Much like all key figures of a particular genre, Lou Reed was a genre in himself. A rather complex person, with an oversized ego, but of undeniable genius… First there was the Velvet Underground, which became more influent in the last twenty years than in its time, at the end of the 60s. The first album with the banana designed by Andy Warhol, now considered as one of the greatest albums of all times, only sold a handful of copies upon release in 1967… And then a solo career, which although uneven, produced some of the most beautiful songs of the 20th-century popular music. Lou Reed was a voice. With an almost spoken way of singing. Unmistakably recognisable from the very first syllable. A basic, refined and simple approach to rock ’n’ roll, without mannered arrangements or unnecessarily sophisticated instrumentals. A songwriter above all else. While flowers and hippy positivity took front stage throughout the 70s, alcoholic, drug-addicted and bisexual Lou preferred to howl about daily life in his city, New York, its filthy pavements, second-class hookers, terminal junkies, obscure artists ? in short, about all the worms crawling through the Big Apple. Some will proclaim this urban poet as the godfather of the punk movement, a link he of course never ceased to scorn…
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