Ripples of remembrance have reached Gainesville after the death of Lou Reed, leader of rock ’n’ roll cornerstone the Velvet Underground.
Reed died in his home on Sunday at the age of 71 due to lingering complications from a recent liver transplant, according to his literary agent.
Daniel Halal, the 29-year-old owner of Gainesville-based Arrow’s Aim Records, said Reed leaves a lasting imprint on musical genres.
“The Velvet Underground is hands down the major influence on all modern punk and rock,” he said.
The intellectual art-rock movement, which Reed was a large part of under the wing of Andy Warhol, brought into light controversial societal issues by addressing them in the music, said David Carlson, executive director at the UF Center for Media Innovation and Research.
Carlson, who teaches the Rock ‘n’ Roll and American Society course at UF, said Reed became an important and controversial public figure with his bare-bones style of guitar.
Writing a song like “Heroin” — which includes drug references such as “When I put a spike into my vein, then I tell you things aren’t quite the same” — in the 1960s was undoubtedly shocking for the public, Carlson said.
“He became this overall aesthetic event where the performance and the mood showed as much as the lyrics,” said Jason Cain, a former musician who also teaches the rock ‘n’ roll class.
The visceral sound Reed pioneered influenced bands like The Doors, Patti Smith and the Talking Heads. He was a root for a whole generation of music, Cain said. Reed’s album “Transformer,” which he produced with David Bowie in 1972, was one of the key albums that launched him into the public eye.
Due to their popularity, Reed’s well-known records generally sell out quickly at Arrow’s Aim. But now, Halal said, he expects Reed’s lesser-known work to leave shelves quickly, too.
“Now, I expect all of them to sell out even faster,” Halal said.
Lou Reed also indirectly shaped other bands that younger generations are more likely to be familiar with. For example, Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life” was written as a response and tribute to the “Walk on the Wild Side” single that boosted Reed to fame.
Daft Punk paid tribute to Reed by incorporating his motorcycle helmet from “Legendary Hearts” in the cover art of its newest album.
“Even if you didn’t like the Velvet Underground, chances are someone you like liked them a lot,” Cain said.
A version of this story ran on page 4 on 10/30/2013 under the headline "Gainesvillians feel loss of rock legend Lou Reed"
