Lou Reed

1
  • Year:
    2015
  • Inducted by:
    Patti Smith
  • Category:
    Performers
Lou Reed

Introduction

Frank, brutal and brilliant.

Lou Reed had everything you could want in a rockstar: boundary-smashing guitar solos, a dry, combative voice and a tough as nails persona that never impeded his vulnerable songwriting.

Hall of Fame Essay

2015

Anthony DeCurtis

Lou Reed’s songs, both with the Velvet Underground and as a solo artist, constitute a body of work that ranks with Dylan and Lennon-McCartney as among the most significant and influential songwriting catalogues of the twentieth century.

Reed was both an artistic exhibitionist and an intensely private man; a restless experimental soul and an ardent fan dedicated to the most elemental, even conservative, principles of rock & roll; a writer with the highest literary aspirations and a guitarist with a boundless love of distortion and noise.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program Cover 2015
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2015 Inductee Lou Reed
He was the friend of New York City.
Patti Smith