from ...

Lou Reed Dead: The Day I Interviewed Velvet Underground's Auteur

Memoir by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 27 October 2013

The Velvet Underground may have sold few records during their lifespan but Lou's songs with them became a potent inspiration ...

A Walk On The Mild Side: Lou Reed and Mick Rock Interviewed

Interview by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 28 October 2013

Julian Marszalek is pleasantly surprised to find that Lou Reed and Mick Rock are a great double act… He talks to them about their enduring ...

I Thought That Lou Reed Would Outlive Death Itself

Obituary by John Doran, Noisey, 28 October 2013

STUPIDLY, I thought Lou Reed would outlive death itself. It wasn't just his implacable, gimlet-eyed countenance; his face already a kind of premature living death ...

Lou Reed, 1942-2013

Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 28 October 2013

Velvet Underground frontman and solo artist whose hymns to transgressive behaviour created an audience of outsiders. ...

Lou Reed: The Wild Side, Magic, and Loss

Obituary by Robert Dean Lurie, National Review, 29 October 2013

His subjects were difficult and his voice abrasive, but he never tried to be anyone other than himself. ...

Lou Reed: Why no one wanted to write his obituary

Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 1 November 2013

MOST ROCK STARS are about 70 years old these days, so their departure is a constant possibility and music journalists are mentally prepared to trot ...

Lou Reed tribute concert brings stars of music to Harlem

Live Review by Edward Helmore, The Guardian, 18 December 2013

Patti Smith, Moe Tucker, Antony Hegarty, Paul Simon and Debbie Harry sing at Reed's memorial service in New York. ...

Lou Reed: A Last Waltz on the Wild Side

Memoir by Ed McCormack, Vanity Fair, 13 January 2014

In an excerpt from his in-progress memoir, former Rolling Stone writer Ed McCormack remembers his friend Lou Reed, and the small theft and turn on ...

Lou Reed's friends dismiss claim that 'Walk on the Wild Side' is transphobic

Report and Interview by Edward Helmore, The Guardian, 20 May 2017

Defence came after Canadian student body apologized for "hurtful" lyrics to the trans community after including the 1972 hit on a playlist at a campus ...

Dispatches from the Everyday World of Music: An Assortment

Book Excerpt by Martin Colyer, 'Five Things I Saw & Heard This Week', July 2018

Excerpts from RBP co-founder Colyer's new book Five Things I Saw & Heard This Week, published this week with an introduction by Richard Williams ...

Paperback Writer

Guide by Steve Matteo, Boomer, 17 August 2018

Recent books by and about favorite boomer musicians and influencers ...

Lou Reed: At Alice Tully Hall (January 27, 1973)

Sleeve notes by Ed McCormack, Legacy Recordings, 2020

I WROTE REGULARLY for Rolling Stone for over a decade – when it really meant something to write for that publication. I spent a lot ...

Introduction

Book Excerpt by Will Hermes, 'The King of New York' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), October 2023

...

see also Velvet Underground, The

see also Fred Maher

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