Lou Reed: Walk on the Wild Side: The Stories Behind the Songs

by Chris Roberts, Lou Reed

(Book). Lou Reed has been art-rocker, iconoclast, contrary noise merchant, and junkie, yet he's always been fascinating. Only David Bowie, arguably, has re-invented himself as many times as Reed, while ensuring that each image was potent, edgy and dangerous. It's a tribute to Reed's standing that even punk rockers, with their scorched earth policy towards all pre-punk music, had a healthy respect and regard for him. Velvet Underground is one of the all-time greats; but in many people's eyes, Reed has produced his best work solo, after the demise of that band. This groundbreaking book analyzes and celebrates the willful intellect, fierce intelligence, and literary merits of Lou Reed's post-Velvet Underground music. Chris Roberts has written about music for fifteen years for The Guardian , Melody Maker , Sounds , and Uncut . He was also the editor of Idol Worship (Harper Collins), a collection of writings by pop stars (Bono, Thurston Moore, etc.) that has been hailed in some quarters as "The best book about rock 'n' roll ever."

Genres: Music

1 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Chris Roberts lives in West London. He has written about music, films and books for innumerable publications and websites and interviewed everyone from David Bowie to Janet Jackson. He was the editor of Idle Worship, hailed in the New York Times as ‘the most original book about rock ‘n’ roll ever’, and edited Blondie's Panic of Girls magazine at the band's request.
Often appearing on TV and radio, he has also published books on Kate Moss, Lou Reed, Michael Jackson, Tom Jones, Abba, Talk Talk, Scarlett Johansson, Pharrell Williams, the Gothic arts and many others.