Victor Bockris - Transformer - The Complete Lou Reed Story

Harper

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First published in Great Britain by Hutchinson 1994

This edition Harper 2014

© Victor Bockris 1994, 2014

A catalogue record of this book is

available from the British Library

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2014

Cover photograph © Simone Cecchetti/Corbis

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Source ISBN: 9780007581894

Ebook Edition © October 2014 ISBN: 9780007581900

Version: 2014-10-05

“Bockris’s new work is instantly recognizable as the heavyweight psychological powerplay Lou Reed’s legend deserves … Reed is effectively pinned like a butterfly”— Q

“ Transformer depicts the singer’s life as a series of death-defying second acts”— New York Times Book Review

“A very readable portrait … Blending informed biographical narrative with abundant quotes and a dishy, conversational style, Bockris captures the many moods—and mood swings—of a true rock and roll chameleon”— Entertainment Weekly

“ Transformer is an even more staggering brief than Wired (about John Belushi)”— Spin

“Bockris provides insight into the private life that led Reed to create many of rock’s memorable songs, including “Heroin” and “Walk on the Wild Side”— Publishers Weekly

“One of the funniest and most memorable time-lined rock documents around”— Philadelphia City Paper

Muhammad Ali in Fighter’s Heaven

Keith Richards: The Biography

Making Tracks: The Rise of Blondie (with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein)

Uptight: The Velvet Underground Story (with Gerard Malanga)

Warhol: The Biography

With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker

Patti Smith: A Biography

What’s Welsh for Zen: The Autobiography of John Cale (with John Cale)

Beat Punks

Rebel Heart: An American Rock ’n’ Roll Journey (with Bebe Buell)

The Burroughs–Warhol Affair

Burroughs Reloaded (photographs)

This book is dedcated to Barney Hoskyns, Gerard Malanga, Bob Gruen, and Legs McNeil

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Praise

Also by Victor Bockris

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Epigraph

One: Kill Your Son, 1959–60

Two: Pushing the Edge, 1960–62

Three: Shelley, If You Just Come Back, 1962–64

Four: The Pickwick Period, 1964–65

Five: The Formation of the Velvet Underground, 1965

Six: Fun at the Factory, 1966

Seven: Exit Warhol, 1966–67

Eight: Exit Cale, 1967–68

Nine: The Deformation of the Velvet Underground, 1968–70

Ten: Fallen Knight, 1970–71

Eleven: The Transformation from Freeport Lou to Frankenstein, 1971–73

Twelve: No Surface, No Depth, 1973–74

Thirteen: The Nervous Years, 1974–76

Fourteen: The Master of Psychopathic Insolence, 1977–78

Fifteen: Mister Reed, 1978–79

Sixteen: Ladybug, 1978–83

Seventeen: The New, Positive Lou (The Blue Lou), 1984–86

Eighteen: The Commercial, Political Lou, 1984–86

Nineteen: Imitation of Andy, 1987–89

Twenty: Death Makes Three, 1990–93

Twenty-One: In Which Lou Reed Cannot Put On the Velvet Underwear, 1990–96

Twenty-Two: The Transformation of Lou and Laurie, 1994–2000

Fast Forward: Val Kilmer’s Ranch, The Pecos, New Mexico, 2005

Twenty-Three: Ecstasy, 1999–2001

Twenty-Four: Lou Reed Rewrites Edgar Allan Poe, 2001–04

Twenty-Five: Lou Reed Classics, 2006

Twenty-Six: Lou Is Lulu, 2011–12

Twenty-Seven: The Death of Lou Reed, 2013

Appendix A: Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson’s Inventories of Work

Appendix B: Interviews with Lou Reed

Source Notes

Bibliography

List of Searchable Terms

About the Publisher

Thanks for input and enlightenment to Andy Warhol, Lisa Krug, Andrew Wylie, Albert Goldman, Robert Dowling, Gerard Malanga, Syracuse University Rare Book Room, the staff of Creedmore Mental Hospital, Paul Sidey, lngrid von Essen, Dawn Fozard, Stellan Holm, Marianne Erdos, Barbara Wilkintson, Jessica Berens, Chantal Rosset, Elvira Peake, Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull, Allen Ginsberg, David Dalton, Miles, Jeff Goldberg, Ira Cohen, Rosemary Bailey, Phillip Booth, Allen Hymari, Andy Hyman, Richard Mishkin, Bob Quine, Raymond Foye, Diego Cortez, Clinton Heylin, Jan van Willegen, John Holmstrom, Legs McNeil, Bobbie Bristol, Ann Patty, Carol Wood, John Shebar, Charles Shaar Murray, Mick Farren, Michael Watts, Emie Thormahlen, Gisella Freisinger, William Burroughs, John Giomo, Stewart Meyer, Terrence Sellers, Chris Stein, Bob Gruen, David Bourdon, Jonathan Cott, Ed and Laura DeGrazia, Bobby Grossman, Art and Kym Garfunkel, Patti Giordano, Stephen Gaines, Lee Hill, Marcia Resnick, Michelle Loud, Terry Noel, Glenn O’Brien, Robert Palmer, Rosebud, Geraldine Smith, Walter Stedding, David Schmidlapp, Lynn Tillman, Hope Ruff, James Carpenter, Tei Carpenter, Toshiko Mori, Gus Van Sant, Mary Woronov, Matt Snow, Roger Ely, Paul Katz, Gayle Sherman, Cassie Jones, Dominick Anfuso, J. P. Jones, James Grauerholz, Terry and Gail Southern, Heiner Bastian, Danny Fields, Dr. J. Gross, Steve Bloom, Bridget Love, Mary Harron, Jeff Butler, Solveig Wilder, Rick Blume, Lenny Kaye, Tony Zanetta, Doug Yule, Tony Conrad, Richard Meltzer, Nick Kent, Richard Witts, Nick Tosches, Kurt Loder, Julie Burchill, and John Wilcock.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO THE 2014 EDITION

I am particularly grateful to the writers Barney Hoskyns, Nick Johnstone, and David Fricke, whose profiles of Lou Reed were always spectacular and insightful; Allan Jones for Uncut ’s ultimate guide to Lou’s music and all his Lou Reed articles; Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone ’s Lou Reed issue; Phil Alexander at Mojo , and all the rock writers who work so passionately to keep us in touch with the music; Roderick Romero, the creative force in his legendary trance rock band Sky Cries Mary and a giant in the tree-house world, who shared some visionary memories of his friendship with Lou; thanks also to Bob Gruen for his eyes and his sense of humor; David Schmidlapp, Barry Miles, and the staff of the beautiful Jane West Hotel.