Lou Reed, the US songwriter, poet and vocalist with the Velvet Underground, had a liver transplant last month, according to his wife, the musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson. “It’s as serious as it gets. He was dying. You don’t get it for fun,” said Anderson, who added that her husband was now on the road to recovery following the life-saving surgery. Reed, 71, canceled a number of concerts in April and had surgery in Cleveland rather than in his native New York due to what Anderson described as the “dysfunctional” hospitals in his home town. …