Lou Reed

Lou Reed stands with a body of work which places him at a level of rock and roll artistry where few others dwell and most fear to tread. From his very first album The Velvet Underground and Nico, his influence has been profound, of not scary. And although that landmark album met with nominal commercial success, it has sold many musicians on the possibilities suddenly available to creative imaginations. Over the years, Lou Reed has been recognized as a primal and constant force in a field where "geniuses" come and go like so many fashion plates.

His works about madness and hope, desire and treachery, reflections and addiction, are peopled by crackheads and intellectuals, angels and whores, prisoners and enforcers, wild children and diminished wolverine parents, the lost and the found in the arms of a voracious hunger disguises as life. These individuals are also confused by their own duality: accounts of memories, nightmares, visions, shadows, cartoons and mysteries all entwined in Lou Reed's love for rock & roll and its unlimited potential for salvation. He presents jokes like assassinations, love letters like injections and rooms with a point of view encompassing the bleakest dead ends and the highest skies. For over thirty years Lou Reed has written the American history on record.