Lou Reed’s favourite Elvis Presley songs
Lou Reed was a singular and endlessly creative artist. With such a clear and strong vision for his own work, it’s almost hard to imagine him looking up to anyone else. As an artist whose name is regularly brought up with his peers and the next generation discussing their influences, it’s easy to believe everything started with Lou Reed. However, like the rest of us, Reed had his idols, too, with one of them being The King.
There were several points in which Elvis Presley interacted with Lou Reed’s life. Presley was a vital piece in the puzzle for one of Reed’s most important relationships as he met David Bowie while the British musician was in New York solely to see Presley perform.
It seems the King also provided Reed with career advice. In 1975, to help get out of record label contractual obligations, Reed released an album of nothing but guitar feedback called Metal Machine Music. He got the idea from Presley, who the year before released an album of nothing but his on-stage banter with the audience, fulfilling label obligations without a single song.
But beyond all of that, Presley was a vital source of musical inspiration to Lou Reed, just as he was to most rock and roll artists. Without Presley bringing rock sounds to the mainstream, the face of music may have looked totally different. You can hear his influence in all of Lou Reed’s crooning and rockabilly rhythms.
As well as being an important artist, Reed was, at his core, a music fan. “Rock and roll is so great, people should start dying for it,” the Velvet Underground founder once said. “You don’t understand. The music gave you back your beat so you could dream…the people just have to die for the music. People are dying for everything else, so why not for music? Die for it,” declaring his unwavering passion for the form.
Not long before he died, Reed collated a list of his 100 favourite songs of all time that he considered to be the best pieces of music ever made. As proof of his love for Presley, he dedicated two slots to his music amidst the busy list that featured the likes of Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Kate Bush, Chet Baker, and others.
The first slot goes to ‘Mystery Train’, one of Presley’s last songs recorded on Sun Records. It marks the end of his early period and the final days of his original sound. Held up as one of his best-underrated tracks, it’s an important piece of history as Presley proved instrumental in bringing together the sounds of blues, country and rock to create what would become rock and roll.
Clearly a fan of Elvis’ early days, Reed also picks out his debut single, ‘That’s All Right’. Recorded on July 5th, 1954, and released only a few days later on July 19th, the music world would never be the same again. Reed’s decision to include the track on his essentials list shows not only his love for Presley but also his acknowledgement of his debut single’s limitless impact on everything that came after.
The influence that debut single had on Reed is heard loud and clear on The Velvet Underground’s ‘Rock and Roll’. “Alright!” the band repeats over and over, seemingly nodding towards the track. “Despite all the computations / You could just dance / To that rock ‘n’ roll station,” Reed sings, and it’s easy to imagine that Elvis Presley might be the tune playing from the radio.
