Music Monday - Lou Reed

Today's Music Monday pays a saddening tribute to a figurehead and powerful influence in rock music within the last fifty years, Lou Reed.

Passing away on Long Island at age 71, Reed had recently had underwent a liver transplant and had been dealing a mix of other health problems, and was taken back to hospital during the month of July. A singer songwriter known for his brutally honest take to rock and roll lyricism, Lou Reed had the perfect balance of hard noise and the beauty of a simple, well rounded track.

The Velvet Underground achieved a significant rise in fame during the 60's, but their influence on music was received much later becoming far more widely recognised. Reed was not one to adapt to the elements of European avant-garde music, providing the public with his own hard hitting styles. Famously quoted Brian Eno was able to sum up the Velvet Underground with:
"The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."

Working on multiple solo projects after the Velvet Underground in the 70's, Reed has enjoyed success with through working with Danny Boyle and Tarantino on movie soundtracks, performed in front of Pope John Paul II and an array of Solo projects. In total as a solo artist Lou Reed has released 20 studio albums with his last 'Hudson River Wind Meditations' in 2007.

Both Fact magazine and Rolling Stone have payed homage to the man himself with '20 Essential Lou Reed Tracks' available to look at on Rolling Stone Here, and a remembrance of Lou Reed through 1942-2013 on Fact Mag Here.