Lou Reed has died at the age of 72. Here’s a tribute playlist of some of his best songs.
Rock fans the world over were greeted with sad news this past Sunday; Lou Reed passed away at 71 years old.
He died from complications of a liver transplant (but news on the reasons leading up to the transplant are scarce.) and is survived by his wife, experimental musician Laurie Anderson.
Reed was a peculiar rock and roll presence. He had a voice as flat as a pancake, acted cool as a cucumber on stage, and by many accounts had a prickly persona.
Yet he managed to forge a singular rock and roll presence, which helped inject a dose of artsy experimentation that would influence punk rock and alternative music.
Reed fronted The Velvet Underground, a band championed by artist Andy Warhol, and the band were a bizarre blend of atonal drone and muted melody, with Reed employing unique guitar tunings to match his band mates droning soundscapes.
After he left The Velvet’s, he joined forces with David Bowie, who produced his landmark album Transformer, as well as doing all the backing vocals (yes, that’s him singing the ‘girl’s voices’ in Walk On The Wild Side).
Reed’s mix of dark poetry and earthy delivery never made him a multimillion dollar recording artist, but he was hugely influential; as Brian Eno said “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.”
So in remembrance here’s an iTunes playlist of some of Reed’s best tracks; in addition to hits like Wild Side, Satellite of Love and Sweet Jane, I’ve included some left of center choices, including his cover of This Magic Moment from the Lost Highway soundtrack and What’s Good from the Until The End Of The World Soundtrack.
I’ve also included Junior’s Son from Lulu, his collaboration with Metallica. That album was pummeled by critics and fans alike, and while it certainly had some misfires, this is a truly moving track befitting this fallen legend. If you’d like to preview or buy any of the tracks listed, simply click on their title to go to iTunes.