The area of Lou Reed’s music he considered his “finest hours”
To call the life and talents of Lou Reed multi-faceted would be a gross understatement; the New York native completely changed the landscape of rock and alternative music over the course of his extensive career, creating some of the most enduring and iconic songs of all time in the process.
From the pioneering experimentalism of The Velvet Underground to the gut-wrenching self-exploration of albums like Berlin, Reed’s career is impossible to summarise in a succinct way, but certain aspects of his output are far too often overlooked.
Reed always fostered something of a unique position within the music industry. The Velvet Underground, for instance, changed music forever and spawned a deluge of subsequent punk, glam, and alternative rock stars in the process, but the band never achieved much in the way of commercial success. In a similar vein, his subsequent solo career did boast a certain degree of mainstream attention, but the musical masses largely ignored his most profound and ambitious works – meanwhile, those who he had first inspired were flying high.
Even within Reed’s dedicated fanbase, there are parts of his career which are often forgotten about, downplayed, or underrated – and I’m not just talking about his knack for Tai Chi. Namely, Reed is not often viewed as an incredible guitarist. Sure, he pioneered a plethora of experimental guitar playing techniques, including the beloved ostrich tuning during his Velvet Underground days, but he is rarely placed alongside the guitar greats, like Clapton, Hendrix, or Page.
This is a good reason for this omission, of course. After all, Reed was predominantly a rhythm guitarist, who are typically afforded much less attention than their lead guitar counterparts. What’s more, Reed’s rhythmic playing was rarely placed in the spotlight when it came to the Velvet Underground.
The band existed in direct opposition to the rock mainstream, so having Reed blast out a self-aggrandising riff or congratulatory guitar solo simply would not have fit with the image or sound of the band. Even those who adore Reed’s discography wouldn’t typically consider him a guitarist; he was a songwriter, first and foremost, and everything else was secondary.
Still, that view of Lou Reed does omit some of the most exciting, inventive, and influential aspects of his discography. For instance, he might not have been considered a great guitarist, but Reed was an absolute master at crafting guitar solos.
Okay, he might not be in the same league as Eddie Van Halen or Eric Clapton, but if you look back at Reed’s endearingly anarchic licks on tracks like ‘I Heard Her Call My Name’, it is impossible to denounce the inventiveness and freedom at the heart of those solos. In fact, during a 2009 interview with Mojo, Reed himself even referred to those guitar solos as “One of my finest hours,” recalling, “Everybody ran for cover…”
Therein lies the inherent appeal of Reed’s career; audiences had never heard anything like ‘I Heard Her Call My Name’ before, certainly not in the oversaturated guitar solo landscape of mainstream rock at the time. The brilliance of Reed’s guitar playing was not within its technical proficiency or ability to master complex rhythms, but – as with every aspect of his work – came as a result of its pioneering originality and individuality. No wonder the man himself considered those solos some of his all-time finest moments.
