rebellious and sexually suspicious son, his parents
forced him to see a psychiatrist who prescribed a
long regimen of shock treatments that caused Lou
memory loss and insomnia.
"You can't read a book because you get to page 17
and you have to go right back to page one again," he
once said as he recalled the experience. "If you walked
around the block, you forgot where you were."
Reed continued the nightmare while graduating
from high school and attending New York University,
where he continued intense post-shock treatment ther-
apy. Unhappy, he left NYU and enrolled at Syracuse
University, where he pursued a degree in English.
There, he fell under the spell of Delmore
Schwartz, the illustrious Jewish poet then caught in
a downward spiral of alcoholism and mental illness.
Unaware of the decline, Reed became further
attached to Schwartz and followed him like an
apprentice to a master.
"He wasn't in the best shape when I met him, but
I didn't know that," Reed told an interviewer. "And

was not wildly successful. However, it became known
as a major influence on the next generation of rock-
ers, cited often by the likes of Jim Morrison, David
Bowie and newer bands like the Jesus and Mary
Chain and New Order for its impact on their tunes.
Lou left the band after three albums in 1970.
Really, the move was just the beginning of another
phase of Reed's life: he released his self-tided solo
effort in 1972 and the smash Transformer in 1973. It
was the latter that rocketed Reed to fame, especially
with the success of "Walk on the Wild Side." The
tale about his experiences while hanging out with
Warhol became a Top 20 hit.
Since that time, Reed has become a bellwether of
the music scene. In part, he is credited with giving
rise to the punk scene, an act for which he was
deemed "Godfather of Punk." He assiduously avoid-
ed the deathly disco craze that claimed too many tal-
ents, but he joined Bowie in the glam rock scene,
playing up his image now as a bisexual.
In 1980, he married Sylvia Morales, a woman

On his latest release, Ecstasy, he fills the album
with as much music as possible, including "Rock
Minuet," a song that has been hailed as a modern-
day equivalent of "Walk on the Wild Side."
"(During the recording), I was able to bring all
my guitar toys in. The whole collection went in," he
said. "It was absolutely the best time I ever had."
Aside from that, he wrote another book, Pass
Thru Fire (Hyperion), which updates his previous
book but also includes new lyrics and poetry.
"The world's most complete collection of Lou
Reed lyrics [is] now out," he said during a recent
press tour. "I highly recommend it, even though I
may seem biased."
He also is gearing up for a photography exhibit in
a Paris gallery this summer. Titled
"EXTRAetORDINAIRE," it includes photos Reed
took during his journeys around the globe.
"I am friends with a number of photographers
and have always been interested in photography," he
said. "I travel around an awful lot and it seemed

With a new album, book, photography exhibit and
international tour that stops in Detroit, "Godfather of Punk"
Lou Reed remains one of rock's most creative forces.

JILL SKLAR Special to the Jewish News

I don't know if it would have mattered. He was such
a passionate man, about literature, about poetry. He
had a scar on his forehead which he said he got in a
duel with Nietzsche."
After graduation, Reed went to work at Pickwick
Records as a songwriter, churning out commercial
ditties and dance tunes. He left that job after being
introduced to John Cale, a classically trained musi-
cian. The pair hooked up with Sterling Morrison, a
college friend of Reed's and a talented guitarist. The
trio joined with drummer Maureen Tucker and
named their band the Velvet Underground.
Fame struck the foursome when friends of Andy
Warhol heard them play at a New York City club.
Word got back to the world-famous artist, who took
the group under his wing.
'Andy made it possible for me to have an outlet for
the kind of songs that I wrote," Reed once said. "If he
hadn't, who knows what would have happened."
The band released its first self-titled album, which

who helped him beat drug and alcohol addiction.
He later left her for androgynous performance artist
Laurie Anderson.
In the late 1980s, he resurfaced a star with the
release of New York. In the 1990s, he turned out
Between Thought and Expression, a book of his col-
lected lyrics and a CD collection by the same name.
He did reunions with his fellow Velvet Underground
band mates before many of the 1970s bands even
thought of them.
His current quests seem aligned with this perse-
verance for timelessness. Though his face is lined
with age, he continues to lead the generations with
artistry, particularly that which is expressed through
his music. Raw and real, the words come off his
tongue in a sing-songy fashion, like spoken poetry
set to music. The lyrics tell the stories of people you
might pass on the street or even people you already
know. They are gritty and grimy, filled alternately
with hope and despair, passion and irony.

apparent that it would be crazy not to be taking pic-
tures of some of the things I was fortunate enough
to see, so I got involved in photography on an
increasing basis."
For now, he has wrapped up the European leg of
his tour — where he canceled a concert date in
Austria to protest right-wing leader Joerg Haider —
and is embarking on the rest of the American tour,
including his stop in Detroit.
"I have always wanted to make music that's fun
to listen to but also has something to think about,"
he has said. "Why couldn't rock 'n' roll be like a
great American novel, only put to music?"

❑

Lou Reed performs at Detroit's State Theatre
7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 15. $35/$29.50.
(248) 645-6666.

6/9
2000

85

