Lou Reed, Velvet Underground Leader and Rock Pioneer, Dead at 71

Rolling Stone ^ | 10/27/13 | Jon Dolan

[BunnySlippers]

Lou Reed, a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, died today. The cause of his death has not yet been released, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May.

[Puppage]

RIP

[BunnySlippers]

Noy my favorite rendition, but ...

walk on the Wild Side

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KaWSOlASWc

[flaglady47]

Good singer, great songs, lousy leftist, commie, pinko politics-wise.

[bigbob]

RIP on the wild side

[isthisnickcool]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS7QnF6ieKY

[Zeneta]

I love this song.

Perfect Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYEC4TZsy-Y

[Slump Tester]

"massively influential"?

I don't think so. He always influenced me to listen to something else.

[discostu]

A very very sad day for those of us into depressing music. Ironically this has been a great year for us with lots of amazing non-cheerful music coming out.

[onedoug]

A total bum.

I stood in line once for about an hour to get his autograph and for him to just mention a few words for my teenage daughter for whom I was getting the book as a gift. He blew me off and just signed his name. The line was only about twenty deep. When I told my daughter, she blew him off too.

RIP I suppose.

[festusbanjo]

Looked like a corpse for the last 10 years anyway.

[FlyingEagle]

Standing on the corner

Suitcase in my hand

[BunnySlippers]

Yeah, as so many “artists” are. Great musician.

[dfwgator]

If he winds up in Hell, it means he’s going to wind up listening to “Machine Metal Music” for all of eternity.

[Joe 6-pack]

I was talking to somebody just the other day about 80's music. Reed's, "New York," was for me, one of the defining albums of that decade. Yes, he was a rabid leftist, but one hell of a musician.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_8-Fm1vfw0

[Zeneta]

I’ll drink to that.

[Skooz]

Dang. This is a shock.

Big Lou fan.

RIP.

[Terry L Smith]

He shall be missed by his fans, and his detractors, both, for reasons known unto them, only.

His music was something different to hear, in my during-and-post-Vietnam years. Avant-garde folks are always seen as ‘a little strange’, but he and the others have become part of our national musical identity, whether we, ourselves, think they deserved it, or not.

[jimbo123]

The ObamaCare Death Panels in New York wouldn’t give him a liver transplant so he got it done in Ohio instead. Typical liberal hypocrisy. Death Panels for thee but not for me.

[discostu]

And if he winds up in Heaven it’ll be Berlin, which is kind of funny when you remember the engineer thought the album was too depressing to unleash on the world and stole the masters.