Lou Reed On How To Be As Creative, Dynamic, And Difficult As Lou Reed

In the late 1960's––at the peak of our hottest hippie moment––a leather–clad Lou Reed and his Velvet Underground band mates pounded out songs about heroin and sadomasochism that ranged from ear–splitting sonic distortions to strangely beautiful ballads. Producer and musician Brian Eno famously said that despite the meager initial sales of the first Velvet Underground record, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!" Reed, both with the Velvet Underground and in his career as a solo artist waged a war on the conventions of the music he loved, rock n' roll––paving the way for glam rock, punk rock, and noise bands.

All I did was sit there and observe these incredibly talented and creative people who were continually making art and it was impossible not to be affected by that.

Like many performers Reed was circumspect about the materials and methods of his art. But actually, in Reed's case that would be a gross understatement. Reed notoriously made a game of verbally assassinating reporters who dared to ask him questions. His weapons were the death stare, the non–answer, the lethal insult, and the mid–question walk–off. Yet, if you comb through Reed's four–plus decades of interviews you may uncover some revelatory gems on being the artist Lou Reed, on fearless creativity, and on not giving a... fig.

Keep it simple.

For all of Reed's literary aspirations and sonic experimenting, he thought of his art in very simple terms. "The Velvet songs were all two, three chords songs," he once said. "My albums are all two, three chord songs. It's all right there. Maybe that's why people like it, because it's so simple."