Rock legend Lou Reed dead at 71: Music fans in mourning after The Velvet Underground founder and American icon passes away

Lou Reed, the man who helped shape the music industry, has died at the age of 71.
Rolling Stone reports that Reed died today. The cause of death has not yet been disclosed, by the veteran rocker underwent a liver transplant in May.
Best known as the founder, guitarist and lead singer/songwriter of 1960s band The Velvet Underground, the star went on to have an illustrious solo career, with hits such as 'Walk On The Wild Side.'

Rocker: Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground were part of 1960s New York's thriving artistic scene

Reed died in Southampton, New York of an ailment related to his recent liver transplant, according to his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, who added that Reed had been in frail health for months. Reed shared a home in Southampton with his wife and fellow musician, Laurie Anderson, whom he married in 2008.
Tributes have poured in from all corners of the globe since news of Reed's death broke.
Okkervil River tweeted, 'Lou Reed might have been the single biggest influence on my music and his encouragement changed my life. I'm devastated.'

'R.I.P. Lou Reed and thank you and the Velvets. U were my inspiration in the '70s, 4 without you there would have been no punk rock!' tweeted Billy Idol.
Writer and chef Anthony Bourdain wrote, '“heavenly wine and roses…seem to whisper to me….when you smile ..” RIP Lou Reed.'
Writer Brian Koppelman tweeted, 'No exaggeration to say that Lou Reed's New York is one of my family's most listened to. My kids have known it by heart since they were small.'
Indie rock essentially begins in the 1960s with Reed and the Velvets; the punk, New Wave and alternative rock movements of the 1970s, `80s and `90s were all indebted to Reed, whose songs were covered by R.E.M., Nirvana, Patti Smith and countless others.
Born Lewis Allan Reed in Brooklyn, New York in 1942, Lou Reed developed an ear for rhythm and blues, forming several bands while still in high school after teaching himself to play guitar simply by listening to the radio.
Reed was one of rock's archetypal tough guys, but he grew up middle class - an accountant's son raised on Long Island. Reed was born to be a suburban dropout. He hated school, loved rock n' roll, fought with his parents and attacked them in song for forcing him to undergo electroshock therapy as a supposed 'cure' for being bisexual.
'Families that live out in the suburbs often make each other cry,' he later wrote.
Reed introduced avant garde rock to mainstream music and has been credited as having a significant impact on American culture.
He never approached the commercial success of such superstars as the Beatles and Bob Dylan, but no songwriter to emerge after Dylan so radically expanded the territory of rock lyrics.
And no band did more than the Velvet Underground to open rock music to the avant-garde - to experimental theater, art, literature and film, to William Burroughs and Kurt Weill, to John Cage and Andy Warhol, Reed's early patron.

Solo: Lou Reed (pictured in 1982) launched a solo career in the early 70s that would span decades

Warhol incorporated the Velvet Underground's music into his Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia events, with Reed revealing that Andy would 'show his movies on us'.
'We wore black so you could see the movie. But we were all wearing black anyway,' he explained.

Honored: The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 by Patti Smith

'I was just writing down everything that was going on around me,' he says of his songwriting process during that period. 'And look where I was - I was next to the greatest artist of the 20th century. Not that I knew that at the time.'
The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1996.
'I always thought we were easily the most sophisticated, articulate group in the world,' Reed stated. 'We didn't get to keep going because of strife. But there was no one near us - to this day.
'If you look note by note, word by word, subject by subject, my idea was essentially: What would happen if you had the lyrics of Tennessee Williams or William Burroughs and you put it in a rock context? That was my idea, and I was trying to write up to that.'
As a songwriter, Reed broke new ground by writing songs about taboo subjects as S&M, transvestites and transsexuals, prostitution, and drug addiction.

Following his departure from The Velvet Underground in 1970, Reed began a solo career that would span several decades.
He collaborated with many artists over the course of his career, including David Bowie, Antony and the Johnsons and Kate McGarrigle.'
Reviewing Reed's 1989 topical album 'New York,' Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that 'the pleasure of the lyrics is mostly tone and delivery - plus the impulse they validate, their affirmation that you can write songs about this stuff. Protesting, elegizing, carping, waxing sarcastic, forcing jokes, stating facts, garbling what he just read in the Times, free-associating to doomsday, Lou carries on a New York conversation - all that's missing is a disquisition on real estate.'
Reed's New York was a jaded city of drag queens, drug addicts and violence, but it was also as wondrous as any Allen comedy, with so many of Reed's songs explorations of right and wrong and quests for transcendence.

The music that made Lou Reed an American icon

As frontman of the Velvet Underground and a prolific solo artist, Lou Reed was an inspirational musician and lyricist to generations.

The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) - The debut album by The Velvet Underground and vocal collaborator Nico is one of the most critically acclaimed rock records ever. It includes celebrated songs such as Sunday Morning, All Tomorrow's Parties and I'm Waiting For The Man.
The Velvet Underground (1969) - After the more experimental White Light/White Heat record (1968), The Velvet Underground returned to a more straight forward and melodic style. This record includes songs such as Candy Says, Beginning To See The Light, Pale Blue Eyes and What Goes On.

Transformer (1972) - This is Reed's second solo album after recording only four records with the The Velvet Underground. Transformer includes well-loved hits such as Perfect Day, Walk On The Wild Side and Satellite Of Love.

As a solo artist Reed released 22 studio albums, 12 live albums, 15 compilation albums and 44 singles.

Rock legend: Lou Reed has died at the age of 71

Friends and lovers: Reed pictured with longtime collaborator David Bowie (left) and with his wife, Laurie Anderson (right)

He lived many lives in the `70s, initially moving back home and working at his father's office, then competing with Keith Richards as the rock star most likely to die. He binged on drugs and alcohol, gained weight, lost even more and was described by critic Lester Bangs as 'so transcendently emaciated he had indeed become insectival.'
Reed simulated shooting heroin during concerts, cursed out journalists and once slugged David Bowie when Bowie suggested he clean up his life.
An outlaw in his early years, Reed would eventually perform at the White House, have his writing published in The New Yorker, be featured by PBS in an 'American Masters' documentary and win a Grammy in 1999 for Best Long Form Music Video. The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 1996 and their landmark debut album, 'The Velvet Underground & Nico,' was added to the Library of Congress' registry in 2006.
Though he is said to have been uninspired by the current state of the music industry and lack of talented stars, one person that he did admire was, perhaps surprisingly, Kanye West.
'The only person who's out there really doing something is Kanye West. This guy is really serious, trying to do something,' he said. 'This new album of his is hard to believe. It's incredible - the mixture of genres, the melodies, the sounds. He's really good, whatever you might think of him on other levels. And he's also very, very funny.'
He remained an avid and interesting artist, branching out into photography and released two book of his work, 'Emotions in Action' and 'Lou Reed's New York.'
Reed interacted with fans regularly, with a Facebook page and a Twitter account with more than 42,000 followers. His last Tweet was posted this morning, a picture of a door with a Lou Reed poster on it.
He remained active in his solo career, and interactive with his fans until the last day. His Twitter account, with over 42,000 followers, was frequently updated. Reed's last tweet was posted Sunday morning.
It said only 'The Door' and posted a Facebook link to a picture of him on a closed door.
Reid is survived by his wife, Laurie Anderson.