Lou Reed

He is often seen in the company of fellow artist Laurie Anderson. They continued recording and releasing albums until 1976 with little pop success, after which Santo began a solo career. It reached #10 in the UK singles chart. "Teardrops", was another hit, though their LP, Santo & Johnny, was less successful. In 2004, a remix of his song, "Satellite of Love" (called "Satellite of Love '04") was released. The follow-up. In 2003, he released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. "Sleepwalk" became a regional hit, and was then released nationally, becoming a #1 pop hit.

In 2001 he was the victim of a hoax claiming he had died of a heroin overdose. They began recording in 1959 with Trinity Records' "Sleepwalk", written with the help of their mother. In 1997 over thirty artists covered "Perfect Day" for the BBC's "Children in Need" appeal. The pair were brothers, with Santo the elder; he played the lap steel guitar as a youth, and then taught Johnny to play the electric guitar. Reed continued on those dark notes with Magic and Loss, an album about mortality. Santo & Johnny were an American rock and roll duo from Brooklyn. 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. Download sample of "Sleepwalk".

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. 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. He married Sylvia Morales (later divorced). 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.

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. Though admitting that the liner notes' list of instruments used is fictitious and parodistic, Reed maintains that MMM was and is a serious album. The rock journalist Lester Bangs declared it genius. Some regarded it as an attempt to break his record company contract.

In 1975, he produced the double studio album of pure feedback Metal Machine Music. Reed's persona was also far advanced, preferring black leather and S&M-like gear even in the hippie-infested 1960s. In his chosen material Reed followed, and updated, such authors as Allen Ginsberg and Jean Genet. "Perfect Day" is an elegiac paean to Reed's addiction to heroin, later included on the soundtrack to Trainspotting.

"Walk on the Wild Side" is a wry and graphic salute to the misfits, male hustlers and transvestites at Andy Warhol's Factory. 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. Reed's chosen subject matter was far ahead of its time. 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.".

He followed this with Berlin, which tells something like a love story of two junkies in the city of the same name. In 1972 Reed, now a solo artist, released the glam rock album Transformer, produced by David Bowie. 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. Reed moved to New York City, working as a songwriter for Pickwick Records, and co-formed The Velvet Underground as lead guitarist/vocalist/lyricist.

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. Reed also developed a taste for free jazz and experimental music. 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. 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.

Reed was born in Freeport, Long Island, New York. 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).