Lou Reed

He is often seen in the company of fellow artist Laurie Anderson. A stage musical about the Shaggs, Philosophy of the World, written by Joy Gregory, opened at the prestigious John Anson Ford Theatre in Los Angeles in November 2003. It reached #10 in the UK singles chart. Helen, who had been suffering from depression for years, declined to attend, so NRBQ's drummer was faced with the challenging task of attempting to play Helen's parts. In 2004, a remix of his song, "Satellite of Love" (called "Satellite of Love '04") was released. Their opening act was the Shaggs. In 2003, he released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. In 2000, NRBQ celebrated their thirtieth anniversary with a concert in New York City.

In 2001 he was the victim of a hoax claiming he had died of a heroin overdose. The sound was improved.) RCA also released POTW on CD in the 1980s, whereupon it was hailed as something of an avant-garde cult classic. In 1997 over thirty artists covered "Perfect Day" for the BBC's "Children in Need" appeal. (In the interim, Dorothy Wiggin rediscovered the lost masters of POTW, which were hidden in a closet. Reed continued on those dark notes with Magic and Loss, an album about mortality. Then, POTW was rereleased again, this time on a major label, RCA. Touchingly affectionate and painfully confessional, often witty, Reed's vocals blister when singing of alleged medical errors and Valerie Solanas' 1968 assassination attempt on Warhol. In 1978, the group NRBQ found one of the original 1000 copies at a Boston radio station and, after hearing it, got their record label to rerelease POTW.

When one-time Velvet Underground patron and producer Andy Warhol died after a routine surgery, Reed closed a 25-year hiatus to collaborate with fellow ex-VU John Cale on Songs for Drella, a Warhol biography in minimalist pop music. But the corpse of the Shaggs refused to rest. Reed fired an angry salvo at his hometown's political problems on the hit album New York, denouncing crime, high rents, Jesse Jackson, even Pope John Paul II and Kurt Waldheim. Rumor has it that Austin died immediately after hearing the girls do a finally decent version of the title track to POTW. He married Sylvia Morales (later divorced). In 1975, Austin Wiggin died of a heart attack, as did the idea of the Shaggs. In the early 1980s, Reed gave up the drugs and depravity, both in his work and in his private life, to address more serious concerns, notably on his acclaimed comeback album The Blue Mask. The rest were circulated to New England radio stations but attracted little attention, and the girls' dreams of superstardom were dashed.

His albums of the late 1970s are often regarded as a mixed affair by rock critics, owing at least partly to the addictions that were then overtaking Reed. At this point, the man who'd promised to press 1000 copies of Philosophy of the World absconded with 900 of them. Though admitting that the liner notes' list of instruments used is fictitious and parodistic, Reed maintains that MMM was and is a serious album. Reviews of Philosophy of the World range from original and expressive on the positive side to "Somebody stop the wailing sound of these banshees!" on the negative side. The rock journalist Lester Bangs declared it genius. Despite this, the record has a captivating quality. Some regarded it as an attempt to break his record company contract. Despite this, during the recording sessions, the band would occasionally stop playing, claiming one of them had made a mistake and that they needed to start over, leaving the sound engineers to wonder how the girls could tell.

In 1975, he produced the double studio album of pure feedback Metal Machine Music. It's as though the drums were recorded in a separate room from the guitars and neither could hear what the other was doing. Reed's persona was also far advanced, preferring black leather and S&M-like gear even in the hippie-infested 1960s. In fact, in listening to the record, the band seems to have no sense of melody, harmony, or rhythm. In his chosen material Reed followed, and updated, such authors as Allen Ginsberg and Jean Genet. It is clear from the sound of the records that the band wasn't ready to capture their sound on tape, but Austin persisted. "Perfect Day" is an elegiac paean to Reed's addiction to heroin, later included on the soundtrack to Trainspotting. The next year, the girls went into the studio and recorded their only album, Philosophy of the World.

"Walk on the Wild Side" is a wry and graphic salute to the misfits, male hustlers and transvestites at Andy Warhol's Factory. In 1968, Austin arranged for the girls to play a regular Saturday night gig at the Fremont, New Hampshire Town Hall. Popular music would not catch up to him until the punks in the mid- to late-1970s, but even then his songs were unique: whether drenched in feedback or gently melodic, Reed usually sang about the disturbing, if not sordid, things other lyricists left out. They named themselves the Shaggs after their 1960s hairstyles. Reed's chosen subject matter was far ahead of its time. In the mid-1960s, Austin pulled his daughters out of school, bought them instruments, and got them music lessons. This, one of the more depressing albums ever made, includes "Caroline Says II" (violence), "The Kids" (prostitution and drug addiction), "The Bed" (suicide) and, unsurprisingly, "Sad Song.". After the first two became true, Austin set out to make the third happen.

He followed this with Berlin, which tells something like a love story of two junkies in the city of the same name. When the girls' father, Austin Wiggin, was young, his mother made three predictions: he'd marry a strawberry blonde, he'd have two sons she would not live to see, and his daughters would form a famous musical group. In 1972 Reed, now a solo artist, released the glam rock album Transformer, produced by David Bowie. The idea of the Shaggs is older than the girls themselves. Though internally unstable (breaking up in 1970) and never commercially viable, the VU's reputation as the ultimate, most influential underground band has remained intact. The group members were:. Reed moved to New York City, working as a songwriter for Pickwick Records, and co-formed The Velvet Underground as lead guitarist/vocalist/lyricist. It has been many times considered the worst rock and roll band of the world (or "the best worst band ever"), and this title made the band's first, last, and only album into a sort of a cult collector's item.

Reed said later his goals were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music," or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. The Shaggs was an American all-women band. Reed also developed a taste for free jazz and experimental music. Rachel Wiggin - bass guitar. Reed attended Syracuse University where he met poet Delmore Schwartz, who Reed credits for his simple poetic vernacular and the encouragement to become a writer. Helen Wiggin - drums. Reed was a fan of rock and rhythm and blues, playing in several high school rock bands, and had recorded a doo wop-style single as a member of The Shades. Dorothy Wiggin Semprini -lead guitar and vocals.

Reed was born in Freeport, Long Island, New York. Betty Wiggin Porter - rhythm guitar. He lives in New York City. Lewis Allen Reed, known as Lou Reed (born March 2, 1942), is a rock'n'roll singer-songwriter with a lasting musical influence on punk and alternative rock. Reed has toured and recorded almost continuously since 1965. Rockin' on Broadway (The Time/Brent/Shad Story) (2000, includes first recordings with The Jades [1958] and solo [1962]).

September Songs (The Music Of Kurt Weill) (1997). Till The Night Is Gone: A Tribute To Doc Pomus (1995). Bright Red, Laurie Anderson (1994). Sweet Relief: A Benefit For Victoria Williams (1993).

Le Bataclan '72 with John Cale & Nico (2004). Songs for Drella with John Cale (1990). Animal Serenade (2004). Extended Versions (2003).

American Poet (2001). Perfect Night: Live in London (1998). Live in Concert (1997). Live in Italy (1984).

Live: Take No Prisoners (1978). Lou Reed Live (1975). Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974). The Raven (2003).

Ecstacy (2000). Set the Twilight Reeling (1996). Magic and Loss (1992). New York (1989).

Mistrial (1986). New Sensations (1984). Legendary Hearts (1983). The Blue Mask (1982).

Growing Up in Public (1980). The Bells (1979). Street Hassle (1978). Rock 'n' Roll Heart (1976).

Coney Island Baby (1976). Metal Machine Music (1975). Sally Can't Dance (1974). Berlin (1973).

Transformer (1972). Lou Reed (1972). The Quine Tapes (live 1969, 2001). Peel Slowly and See (box set, 1995).

Live MCMXCIII (1993). Another View (1967-1969 outtakes, 1986). VU (1968-1969 outtakes, 1985). 1969 (The Velvet Underground Live) (1974).

Live at Max's Kansas City (1972). Loaded (1970). The Velvet Underground (1969). White Light/White Heat (1968).

The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967).