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Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed
Lou Reed made it his mission to rub people the wrong way, whether it was with the noise rock he produced with the Velvet Underground in the late 1960s or his polarizing work with Metallica that would prove to be his swan song. On a personal level, too, he seemed to take pleasure in insulting everyone who crossed his path. How did this Jewish boy from Long Island, an adolescent doo-wop singer, rise to the status of Godfather of Punk? And how did he maintain that status for decades?
Dirty Blvd. —the first new biography of Reed since his death in 2013—digs deep to answer those questions. And along the way it shows us the tender side of his prickly personality.
Born in Brooklyn, Reed was the son of an accountant and a former beauty queen, but he took the road less traveled, trading literary promise for an entry-level job as a budget-label songwriter and founding the Velvet Underground under the aegis of Andy Warhol. The cult of personality surrounding his transformation from downtown agent provocateur to Phantom of Rock and finally to patron saint of the avant-garde was legendary, but there was more to his artistic evolution than his abrasive public persona. The lives of many American rock stars have had no second act, but Reed’s did.
Dirty Blvd. not only covers the highlights of Reed’s career but also explores lesser-known facets of his work, such as his first recordings with doo-wop group the Jades, his key literary influences and the impact of Judaism upon his work, and his engagement with the LGBT movement. Drawing from new interviews with many of his artistic collaborators, friends, and romantic partners, as well as from archival material, concert footage, and unreleased bootlegs of live performances, author Aidan Levy paints an intimate portrait of the notoriously uncompromising rock poet who wrote “Heroin,” “Sweet Jane,” “Walk on the Wild Side,” and “Street Hassle”—songs that transcended their genre and established Lou Reed as one of the most influential and enigmatic American artists of the past half-century.
Dirty Blvd. —the first new biography of Reed since his death in 2013—digs deep to answer those questions. And along the way it shows us the tender side of his prickly personality.
Born in Brooklyn, Reed was the son of an accountant and a former beauty queen, but he took the road less traveled, trading literary promise for an entry-level job as a budget-label songwriter and founding the Velvet Underground under the aegis of Andy Warhol. The cult of personality surrounding his transformation from downtown agent provocateur to Phantom of Rock and finally to patron saint of the avant-garde was legendary, but there was more to his artistic evolution than his abrasive public persona. The lives of many American rock stars have had no second act, but Reed’s did.
Dirty Blvd. not only covers the highlights of Reed’s career but also explores lesser-known facets of his work, such as his first recordings with doo-wop group the Jades, his key literary influences and the impact of Judaism upon his work, and his engagement with the LGBT movement. Drawing from new interviews with many of his artistic collaborators, friends, and romantic partners, as well as from archival material, concert footage, and unreleased bootlegs of live performances, author Aidan Levy paints an intimate portrait of the notoriously uncompromising rock poet who wrote “Heroin,” “Sweet Jane,” “Walk on the Wild Side,” and “Street Hassle”—songs that transcended their genre and established Lou Reed as one of the most influential and enigmatic American artists of the past half-century.
448 pages, Hardcover
Published October 15, 2015
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November 13, 2016
Let me begin with what I liked in this book. It is mostly non judgmental: whereas previous accounts of Lou Reed have tended to depict him as an awful character, so as to undermine his musical achievements (at least after the Velvets), Aidan Levy relies on a lot of interviews with friends, relatives and musicians to build a mostly factual account of Reed's life and music. Most of the anecdotes about Lou being nasty are here but the author does not try to use them in order to build a charge against him, which I think is how a proper biography should be written. For this reason, I think it is probably the most recommendable book on its subject.
However, that does not mean that it does not have flaws. Actually, there are plenty of them. First, it is not always an easy read because the author's style is really verbose, verging on self-indulgence at times. Levy can use three or four cultural references simultaneously without adding much to our understanding of the situation. For instance, writing on White Light White Heat (p. 141), he asserts: "in the postlapsarian world of the song, we only experience interconnectedness through the profond dislocation of the body and the mind. Yet despite the apparent futility of raging against the machine, Lou would keep trying to sing the body electric" and I have no idea what it is that he meant there. In addition, the author wants to look smart by inserting some of Reed's songs or lyrics into his narrative but most of the time, this literary process falls short of any insight. This is especially jarring in the first part of the book, which documents Lou's life before the Velvet. While it is very informative, the author tries too much to relate some of Lou's mundane activities in his early life to his future output as a songwriter. For instance, Lou's first job consists in working for a machine parts manufacturer and Levy concludes "it was his first experience with a metal machine", referencing Lou's infamous 1975 noisy double LP. Far-fetched relations like this are found everywhere in this first section, while I would have liked to find more information about Lou's shock therapy, a crucial moment in Reed's early life that is depicted but not really given much sense. Was Lou treated with this therapy because of his homosexuality? Levy quotes Lou's sister asserting that Lou's parents were not homophobic, but then we're left wondering why Reed was submitted to something so awful, was it because of depression or suicide attempts?
The second part of the book is about the Velvet Underground. So much has been written on the band that the author can be forgiven for not bringing much that is new. Yet, I found that the author spent too much time talking about the Factory and not enough about the albums, especially the Velvet Underground (1969) and Loaded which are treated too quickly, in my opinion.
When it comes to Reed's early solo career, Levy does a much better job by adding a lot of details on the musicians who worked with him. While Reed's fans will not learn much on Transformer or Berlin, there are very interesting accounts of his late 1970s records such as Coney Island Baby and Street Hassle, as well as of his tours with the Everyman Band - whose members Levy has interviewed. Lou Reed's excellent albums of the early 1980s - Growing Up in Public, Blue Mask and New Sensations, for instance - are equally well treated and as Levy was able to get in touch with Sylvia Morales, this is where accounts of his life and of his music blend in with each other most satisfactorily - admittedly, at that time, Reed's songs became more introspective as well.
Unfortunately, as we move to the 1990s, the book loses its focus. The last twenty years of Lou's life are treated much too quickly. There's nothing about Lou's relation with Antony Hegarty, even though this led to some of Lou's most beautiful music in those years. Lou's collaboration with Metallica is devoted only a couple of pages and his latest days with Laurie Anderson are barely outlined. Lou's relation with John Cale throughout the years is not addressed sufficiently. We know that they worked together, then that they split, then that they resumed working together, then that they split again, but we never know why. Also Lou's disease, leading to his death in 2013, arrives out of nowhere at the penultimate page but is not explained.
More generally, while the attempt by the author to provide a non-judgmental depiction of Reed is what makes this book better than previous biographies, at times, it seems that the author treats him, not like the subject of the story, but as an object, whose behavior is only explained by context. This is especially true of the early 70s, where it seems that Reed is no longer responsible for what he is doing. He seems to do things - touring, recording, etc. - just because other people or events have made him do it and not because of some conscious decision. There might be some truth to this - after all, Reed himself said that he had no memory of recording Berlin - but the fact that the author relies on the testimonies of some session musicians, who do not seem to have been so close to Reed, reinforces that impression. We have some anecdotes that help complete the picture but the man's inner turmoils are hardly accessible to us. Admittedly, the author fares better when he relies on interviews with the people who loved him most, especially the partners who shared is life. That he was not able to interview Laurie Anderson probably explains why the latest part of the book is also the weakest.
Because the book appears as mostly factual, some factual mistakes can be a bit unnerving. One significant detail: while Lou is finishing recording his first album in England, he decides to join Nico and John Cale in Paris for a concert at the Bataclan. The author then asserts that Lou was "a train ride away" from his former VU partners. Yet in 1972, there was no such thing as a train ride from London to Paris - the Channel tunnel was only finished in 1994. This is not a big deal but it is an instance of how the author's taste for useless circumlocutions gets in the way of his narrative. Another tiny mistake: evoking Farm Aid, Levy says that this was created by Bob Dylan, but the event was curated by Neil Young, John MellenCamp and Willie Nelson.
In the end, even though it was nice to have at least a book on Reed that avoids overemphasizing the salacious anecdotes over the music, I found it too dull at times, especially when the author tries to mask some of the holes in the story by using too many metaphors and other stylistic devices. If you can disregard these petty annoyances, then Dirty Blvd. will provide a nice journey into Reed's life and music, and an occasion to revisit the albums.
However, that does not mean that it does not have flaws. Actually, there are plenty of them. First, it is not always an easy read because the author's style is really verbose, verging on self-indulgence at times. Levy can use three or four cultural references simultaneously without adding much to our understanding of the situation. For instance, writing on White Light White Heat (p. 141), he asserts: "in the postlapsarian world of the song, we only experience interconnectedness through the profond dislocation of the body and the mind. Yet despite the apparent futility of raging against the machine, Lou would keep trying to sing the body electric" and I have no idea what it is that he meant there. In addition, the author wants to look smart by inserting some of Reed's songs or lyrics into his narrative but most of the time, this literary process falls short of any insight. This is especially jarring in the first part of the book, which documents Lou's life before the Velvet. While it is very informative, the author tries too much to relate some of Lou's mundane activities in his early life to his future output as a songwriter. For instance, Lou's first job consists in working for a machine parts manufacturer and Levy concludes "it was his first experience with a metal machine", referencing Lou's infamous 1975 noisy double LP. Far-fetched relations like this are found everywhere in this first section, while I would have liked to find more information about Lou's shock therapy, a crucial moment in Reed's early life that is depicted but not really given much sense. Was Lou treated with this therapy because of his homosexuality? Levy quotes Lou's sister asserting that Lou's parents were not homophobic, but then we're left wondering why Reed was submitted to something so awful, was it because of depression or suicide attempts?
The second part of the book is about the Velvet Underground. So much has been written on the band that the author can be forgiven for not bringing much that is new. Yet, I found that the author spent too much time talking about the Factory and not enough about the albums, especially the Velvet Underground (1969) and Loaded which are treated too quickly, in my opinion.
When it comes to Reed's early solo career, Levy does a much better job by adding a lot of details on the musicians who worked with him. While Reed's fans will not learn much on Transformer or Berlin, there are very interesting accounts of his late 1970s records such as Coney Island Baby and Street Hassle, as well as of his tours with the Everyman Band - whose members Levy has interviewed. Lou Reed's excellent albums of the early 1980s - Growing Up in Public, Blue Mask and New Sensations, for instance - are equally well treated and as Levy was able to get in touch with Sylvia Morales, this is where accounts of his life and of his music blend in with each other most satisfactorily - admittedly, at that time, Reed's songs became more introspective as well.
Unfortunately, as we move to the 1990s, the book loses its focus. The last twenty years of Lou's life are treated much too quickly. There's nothing about Lou's relation with Antony Hegarty, even though this led to some of Lou's most beautiful music in those years. Lou's collaboration with Metallica is devoted only a couple of pages and his latest days with Laurie Anderson are barely outlined. Lou's relation with John Cale throughout the years is not addressed sufficiently. We know that they worked together, then that they split, then that they resumed working together, then that they split again, but we never know why. Also Lou's disease, leading to his death in 2013, arrives out of nowhere at the penultimate page but is not explained.
More generally, while the attempt by the author to provide a non-judgmental depiction of Reed is what makes this book better than previous biographies, at times, it seems that the author treats him, not like the subject of the story, but as an object, whose behavior is only explained by context. This is especially true of the early 70s, where it seems that Reed is no longer responsible for what he is doing. He seems to do things - touring, recording, etc. - just because other people or events have made him do it and not because of some conscious decision. There might be some truth to this - after all, Reed himself said that he had no memory of recording Berlin - but the fact that the author relies on the testimonies of some session musicians, who do not seem to have been so close to Reed, reinforces that impression. We have some anecdotes that help complete the picture but the man's inner turmoils are hardly accessible to us. Admittedly, the author fares better when he relies on interviews with the people who loved him most, especially the partners who shared is life. That he was not able to interview Laurie Anderson probably explains why the latest part of the book is also the weakest.
Because the book appears as mostly factual, some factual mistakes can be a bit unnerving. One significant detail: while Lou is finishing recording his first album in England, he decides to join Nico and John Cale in Paris for a concert at the Bataclan. The author then asserts that Lou was "a train ride away" from his former VU partners. Yet in 1972, there was no such thing as a train ride from London to Paris - the Channel tunnel was only finished in 1994. This is not a big deal but it is an instance of how the author's taste for useless circumlocutions gets in the way of his narrative. Another tiny mistake: evoking Farm Aid, Levy says that this was created by Bob Dylan, but the event was curated by Neil Young, John MellenCamp and Willie Nelson.
In the end, even though it was nice to have at least a book on Reed that avoids overemphasizing the salacious anecdotes over the music, I found it too dull at times, especially when the author tries to mask some of the holes in the story by using too many metaphors and other stylistic devices. If you can disregard these petty annoyances, then Dirty Blvd. will provide a nice journey into Reed's life and music, and an occasion to revisit the albums.
April 10, 2020
Really enjoyed this book. I didn't previously know much about Lou's life, other than whet he shared through his music.
A lot of the book is devoted to analysing Lou's music, and by and large I think Aidan Levy gets it right. He's certainly opened my ears to nuances in music I've listened to time and time again for many years.
My only quibble is with the authors choice of phrasing. My vocabulary is at least average, probably a little above, but it often felt like the text I was reading had been needlessly filtered through a thesaurus, and there were times when I was confronted with too many unfamiliar words and simply glossed over them, though that didn't detract much from my enjoyment.
If you know Lou's music I strongly recommend this book. If you don't, take the time to listen.
4.5 stars
A lot of the book is devoted to analysing Lou's music, and by and large I think Aidan Levy gets it right. He's certainly opened my ears to nuances in music I've listened to time and time again for many years.
My only quibble is with the authors choice of phrasing. My vocabulary is at least average, probably a little above, but it often felt like the text I was reading had been needlessly filtered through a thesaurus, and there were times when I was confronted with too many unfamiliar words and simply glossed over them, though that didn't detract much from my enjoyment.
If you know Lou's music I strongly recommend this book. If you don't, take the time to listen.
4.5 stars
January 12, 2016
I was rolling my eyes until I got to this sentence: "Unlike nearly everything else in the mainstream, the Velvets refused to whitewash Marvin Gaye or Chuck Berry and suture the inchoate fragments into a palatable whole consistent with bourgeois repression, but as a result, they remained marginalized on the periphery of the hegemonic monoculture: it was the price of playing against the grain."
Then I threw the book across the room. Why would anyone write a sentence like that? Why?
Then I threw the book across the room. Why would anyone write a sentence like that? Why?
September 26, 2023
I've been listening to Lou/VU since I was 13, so this was a real treat. Just enough detail for it to feel like a deep depth, but not overly granular.
December 18, 2016
Better Than I Expected
I've read all the Reed bios and where this one differs is how much musician conversation is included. Rounds the picture out. Lou Reed was a dick but a genius, hardworking dick, and Dirty Blvd is broadly fair in its assessment of his life. Incredibly troubled man who gave us great music
I've read all the Reed bios and where this one differs is how much musician conversation is included. Rounds the picture out. Lou Reed was a dick but a genius, hardworking dick, and Dirty Blvd is broadly fair in its assessment of his life. Incredibly troubled man who gave us great music
August 22, 2015
I could not finish this book. I made a promise to myself that if I make it at least 50 pages in and it's still dragging, I'm done reading it. Sorry NetGalley, this one was a miss.
July 10, 2025
Have a dictionary or your cell phone/I-pad handy when you read, because as others here have cited, you'll encounter a lot of big five-syllable words in this book you may never stumble upon or find need for again in your life, but after a ridiculously over-the-top opening chapter which hits the reader with an avalanche of worshipful mythologizing and comically pretentious rock-journalism blather, things settle down and I actually found the rest of this biography of one of rock's most unique, petulant, and intermittently inspired artists thoroughly engrossing.
Some era's are covered better than others, and one will not come away with a great sense of the qualitative difference between works in Reed's incredibly uneven solo catalog, but you do emerge with a great sense of Reed's obsessions, process and artistic instincts, and that, as well as his profound influence on the Czechoslovakian freedom fighter Vaclav Havel, fascinating.
Some era's are covered better than others, and one will not come away with a great sense of the qualitative difference between works in Reed's incredibly uneven solo catalog, but you do emerge with a great sense of Reed's obsessions, process and artistic instincts, and that, as well as his profound influence on the Czechoslovakian freedom fighter Vaclav Havel, fascinating.
May 8, 2020
You'll learn a lot about Lou's not always charming personality. There was more focus on the earlier parts of his life, especially his college years and the struggles to become a recognized musician. Little is said about his parents past what they did to him medically, which I already knew about, and was horrifying. Somehow, he managed to move forward. I would have liked to read more about his relationship with Laurie Anderson; she's barely mentioned but I suspect she was actually the great love of his life (just listen to the song The Power of the Heart.)
I didn't know how popular he was in several European countries. What a pleasant surprise that was!
I didn't know how popular he was in several European countries. What a pleasant surprise that was!
January 6, 2020
Very informative but seems like the author is trying too hard with his wordiness. Yes, we know big words too but this is rock n roll.
November 11, 2015
It's verbose in parts yet condenses Lou's last fifteen years into twenty pages, which was the greatest disappointment. Levy should have gotten the coffee, turned the lights on, and said hello to Senior Lou. Would the effort really have hurt him? If only I were half-drowning in those late anecdotes. I will read the other Lou bios to see if Levy has truly dropped the mental bullet. Where's the social redeeming kindness.
November 10, 2019
Loving this book - light on quotes from relevant people but when they are used, they count. The best part, which usually is the stuff I pass by... Aidan's analysis of the songs... some of the most thoughtful and helpful reviewing of Lou's music I ever read, which also served my fave function: sending me scurrying back to the albums to play them.
July 9, 2018
Good learning tool of a book. Author likes to use big words and run on sentences which was completely unnecessary.
October 8, 2020
Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed by Aiden Levy is the latest biography of legendary punk rock icon Lou Reed. Levy has written for the New York Times, the Village Voice, JazzTimes, and the Daily Forward.
I remember hearing "Walk on the Wildside" on AM radio as a child. I had no idea what it was about or why the colored girls were singing. "Colored" was at the time still an acceptable adjective. But I was told not to sing bits of the song. I sensed there was something my eight-year-old brain was missing, and I was right. The radio was always playing when I was growing up and rarely was it ever turned down except when Lou Reed played.
Music stays with us our whole lives and I still listen to the groups and people that made an impression on my young mind -- Lou Reed, Patti Smith, The New York Dolls, and the Ramones. Growing up in Cleveland we had a progressive radio station, WMMS that kept Clevelanders listening to the best music in the nation despite the cities many other problems. The music had a lasting impression on me.
Lou Reed is the angry, non-melodic, speeding, crass, poetic, godfather of New York punk. That line pretty much summarizes Lou Reed. He pushed limits and saved rock and roll from corporate arena rock and disco. Levy takes the reader through Reed's entire life from childhood, to the Velvet Underground, through the solo years, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Dirty Blvd is heavy on detail and periphery information. The making of all the albums are covered in detail as well as almost a blow by blow account of the making of Le Bataclan '72, by far the most interesting story in the book. I did find myself a bit overwhelmed by details rather the story after "Sally Can't Dance" but held on because I really wanted to read about my favorite album "New York."
Several interesting points and people are presented in the book. I always thought of the Velvet Underground as a New York City band, but they were a Boston band, going to where they were the most popular. Although today, we wax about The Velvet Underground and their importance, they were never that popular when they were playing. The one person who impressed me the most in the book was Maureen Tucker, the drummer for the Velvet Underground. When most people are asked about the woman in the Velvet Underground they think of Nico and not Tucker who was the longest playing member of the band except for Sterling Morrison. Reed was difficult to work with and critical of others. He mocked Patti Smith’s Radio Ethiopia when it was released in 1976 with a who cares, I am radio Brooklyn. Interestingly it was Patti Smith who would later induct both The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed (posthumously) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Dirty Blvd. is a good biography of Lou Reed and those around him. I am a fan of Lou Reed and his work, but something was missing from this biography. It didn’t grab me the way I would expect it too. The writing is clear. The information is plentiful, but I felt myself trudging through it at several points. A good book but doesn’t quite live up to my expectations of a man whose death was noted even by the Vatican’s cultural minister in a Tweet. Perhaps it is more research project than a heartfelt biography. I will give Levy the benefit of the doubt and not let my personal feelings interfere with my opinion of the book.
I remember hearing "Walk on the Wildside" on AM radio as a child. I had no idea what it was about or why the colored girls were singing. "Colored" was at the time still an acceptable adjective. But I was told not to sing bits of the song. I sensed there was something my eight-year-old brain was missing, and I was right. The radio was always playing when I was growing up and rarely was it ever turned down except when Lou Reed played.
Music stays with us our whole lives and I still listen to the groups and people that made an impression on my young mind -- Lou Reed, Patti Smith, The New York Dolls, and the Ramones. Growing up in Cleveland we had a progressive radio station, WMMS that kept Clevelanders listening to the best music in the nation despite the cities many other problems. The music had a lasting impression on me.
Lou Reed is the angry, non-melodic, speeding, crass, poetic, godfather of New York punk. That line pretty much summarizes Lou Reed. He pushed limits and saved rock and roll from corporate arena rock and disco. Levy takes the reader through Reed's entire life from childhood, to the Velvet Underground, through the solo years, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Dirty Blvd is heavy on detail and periphery information. The making of all the albums are covered in detail as well as almost a blow by blow account of the making of Le Bataclan '72, by far the most interesting story in the book. I did find myself a bit overwhelmed by details rather the story after "Sally Can't Dance" but held on because I really wanted to read about my favorite album "New York."
Several interesting points and people are presented in the book. I always thought of the Velvet Underground as a New York City band, but they were a Boston band, going to where they were the most popular. Although today, we wax about The Velvet Underground and their importance, they were never that popular when they were playing. The one person who impressed me the most in the book was Maureen Tucker, the drummer for the Velvet Underground. When most people are asked about the woman in the Velvet Underground they think of Nico and not Tucker who was the longest playing member of the band except for Sterling Morrison. Reed was difficult to work with and critical of others. He mocked Patti Smith’s Radio Ethiopia when it was released in 1976 with a who cares, I am radio Brooklyn. Interestingly it was Patti Smith who would later induct both The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed (posthumously) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Dirty Blvd. is a good biography of Lou Reed and those around him. I am a fan of Lou Reed and his work, but something was missing from this biography. It didn’t grab me the way I would expect it too. The writing is clear. The information is plentiful, but I felt myself trudging through it at several points. A good book but doesn’t quite live up to my expectations of a man whose death was noted even by the Vatican’s cultural minister in a Tweet. Perhaps it is more research project than a heartfelt biography. I will give Levy the benefit of the doubt and not let my personal feelings interfere with my opinion of the book.
February 13, 2020
Before I write this I confess I wasn't a huge Lou Reed fan. Like most I thought "Walk on the Wild Side" was amusing. I thought his album "New York, New York", was excellent. It really gave a sense of the despair of living in the Big Apple at the time, plus it had lighter songs, like Beginning of a Great Adventure. I still advise new parents to listen to that song, they usually find it very amusing.
Having cleaned my palette of bias, I found the book to be the definitive study of Reed's life and career. Talk about a "long, strange trip", this starts with electroshock treatment as a teenager and winds up on the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the major rock stars of the 20th century. I don't think anybody could have predicted the last 15 years of Lou's career after the first 10. These days he would have likely overdosed and we would have missed some great lyrics.
The audio CD was 12 discs long, 15 hours. For me that was about 2 hours too long. I had little interest in Lou's revolving band members or his boorish behaviors. He had little loyalty to his band mates or his girl friends, for that matter. After a decade of abusing himself as a young man he was forced to calm down and "grow up". The author thinks he did at 41. I'm not sure if he ever did. There are a number of quotes from Reed acquaintances. I'm not sure if the author interviewed anyone or they were quotes from previously published interviews. (no footnotes on the CD version) If you're into Reed minutiae this is the book for you. He was a unique talent who existed at a time when Andy Wharol epitomized popular culture. The book is over written and the author is from the "rock god as God" school. I've found autobiographies are better, "rock gods" don't take themselves as seriously as their fans. For the casual reader I'd wait for the graphic novel
Having cleaned my palette of bias, I found the book to be the definitive study of Reed's life and career. Talk about a "long, strange trip", this starts with electroshock treatment as a teenager and winds up on the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the major rock stars of the 20th century. I don't think anybody could have predicted the last 15 years of Lou's career after the first 10. These days he would have likely overdosed and we would have missed some great lyrics.
The audio CD was 12 discs long, 15 hours. For me that was about 2 hours too long. I had little interest in Lou's revolving band members or his boorish behaviors. He had little loyalty to his band mates or his girl friends, for that matter. After a decade of abusing himself as a young man he was forced to calm down and "grow up". The author thinks he did at 41. I'm not sure if he ever did. There are a number of quotes from Reed acquaintances. I'm not sure if the author interviewed anyone or they were quotes from previously published interviews. (no footnotes on the CD version) If you're into Reed minutiae this is the book for you. He was a unique talent who existed at a time when Andy Wharol epitomized popular culture. The book is over written and the author is from the "rock god as God" school. I've found autobiographies are better, "rock gods" don't take themselves as seriously as their fans. For the casual reader I'd wait for the graphic novel
April 13, 2021
I have been interested in Lou Reed’s work for most of my life. I can’t recommend this biography, however. The author does a pretty good job with laying out the facts of Lou Reed’s life, but when he gets into describing the music, he is prone to use an obscure word when a simple one do the job. I often had to search through multiple dictionaries to find a word he had used, only to find out the word did not add any special meaning to the sentence. I’m fine with using a word when it is the best word, but the author seems to just be showing off.
The author describes a show as “a visual and sonic cornucopia, an eye-opening opiate of the masses.” If you enjoy sentences like that, by all means read this book. Me, they just get on my nerves.
Another example: “He wanted the world immediately, and it came to him in an exhilarating adrenaline rush that obliterated all past and future concerns, as those bequeathed with that certain je ne sais quois known as stage presence often only feel truly alive on stage and die a little death when reality floods back in at the end of every performance.”
I also was hoping for more insight into Lou Reed as a person. I didn’t really get it. I also was curious about his frequent use of jazz musicians when he seems to be anti-jazz in a lot of his statements.
I’m also curious about Lou Reed’s love of and roots in doo-wop music. His voice, which often seems flat and out of tune, combined with his frequent speak-singing, doesn’t seem suited to a style of music where the vocals need to blend, and which often used hackneyed imagery. I’d like to know more about what appealed to Lou Reed about doo-wop and his other influences.
I would have liked more interviews with his fellow musicians, too.
So, reader beware.
The author describes a show as “a visual and sonic cornucopia, an eye-opening opiate of the masses.” If you enjoy sentences like that, by all means read this book. Me, they just get on my nerves.
Another example: “He wanted the world immediately, and it came to him in an exhilarating adrenaline rush that obliterated all past and future concerns, as those bequeathed with that certain je ne sais quois known as stage presence often only feel truly alive on stage and die a little death when reality floods back in at the end of every performance.”
I also was hoping for more insight into Lou Reed as a person. I didn’t really get it. I also was curious about his frequent use of jazz musicians when he seems to be anti-jazz in a lot of his statements.
I’m also curious about Lou Reed’s love of and roots in doo-wop music. His voice, which often seems flat and out of tune, combined with his frequent speak-singing, doesn’t seem suited to a style of music where the vocals need to blend, and which often used hackneyed imagery. I’d like to know more about what appealed to Lou Reed about doo-wop and his other influences.
I would have liked more interviews with his fellow musicians, too.
So, reader beware.
October 7, 2017
Sometimes your heros are assholes. Being able to say that is important in an age where folks tend to treat folks they like something about as infallible messiahs.
Lou was the only person who could fit his brand of sonic assault on an album that appeared when the Turtle's 'happy together' was number one on the charts. How many songs did the Turtles write about heroin? Or the Monkeys for that matter.
Lou played the first rock show in the White House! Unless you count the time Nixon had the Carpenters over, and we don't. Kurt Vonnegut was there. So it goes.
Lou was the only person who could fit his brand of sonic assault on an album that appeared when the Turtle's 'happy together' was number one on the charts. How many songs did the Turtles write about heroin? Or the Monkeys for that matter.
Lou played the first rock show in the White House! Unless you count the time Nixon had the Carpenters over, and we don't. Kurt Vonnegut was there. So it goes.
December 14, 2017
Lou Reed would have hated this book. The biographical information was good and worthwhile. But the writing style was way over the top. The author was intent on impressing the reader with his vocabulary and clever turns of phrase. But it was out of place in a bio of Lou Reed. Once I figured out how to tune out the style and enjoy the facts it was much better.
October 27, 2021
Loved this book, Aidan Levy is a wordsmith who writes using words we all encountered while studying for GRE's or on the top tier free rice vocab charts! Only disappointment was so little about Lou's last days which were said to be mystical. I believe Laurie Anderson his widow has written about his death elsewhere.
July 15, 2024
i listened to this as an audiobook and i was doubting whether it was worth it like 20 minutes in, but kept listening and boy... so worth it. what a fun, educational ride! actually ended up loving it, although i had to roll my eyes every time the author dropped a bad pun -> "for lou, it turned out to be a perfect day ;)))" and shit like that. but i rock with him still
February 27, 2018
I couldn't finish it. I really wanted to listen to a biography of Lou, but this was written in such purple prose that my eyes got tired from rolling back in my head. I got to his teenage years and then gave up.
November 9, 2020
Tedious, too factual & drawn out . There was no feeling either negative or positive for Lou. The author gave no insights into any of his relationships. I don’t recommend this book unless yo are doing a blinkist book report. Don’t waste your money!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 9, 2021
I love Lou's music but didn't know much about him. This book really does a great job of a biography. Levy also does a good job of providing the dynamic of his relationships & friendships. It also does a good job of describing the evolution of the man.
September 3, 2017
Good biography of Lou, though often overwritten, with some interesting insight into his influences a musician and those that he influenced with his music.
January 29, 2021
Lose the often bombastic rhetoric and the laughably superfluous theory jargon, and this would have been a much better book. Also, maybe mention Iggy Pop more than two (2) times.
June 29, 2021
More like 3.5. Great details into his life and contextualization of both his solo and Velvet Underground work. But the prose was excessively flowery and hyperbolic.
January 18, 2022
Not a fan of the author's writing style.
December 12, 2022
And his life was saved by rock and roll -- so was mine!
February 20, 2023
It was nice to finally check this out. I read so many Lou Reed bios in my teens and 20s, and it was great to dip back into that world - letting these pages inform new listenings.
January 31, 2024
Not a bad biography. Seen through other people's eyes. Genius and long to be remembered.
August 7, 2024
..Rīds ir rokenrola neatņemama sastāvdaļa tāpat kā šī grāmata. tomēr varēja būt interesantāk. | 3,5 *
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