Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (3)

Trade Mark (5)

Unabashed New Yorker's viewpoint



Sunglasses



Relatively simple song composition and production.



Dead pan vocal delivery.



Dark songs about drugs, depression, and abuse.



Trivia (14)

"Sweet Jane," "Rock and Roll," "Femme Fatale," "Walk on the Wild Side," and "Satellite of Love" are among his best-known songs.



Spent some weeks in a mental hospital in his teens, at his parents' insistence; his treatment included electroshock therapy and medication. Reed reflected on the experience later in songs, "Kill Your Sons" being one of them.





His guitar in the early days of The Velvet Underground included a built-in electronic tremolo. Reed sometimes turned this up, and tuned all the strings to D; the resulting sound he called Ostrich guitar.

Produced the album Metal Machine Music in response to RCA Records' demands for a quick follow-up to his top-ten LP Sally Can't Dance. The hour-plus of electronic noise was almost buried as a classical release, but instead was promoted as a pop album. The resulting backlash nearly ruined the label and Reed's reputation; both later issued apologies, while the album remains a musical enigma.





Lived with Laurie Anderson beginning in 1995 prior to their marriage in 2008.



He was with the group The Velvet Underground until 1970; returned when they reformed in the 1990s.

Attended Syracuse University.





In 1958 a 14 year-old Reed was part of a doo-wop band called The Shades and recorded a single, "So Blue" b/w "Leave Her For Me". Alan Freed played the single on his show; Reed commented later "I got royalties of 78 cents.".



Winner of the 2005 Ivor Novello Special International Award.

Resides in New York City.



In early May 2013, Reed underwent liver transplant surgery.



When he was age 11 his family moved to Freeport, NY.



On November 22, 1974, Reed was performing the song "Heroin" at Winterland. In the middle of the song, Reed took out a hypodermic needle, a spoon, match, rubber hose, and injected something into his arm, although it is unknown as to whether or not it was heroin.



Personal Quotes (12)

You can't beat two guitars, bass, and drums.





We had vast objections to the whole San Francisco scene. It's just tedious, a lie and untalented. They can't play and they certainly can't write . . . You know, people like Jefferson Airplane Grateful Dead are just the most untalented bores that ever came up. Just look at them physically, I mean, can you take Grace Slick seriously? It's a joke! It's a joke! The kids are being hyped.



[on colleague John Cale ] I only hope that one day John will be recognized as . . . the Beethoven or something of his day. He knows so much about music, he's such a great musician. He's completely mad--but that's because he's Welsh.

Meditation doesn't have to be complicated. What I do is about as simple as you can get. You could just count the beads, one, two, three, with your eyes closed or open, whatever makes you happy. And no matter what happens, keep counting. I personally like it when I can feel that I'm actually moving the beads when I'm counting. And once you make it to a minute, see if you can do a minute-and-a-half. Eventually you can do it without the beads.



[2007, on the release of his album "Hudson River Wind Meditations"] It's geared up to help to you to focus. I call it centering. I use the music all the time. I leave it on all day because living in the city it has an intriguing ability to absorb the outside sound and kind of weave that into itself somehow. So a car horn or a fire engine--all this background noise - just somehow filters into it in a nice way. I'm not sure that I know why, but I know that it does that.



If I don't do [t'ai chi] my body really hurts. It just starts aching and hurting. It's terrible. To me it's candy. It's my idea of fun. But it requires the tenacity of a lion. Otherwise it shows and you're in class and you're the one going in the wrong direction. But if you tag into it, it's beyond belief. It makes me feel great in every way. It gives you tons of energy. It makes you very strong, very balanced and very focused. It's good for everything.



People think that I work out but it's all t'ai chi.



The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music?



One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.



I didn't get in it for the money, and I'm the same way now. I do it for me. Because I like doing it.



[April 1977, in "Melody Maker"] It's been a long time since I spoke to any journalists. They are a species of foul vermin. I wouldn't hire people like you to guard my sewer. Journalists are morons. Idiots. I don't perform to idiots. Journalists are ignorant and stupid.



I think everybody has a number of personalities, just in themselves. It's not just people having different personalities. I mean you wake up in the morning and say, 'Wonder which one of them is around today?' You find out which one and send him out. Fifteen minutes later someone else shows up. That's why if there's no one left to talk to you can listen to a couple of them talking in your head.

