Lou Reed died Sunday on Long Island at the age of 71, reports Rolling Stone.
The cause of his death has not yet been released, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May.
Born in Brooklyn in 1942, Reed began his music career as a songwriter for Pickwick Records, and it was there that he met John Cale. The pair played together in The Primitives, then The Warlocks, before forming The Velvet Underground in 1964.
With the Velvet Underground in the late Sixties, Reed fused street-level urgency with elements of European avant-garde music, marrying beauty and noise, while bringing a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry.
As a restlessly inventive solo artist, from the Seventies into the 2010s, he was chameleonic, thorny and unpredictable, challenging his fans at every turn. Glam, punk and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his revelatory example. "One chord is fine," he once said, alluding to his bare-bones guitar style. "Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."
Reed’s mainstream rock success included 1970’s “Sweet Jane” and “Rock & Roll”, 1972’s “Walk On The Wild Side”, “I Love You Suzanne” (1984) and 1989’s “Dirty Blvd.”
Reed infamously teamed up with Metallica for 2011’s “Lulu”, a project based on songs for a theatrical production of Frank Wedekind’s classic femme fatale plays.
See also:
Lou Reed & Metallica: Lulu is for literate people, says Reed
VIDEO: Lou Reed & Metallica – The View
VIDEO: Lou Reed & Metallica perform on French TV
VIDEO: Lou Reed & Metallica perform on Italian TV
VIDEO: Lou Reed & Metallica on Jools Holland pt. 2
VIDEO: Watch full Lou Reed & Metallica 1Live webcast
VIDEO: Lou Reed & Metallica perform on Later with Jools Holland
Lou Reed & Metallica announce live radio broadcast/webcast
Lou Reed: Metallica fans are threatening to shoot me
Lou Reed & Metallica, Megadeth lead this week’s new releases
VIDEO: Lou Reed & Metallica interviewed on Norwegian TV
VIDEO: Lou Reed and Metallica press kit for Lulu
Danko Jones slams Lou Reed & Metallica project
Lou Reed & Metallica streaming full Lulu album
AUDIO: Lou Reed Metallica album preview available
VIDEO: Lou Reed & Metallica talk about Lulu
VIDEO: Lou Reed and Metallica - Lulu promo
Enter the Lou Reed & Metallica NYC listening party contest
AUDIO: Lou Reed and Metallica - without Lou Reed
VIDEO: Lou Reed and Metallica press kit
