Photo: Man Alive! / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What strikes me most about Lou Reed is how he expanded what a rock song was allowed to be about. With the Velvet Underground and later as a solo artist, he wrote about the people polite society preferred to ignore, and he did it without judgment or sentimentality. Walk on the Wild Side still sounds dangerous and tender at once, which is a nearly impossible balance. I find it telling that his commercial peak never matched his influence; half the bands I love only exist because he proved honesty could be an aesthetic. His Hall of Fame induction felt less like an honor than an overdue apology.
Overview
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Lou Reed
- Name (Japanese)
- ルー・リード
- Reading
- るー・りーど
- Born
- March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Pisces / Horse
- Origin
- Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- singer / singer-songwriter / guitarist / photographer / composer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Freeport High School
- University
- Syracuse University
Awards & achievements
- Steiger Award
- 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- Grammy Awards
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Walk on the Wild Side | — | |
| Notable work | Transformer | — |
6. Links
- Official sitehttp://www.loureed.com
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89
Singer — see all → · Singer-songwriter — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.