The Life of Lou Reed

August 19, 2019
In this admiring biography, music writer Sounes (Down the Highway) offers a measured chronicle of the life and music of Lou Reed (1942–2013). He traces Reed’s life from his childhood and youth in New York City and his early forays into performing music to the heights of his work with the Velvet Underground, his career as a solo artist, and his ceaseless creativity. While the Velvet Underground struggled through its seven-year existence, the band gave Reed an opportunity to develop as a songwriter and performer, skills that allowed him to embark on a successful solo career. Sounes examines Reed’s life alongside his recordings—for example, 1973’s Transformer, with its single “Walk on the Wild Side,” launched Reed into international stardom; two years later, a lawsuit against him by his manager slowed Reed’s songwriting for Coney Island Baby. In Sounes’s workmanlike prose, Reed emerges as an artist who refused to compromise, often to his own detriment (early in his career, he refused to play at a fraternity party and punched a glass door to ensure he wouldn’t have to). While there’s not much new here, Sounes proves to be an amiable narrator who successfully reveals Reed as an innovative, influential musician.

July 26, 2019

In the years since Lou Reed's death in 2013, multiple biographies and analyses of his work have been written, including this book, first published in the UK in 2015. Sounes (Down the Highway; Fab) covers the highs and lows of Reed's personal and professional life. Yet, while the author claims his title is "detailed and revelatory," the "extensive original research" seems to entail interviews with people on the far periphery of Reed's life and a focus on the singer's difficult or combative behavior in an effort to appear revelatory. Reed was widely known to be a complex and deeply talented musician who dealt with addictions and mental health issues exacerbated by drug abuse. Sounes ably covers every aspect with competent yet occasionally awkward writing. However, because he incorporates so many anecdotes in an effort to demonstrate Reed's monstrous behavior, he often skates over the more substantive events in a superficial way. VERDICT Reed devotees might appreciate this account, but newcomers would be better served by Anthony DeCurtis's Lou Reed: A Life.--Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA

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