Poor Lou Reed. He didn't really want to be all glam, like his buddies David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Lou wanted to be a rocker, leather jacket, no make up, just playing his music. And listening to his iconic album, Transformer, it's almost hard to imagine how this could have looked any different.
But that was the charm with glam rock. Musically, it sounded like regular hard rock (like Kiss), pop (like Bowie), or folk inspired singer/songerwriter with a mix of electric, like Lou Reed.
He got known through his band, The Velvet Underground, and made a few records in the late 60s, but it was as a solo artist he definitely started producing. Dozens of albums throughout the seventies and eighties. One of rock's true greats. I'm not sad, because many of his contemporaries didn't last this long. Lou had a prolific and healthy career, even though he wasn't always healthy himself. But it makes me a bit melancholic, thinking that many of my favorite artists are closing in on the last leg of their tour...
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