Notes from the Velvet Underground: The Life of Lou Reed

This book is both outstanding and not enough, what do I mean by that? This book will introduce you to almost all aspects of the life of Lou Reed as a man. Whom he loved, the way he was, the drugs he took. It will provide you with a great understanding of what happened where to whom and more or less why. So if you are curious to learn more about the man, this is a great book which is engaging and witty. However, it lacks any serious discussion of the music of Lou Reed. So it's a little like reading a biography of Lucian Frieud which almost doesn't deal with his paintings. I don't know why that is but this should not be a reason not to buy and read the book. If you love the music, you already know why you love the music. This is just to know the man who made it.

Howard Sounes' Notes from the Velvet Underground is a harrowing and disarmingly honest journey through Lou Reed's troubled life. Let's be honest, for the most part Lou isn't terribly likable, regardless of his talent. Lou's better side only reveals itself in several relationships - his sister, VU drummer Mo Tucker and his true soul mate, Laurie Anderson. This book uncovers different versions of Lou legends (for example, according to his sister, Lou's father was not the bad guy when it came to Lou being forced into electro-shock therapy, that was due to the insistence of a psychiatrist). Much of Lou's solo career was turmoil and he was broke for a lot of it, only making a decent amount of cash in later years. Remember, Lou wrote many great songs but really only had one hit single, Walk on the Wild Side, and the album it came from, glam classic Transformer, sold well. He never really gave due credit to any of his collaborators, not David Bowie, Andy Warhol, John Cale or a string of backing musicians. Despite all this, Lou emerges as an original artist with a unique vision - very few musicians create their own genre and influence generations of other writers and players the way Lou and VU have. Even if you're a major fan you won't necessarily like him, but you will respect him.

Lou Reed did a lot to help us win the Great Cold War. Wish he were here to win Cold War II.

A painfully raw biography of a complicated man. If you want to see Lou Reed's festered scars and all, this is the book.

Solid.Entertaining.Kept a good pace and didn't go too deep into any one period of Lou's career.

This could have been a superb biography of Reed. Access to friends and enemies, lots of great quotes, brilliant material. But overall, disappointing. The writing was a little clunky, but the main objection I had was Sounes' overtly judgemental voice. I came away from this book thinking: "you really didn't like him". I would expect some opinion, of course, but a more objective view from a biographer. Let the interviews speak for themselves. Use the material to portray a complex and, yes, difficult and sometimes (arguably) nasty person, whose creativity, talent and output made him more than a bad-tempered speed freak from Long Island. This could have been a thoughtful exploration of the creative demons, but it fell short. And the superficial dismissal of Laurie Anderson as the girlfriend, then wife? An unfair portrayal of an important artist in her own right.