The Monday Mix - Remembering The Late Lou Reed (March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013)

One of rock's most beloved and contrarian figures has died.  Lou Reed epitomized New York City's artistic underbelly in the 1970s.  He was 71.

His exact cause of death was not immediately revealed, but according to an Associated Press article, the cause of death was said to be a liver-related ailment.  Reed had undergone a liver transplant earlier this year, his wife, musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson, disclosed over the summer.

Reed was a rock pioneer who went from record label songwriter to a member of the short-lived but innovative and influential Velvet Underground.  Formed by Reed and classically trained Welsh-born musician John Cale in the mid-1960s as an experiment in avant-garde rock, The Velvet Underground gained Andy Warhol's notice soon after hitting the New York club scene.

Andy Warhol said to Lou Reed that they did the same thing with the music as he did with his work.

According to Lou Reed:


According to Andy Warhol:


While the band never achieved great commercial success, it revolutionized rock in the 1960s and '70s with a mixture of thrashing guitar licks and smooth melodies sung by Reed or the German model Nico.

The Velvet Underground has long been recognized as a major musical inspiration for punk art and rock, as reflected in a quote often attributed to musician Brian Eno: "The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."

Reed's songs as a guitarist for The Velvet Underground and later during his solo career blended art and noise in deceptively simple combinations, with his New York-inflected voice telling stories of street deals and odd characters.

"One chord is fine," he said of his approach to the guitar, in Rolling Stone's obituary. "Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."

"Lou Reed's influence is one that there are really only a tiny handful of other figures who you can compare to him," said Simon Vozick-Levinson, a senior editor at Rolling Stone.

"He spoke incredibly frankly about the realities of being an artist, being a person who lived life on one's own terms. He didn't prettify things. He didn't sugarcoat things. He showed life as it really is and that's something that made him a true original, and one of our great all-time artists," he said.

Rolling Stone ranks the group's debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, as the 13th greatest of all time. Songs like Sweet Jane, from the group's 1970 album Loaded, have become rock standards.


[Lou Reed performing with Nico]

Performers from David Bowie to R.E.M. and U2 have cited them as inspiration.

"The world has lost a fine songwriter and poet. I've lost my 'school-yard buddy,' " Cale wrote on Twitter.

Musician Iggy Pop's official Twitter account called news of Reed's death "devastating," while musician Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth tweeted: "So sorry to hear of Lou Reed's passing this is a huge shock!"

Reed has been widely credited with expanding the lexicon of rock 'n' roll with provocative and decadent lyrics that chronicled subjects like androgyny, illicit sex, and drug abuse.

Walk on the Wild Side, from his second solo album, Transformer, co-produced by Bowie, became Reed's only top-20 hit single, though it contained lyrical references to transexuality, drugs and male prostitution.

Sister Ray - a 17-minute blast of guitar distortions - likewise combined stories of sailors, oral sex, murder, intravenous drug use and, at the time in music, taboo subjects such as homosexuality and transvestism in regards to the mysterious title character.

"I never in a million years thought people would be outraged by what I was doing," Reed said in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. "You could go to your neighborhood bookstore and get any of that."

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of The Velvet Underground, Reed grew into something of an elder statesman of rock, a towering figure in a club with fellow legends such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young.

His death was announced by his publicist late Sunday afternoon.

[Quote Sources - NPR, Reuters, Rolling Stone Magazine]

THIS WEEK'S TOP FIVE LIST

Top five Lou Reed songs:

5. Coney Island Baby -- Lyrically, Reed really puts himself out there on Coney Island Baby, probably the most tender and emotionally revelatory ballad he's ever recorded. A bonus track version of the song featured on the album's 30th anniversary deluxe edition reissue was recorded with Doug Yule, who joined the Velvets in 1968 following the departure of founding member John Cale.

4. Dirty Blvd. -- A No. 1 hit on the newly created Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for four weeks when it dropped, many consider the album New York a masterful return to the three-chord simplicity of the Velvets, and Dirty Blvd. the album's most dazzling pop nugget one of the best Lou Reed songs ever. It was also one of four songs Reed performed with David Bowie during the latter's 50th birthday bash in 1997.

3. Satellite Of Love -- The second single from Transformer, Satellite of Love is another solo Reed song that he originally played with the Velvet Underground. He even originally recorded for the band's Loaded album, although it never made it on that disc and didn't surface as a VU track until the 1995 exhaustive box set, Peel Slowly and See. David Bowie , who produced Transformer, also sings some soaring backing vocals on this track.

2. Sweet Jane -- Originally a Velvet Underground tune, Reed reworks Sweet Jane on his live album, adding a noodling, Grateful Dead-like intro jam that runs three minutes before kicking into those familiar three chords. Sure, maybe it's cheating to put a Velvets song on this list, but the line between the band and his solo work is so blurred that it actually makes sense. In the end, it's really not cheating at all.

1. Walk On The Wild Side -- Really, is there any other way to walk when you’re strolling with Lou Reed? Walk On The Wild Side documents the seedy underbelly of New York life in the '70s, touching on taboo subjects like transexuality, narcotics, male hookers and oral sex. Not exactly mainstream subjects here, but somehow this tune still managed to hustle its way onto the Top 20 and became the definitive solo Reed cut in the process. Doo do doo, doo do doo, doo do doo...

THIS WEEK'S FACEBOOK FRIENDS


[Black Actress]

Black Actress.

Think Motorhead meets the Dead Boys.

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The Heroes and Pirates of the music history we all know and love shine in this Chicago explosive.

Influences: MC5, Motorhead, Guns 'n Roses, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Electric Frankenstein, Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Lou Reed with Metallica at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame 25th Anniversary



ABOUT THE MONDAY MIX

The Monday Mix airs from Noon to 5:30PM CDT each Monday and is designed to help you get through that brutal after-lunch, energy-sucking span that kicks off every work week. This particular show will be a mix of old, deep album cuts and new indie music with a lot of genre crossover. No Adele. Sorry.

What else does The Monday Mix do? Well, it helps you discover new indie music by combining some really great under the radar tracks with more established songs that were, once in fact, under the radar as well. The hope here is that the culture shock of discovering your next favorite band won't be so enormously imposing if we surround the new stuff with some of your old, familiar friends.

Jivewired supports independent musicians by paying royalties for airplay on Jivewired Radio. Please help us support indie artists by listening to our station and by purchasing indie music. Thank you. The links on the radio player will give you download options if you really dig on the music and some of the songs are offered for free.

To listen, just press play on the radio widget to the right or use this link to open in a new window that will allow you to listen when you navigate away from this page:

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MONDAY MIX PLAYLIST FOR 28 OCTOBER 2013

1. I'd Rather Die by Fiawna Forte
2. Them Tulsa Boys by The Paul Benjaman Band
3. I Love You Suzanne by Lou Reed
4. Strange Transmissions by Norah Jones & Peter Malick
5. Remember Last Time by Avi Buffalo
6. Lost In The Light by Bahamas
7. Autumn Sweater by Yo La Tengo
8. Drugstore by The Can't Tells
9. The Funeral by Band Of Horses
10. Sweet Jane by The Velvet Underground
11. Between You & Me by Cary Morin
12. Satellite Of Love by Lou Reed
13. Barstool Boys by Marah
14. I'm Writing A Novel by Father John Misty
15. Old Man by Neil Young
16. This Is Life by Two Door Cinema Club
17. Midnight City by M83
18. Lou Reed by The Little Willies
19. Only For You by The Heartless Bastards
20. Uh Oh! by Super Water Sympathy
21. Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley
22. Fear & Fallacy, Sitting In A Tree by The Quiet Company
23. The Edge Of The Western World by Great Apes
24. Sun by Two Door Cinema Club
25. One Of These Things First by Nick Drake
26. Does She Know Yet? by Tae Phoenix
27. The Pursuit Of Happiness by Ben Sollee
28. Anchor Drops by Umphrey's McGee
29. In The Dark by The Iveys
30. These Sore Eyes by Gold Motel
31. Same Old Ground by He's My Brother, She's My Sister
32. Sweet Jane by The Cowboy Junkies
33. Drunk On The Moon by Tom Waits
34. Palisade by Parker Millsap
35. Laundry Room by The Avett Brothers
36. Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed
37. Big Love by Matthew E. White
38. Wrapped Around Her Finger by Mikey Ohlin
39. Evil Girls by Escondido
40. Kandi by One Eskim0
41. Devil by Well Hung Heart
42. Ramblin' On My Mind by Left Lane Cruiser & James Leg
43. What Do I Get? by The Buzzcocks
44. Float On by Jennie Arnau
45. Dark Horse by Laura Marie
46. Ain't No Stranger by Lee Bains III & Glory Fires
47. Not Quite Right by Lovebettie
48. She Will by Savages
49. March Of Fools by Gram Rabbit
50. Come Visit Me by The Rosebuds
51. Devil Moon by Bobby Long
52. You Took It All by Sassparilla
53. Compromised Intentions by Massy Ferguson
54. Sunday by Jet West
55. The Paper Trench by Admiral Fallow
56. Lost In My Mind by The Head & The Heart
57. The High Road by Broken Bells
58. Sure Thing by St. Germain
59. Be Your Own Machine by The Bourgeois
60. Whirring by The Joy Formidable
61. Wakin' On A Pretty Day by Kurt Vile
62. Stompkick Blues by John Calvin
63. North Side Gal by JD McPherson
64. Easy People by Pilgrim
65. Butternut by Hugh Bob & The Hustle
66. Tree By The River by Iron & Wine
67. Dirty Blvd. by Lou Reed
68. Heartbreaker by Girls
69. Broke Down In Bellevue by Andy Palmer
70. Protection by Massive Attack
71. Kids by MGMT
72. Headlines by Shannon Labrie
73. The Fool I've Been by Whitney Mann
74. Say (Acoustic) by Kayla Yvonne
75. Oh! Sweet Nuthin' by The Velvet Underground
76. Entertain Me by Bear Ceuse
77. Meet Me Where The Crow Don't Fly by Water Tower Bucket Boys
78. Mess Like You by VK Lynne