Will McCurdy:
It’s almost impossible to understand just how forward thinking The Velvet Underground were at the time. Their eponymous debut came out in 1967, where optimism was flowing freely, and yet it was relentlessly dark. They took rock music, with its simple three chord structures, and merged it with the experimental classical music of John Cage and a newfound literary depth; delving in the previously untouched topics of BSDM and hard drug use, and propelling popular music to untold new heights. Their work moved from harsh distortion jams like “White Light/White Heat” to the strange childlike lullaby that is “I’m Sticking With You”.
But forget their incredible influence. Above all it was wonderful music; though sometimes hard to listen to, it had a soul, a beautiful honesty that I have yet to find elsewhere. “Pale Blue Eyes”, with its droning guitar riff and Lou Reed’s voice, which seems almost struggling to reach the notes, singing his simple yet profound lyrics, manages to capture human emotion in a way I had never encountered before or seen since. Lou Reed may not have sold the most records, or made the most money out of any of the 20th century musicians, but I have no doubt – he was one of the best.
Helena Horton
The Velvet Underground is/was probably my all time favourite band, and I’m not doing that thing where you just say that because the lead singer has died. “Pale Blue Eyes” is the only song I have ever been able to put on repeat when I was really, really upset and actually feel better about it. My overriding memory when I listen to it is being in my best friend’s smokey room with her and her cat, lying on her bed with the sun streaming through the window and this track leaking from the record player. I also sing “After Hours” to my friends when they are drunk and sad and won’t stop crying and it usually helps sooth them! Their eponymous album is what I put on whenever I don’t know what to listen to and need cheering up/something to get me through the day. I’m truly sad that Lou has passed away.
Antonio Pinheiro
Today, one of popular music’s most important figureheads has passed away. However, the sting may be felt most by the underground community and the noise freaks which have embodied Lou Reed’s musical soul through continuing to break the boundaries of guitar music. The Beatles and The Beach boys may have been the originators (certainly the most popular ones) of compositional and textural complexity in rock, but along with Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and his band were arguably the first to bring contemporary art influences to the genre. From Sacher-Masoch references to Burroughs-like druggy grit, The Velvet Underground pioneered art rock and will continue to cast a hazy shadow over the scene and its offshoots for decades to come.
But for me, his most important contribution to musical culture is what he did for noise music. The influence of The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed on noise music should be and is regarded as an absolute truth. From Glenn Branca to Sonic Youth to Sightings and beyond, it’s impossible to listen to a noise guitar freak-out without hearing traces of Sister Ray or perhaps the genres most infamous piece, Lou Reed’s highly controversial and anti-commercial 1975 album Metal Machine Music. With Metal Machine Music, Lou Reed took noise music to its logical conclusion and still to this day, few albums have managed to match its full-on sonic assault. With this music, Lou Reed managed to capture absolute nihilistic dread in audio form. It may not sound appealing to many, but for those that it does, it is more uplifting than any music that is designed for this function. For all this noise though, now that he’s gone, it will be in his silence that us freaks will have to dare try and live up to his name.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Vy4VRRO30
Martin Waugh
Flattery doesn’t really surpass being named as an inspiration by Bowie. But its not surprising that Bowie considers Reed so highly; two of the century’s defining albums were written by the former Velvet Underground frontman. The famous ‘banana’ album is a tour of New York’s most experimental and creative circles. Hearing ‘Heroin’ for the first time I imagined how challenging the song was on its release – it being the first song openly about drugs. Indeed it is still one of the most powerful songs I’ve heard. With an average solo debut behind him, Reed paired up with Bowie to produce a second effort, Transformer. In variety alone, the album’s songs are pioneering: it opens with the brilliantly comic ‘Vicious’, which was written after Warhol asked Reed to write a vicious song, “You know, vicious, like I hit you with a flower.” For me, ‘Walk On The Wildside’ is undoubtedly the album’s highlight. The iconic bassline sets a calm rhythm of some of Reed’s most creative and provocative lyrics. In a year where we’ve seen comebacks from some of Reed’s friends and colleagues, his death marks an especially sad day for music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffr0opfm6I4
Milo Boyd
As a 21 year old, I well realise I am not in the best position to write a eulogy for Lou Reed; I was born after his prime, can’t fully comprehend the risk associated with placing a 10 inch banana down a pair of leather trousers and live in a world in which Walk on the Wild Side can’t be played on the radio. And yet I’m going to. Because I think he was incredible.
Writing in an era in which sexual provocation could genuinely be counted as art, Lou Reed preempted Prince and treated the world to a scrubbed down eyeful of heroin chic male virility. For those who failed to see Reed as anything beyond a less commercially successfully Bowie riding off of Transformer, one need only point to Metal Machine Music; a double album of electronically generated audio feedback that was returned to stores in the thousands. In short, Loud Reed was a man who didn’t give a fuck. But unlike other men who don’t give a fuck, he had the creative genius and soft musical touch to set himself out as a genuine musical and social trailblazer.
I only got to see Lou Reed once. He hobbled on to join the Gorillaz on stage, declined to look at the audience and belted out ‘Some Kind Of Nature.’ His vocal chords may have been ripped to shreds, his face creased and his shellsuit a little bin bag like, but it didn’t matter. He was much too good for any of it to really matter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvjjc18nB14