Lou Reed
USA, 1965–2013
American singer and songwriter (1942-2013). After the Velvet Underground his solo records ran from the glam of Transformer to the bleak Berlin and the feedback album Metal Machine Music.
MusicRoots documents 2 artists who influenced Lou Reed and 4 artists Lou Reed influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Lou Reed?
- Ornette Coleman — Reed said he wanted to play guitar the way Ornette played saxophone — free jazz was the documented licence behind the Velvet-era noise.
- Bob Dylan — Dylan's proof that rock lyrics could be literature was the precondition Reed acknowledged for his own street-level writing.
Which artists did Lou Reed influence?
- U2 — Lou Reed's Velvet Underground lineage sits among U2's documented influences — the New York art-rock seriousness beneath the anthems.
- Simple Minds — 'And of course, Lou Reed' — Kerr placed the Velvet Underground frontman among the four acts Simple Minds grew from.
- A Tribe Called Quest — Tribe's jazz-rap crate-digging reached into rock too — their hit 'Can I Kick It?' is built on a sample of Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side'.
- David Bowie — Bowie named Reed personally and not only the band; he performed 'I'm Waiting for the Man' from his earliest days and later produced Transformer.