Lou Reed cover art

Lou Reed

A Life

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Lou Reed

By: Anthony DeCurtis
Narrated by: Peter Coleman
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 A GUARDIAN AND CHOICE BOOK OF THE YEAR

'A walk on the wild side with the alt-rock pioneer' GQ

'DeCurtis is well placed to trace Reed's five-decade career, drawing on insider knowledge but skilfully balancing it with detailed research and fascinating interviews' Mojo Magazine

As lead singer and songwriter for the Velvet Underground and a renowned solo artist, Lou Reed invented alternative rock. His music, at once the height of sanctity and perversity, transcended a genre, speaking to millions of listeners, inspiring a new generation of musicians, and forever changing the way we think of that iconic era of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.

Throughout his five-decade career, Reed embodied artistic self-awareness and captured the beauty, paranoia, and vivacity of his time into an array of hit songs, experimental albums, and a larger-than-life persona. With such masterpieces as 'Sweet Jane' and 'Walk on the Wild Side', Reed exerted an influence on popular music rivaled only by the likes of Bob Dylan and the Beatles and is recognized to this day as one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.

Now, just a few years after Reed's death, comes the thrilling, provocative story of his complex life. An acclaimed Rolling Stone contributor, Anthony DeCurtis interviewed Reed extensively and knew him well. With unparalleled access to Reed's friends, family, and dozens of other intimate relations, DeCurtis brings Reed's story compellingly alive and deepens our understanding of his indelible music. We travel deep into the underground artist clubs, listen along in the studio as the Velvet Underground record their signature work, and revel in Reed's relationship with legendaries like Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, and David Bowie. Insightful, revelatory, and intimate, Lou Reed is a gripping tribute to a quintessential American icon.©2017 Anthony DeCurtis (P)2017 Hachette Audio Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity

Listeners also enjoyed...

 How They Broke Britain cover art
Folk Music cover art
Son of a Wanted Man (Dramatized) cover art
Some New Kind of Kick cover art
Colorworld cover art
John Prine cover art
Siddhartha cover art
Clockwork Angels cover art
You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone cover art
The Never-Ending Present cover art
King of the Blues cover art
We Could Be cover art
Nilsson cover art
The Man Called Cash cover art
Billy Joel cover art
Fornication cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
This is great story, well told. The narration is general very good, but someone should tell the narrator about those accents. Some of the accents, especially the British ones, are truly appalling. It would be much better not to try.

Great story but ...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a well written and researched book, but the narration is so poor I cant work out if it is a good computer generated voice or a very bad human one. It's robotic.

Still listenable to though so I'd recommend it none the less.

Good book, bad audiobook

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very well written, but the accents done by the narrator (admittedly to make it clear who is speaking) are poor. The Welsh lilt of John Cale, the Bowie that sounds nothing like Bowie and, worst of all, the Dick Van Dyke Mary Poppins accent of Mick Rock are the worst examples of this. Still, this was an excellent bio of Lou. Recommended.

Great book, no need for the accents, though.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An interesting chronicle of Lou Reed’s life although the author appears to be a bit too awe-struck. Good narration except for some of the voicing, fake Welsh accent of John Cale was cringeworthy.

Uncompromising story, dodgy foreign accents.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Once I got used to the narration and occasional impressions I was absorbed from start to finish. I’m really glad I immersed myself in this biography of one of my favourite all-time artists.

Well worth it…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This exhaustive account of an interesting life is rendered almost unlistenable by poor narration. The readers voice is drawling and monoton

A great biography marred by poor narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.