Photo courtesy of Andy Barnes (CC).
Lou Reed died Oct. 27 at the age of 71. According to the Associated Press, he died from an illness related to the liver transplant he had last May.
Reed was a part of Andy Warhol’s New York City studio The Factory and was the frontman for the rock band The Velvet Underground. Music producer Brian Eno famously said, “The first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.”
Lou Reed launched his solo career in 1972 with the David Bowie-produced album Transformer, introducing him to commercial success for the first time. At that time, he was obsessed with writing about the sadness of urban life in New York. In 1975, Rolling Stone wrote that Reed’s music served as “an articulate aural nightmare of men and women caught in the beauty and terror of sexual, street and drug paranoia, unwilling or unable to move.”
While he is best known for his work in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Reed continued writing, collaborating, and performing until 2012. He is survived by his wife and fellow musician Laurie Anderson.
