8 songs to remember Lou Reed by
Reed died on Sunday, but his music was always the thing he left behind
Lou Reed died on Sunday at age 71 at his home on New York's Long Island. Liver disease was the listed cause of death. There are lots of great obituaries and remembrances of Reed, whose songwriting and singing with the Velvet Underground spawned a long, influential solo career that often focused on the darker, grittier side of humanity.
But Joshua Holland, a digital producer at Bill Moyers's website, is probably right:
That certainly doesn't mean you should avoid the obits of Reed. But here is a bare-bones, wildly incomplete retrospective of Reed's music, the legacy he probably wanted to leave the world:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Caroline Says II"
From Berlin (1973)
"She's not afraid to die"
"Heroin"
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
From The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
One of the enduring classics from the debut of Reed's early band. An ambitious, ambivalent song about the addictive opiate.
"Sweet Jane"
From the Velvet Underground's Loaded (1970)
One of the VU's bigger hits, and Reed's. "Oh, all the poets they studied rules of verse. And those ladies, they rolled their eyes."
"Take a Walk on the Wild Side"
From Transformer (1972)
Probably Reed's best-known song, about transvestites and prostitution and the city he loved. Transformer, Reed's sophomore solo album, was produced by David Bowie.
"Perfect Day"
From Transformer (1972)
The B-side to "Walk on the Wild Side," "Perfect Day" gained new fame on the soundtrack of the 1996 movie Trainspotting.
"Street Hassle"
From Street Hassle (1978)
This song comes in three acts — "Waltzing Mathilda," "Street Hassle," and "Slip Away" — and includes spoken-word musings from Bruce Springsteen... and some pretty NSFW lyrics.
"The Ostrich"
Single, for Pickwick Records (1964)
Reed was an in-house songwriter for Pickwick when he penned and recorded this absurdist take on dance-craze songs, with an ad hoc group called the Primitives, with future Velvet Underground partner John Cale.
"Halloween Parade"
From New York (1989)
"Since it would be too hard to be comprehensive and to try to do justice to the man's entire career, I've decided to limit myself to just one song," says Kathleen Geier at Washington Monthly. "Halloween Parade” is "not Lou's best song, but it's a perfectly good one, from one of his better solo albums."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.