Lou Reed: Growing Up in Public

by Peter Doggett

Ever since forming the Velvet Underground in 1965, Lou Reed has been acclaimed as the poet of the New York streets, creating a body of work that comes closer to great literature than conventional rock and roll.

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Nonfiction

182 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Peter Doggett has been writing about popular music, the entertainment industry and social and cultural history since 1980. A regular contributor to Mojo, Q and GQ, his books include The Art and Music of John Lennon, a volume detailing the creation of the Beatles’ Let It Be and Abbey Road albums; the pioneering study of the collision between rock and country music, Are You Ready for the Country? and, most recently, There’s a Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars and the Rise and Fall of 60s Counter-culture.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm only giving this 3 stars because it was so sad. Lou just didn't have a happy life. I couldn't believe that his parents zapped his brain just because he was gay in the '50s. Wow, shocking and depressing. He also gives the best description I've ever heard of the effects of electroshock therapy. Shudder. I guess it explains some of his lyrics.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw a docu. on the Velvet Underground who i'd have always heard about but didn't follow closely. and i didn't realize what a great song Heroin was and i was interested in lou reed more of a poet/song writer than a poet. but he's such an enigma with so many contradictions, gay/straight, drug addict/tai-chi practictionar, shoots hoops, Lou Reed is has as many persona's as his music. The author tries to describe the albums in chronological order but there's just too many of them and he's tries to describe each track and its hard to describe music. imagine if someone wrote about a chef and tried to describe the taste of every dish. But maybe its not the authors fault the task is so overwhelming. I have to say it was a good period piece, with warhol and the paint factory, David Bowie, punk etc. i'd like to get ahold of a book of reeds poems.
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[Jn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The "Hammer of the Gods" for Lou Reed.
One quote from Lou: "I've had more of a chance to make an asshole out of myself than most people, and I realise that. But then not everybody gets a chance to live out their nightmares for the vicarious pleasures of the public." -Lou Reed, 1979

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A commendable bio. Offers some different perspectives and approached to Reed's life than Bockris's Transformer. I like both biographies very much.

The title, Growing Up in Public, underscores the sympathetic generosity in Doggett's approach, which also doesn't eschew critical rigor. His assessment of Reed's life and career through the 1980s is particularly useful, putting the often lackluster albums and his sellout careerism into a context of rehabilitation from the chaotic 70s, where he tries to stabilize, mature, and also apologize for earlier misbehavior. Doggett's assessment makes charitable sense. But Reed's artistic stumbling also makes cultural, historical sense, as many of the 60s & 70s vets didn't manage the 80s too well.

Furthermore, it's nice to read a bio that doesn't ride the cliched train to thought that Reed was little more than a huge asshole moving from one sensational rock soap opera drama tale to another. Reed was absolutely an asshole. But that's but one part of the story, and unfortunately the long trend of rock histories relying on juicy drama tales helps us just swallow this narrow view without question. Doggett shows that there's more to it than that.

Certainly there's plenty of material fans might wish were in here, and other bios certainly are longer, offering some valuable details. I do, however, think this remains an important entry in writings on Reed. Doggett's perspective is a good one, and it would be a huge mistake to dismiss it as but an old, outdated take on a rock legend. To this day, portions of this bio still sound fresh, vibrant, and perceptive. I dig it.