Lou Reed cover art

Lou Reed

Radio 4 Book of the Week

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
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.

Lou Reed

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

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

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

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

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 Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity

Listeners also enjoyed...

 How They Broke Britain cover art
Folk Music cover art
Son of a Wanted Man cover art
Some New Kind of Kick cover art
Colorworld cover art
Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) 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

Critic reviews

I'm not the first musician to pledge allegiance to Lou and the Velvets, and I won't be the last. Read this book, and explore the f*cking genius that was Lou Reed
Anthony DeCurtis captures the soul and the essence of Lou Reed in his terrific new biography of the brilliant, culture-shaping musician. DeCurtis' great gift of storytelling gives fascinating insight and perspective to Reed's complex personality and cutting-edge musical talent. This is a must read
How did a middle-class suburban boy grow up to be king of Manhattan's wild side? Thanks to this groundbreaking biography, now we know . . . A must-read for fans of rock and roll, New York City, or sex
Lou Reed was one of music's most brilliant and complicated figures-an explorer, a provocateur, and always a true artist. With grace and grit, Anthony DeCurtis has delivered a revelatory and insightful chronicle of this most challenging rock & roll icon, and Lou Reed gets the biographer he deserves
Lou Reed is Lou Reed!
A brilliant artist has found a biographer with the insight to, as Lou said, 'pass through the fire' and be a definitive interpreter of both his music and his life
Completely captivating
An eloquent account of a harrowing life transformed by love in the end. Anthony DeCurtis does a brilliant job of synthesizing the disparate parts of Lou Reed's life into an insightful, moving narrative. I highly recommend it
Anthony DeCurtis was one of the few music critics Lou Reed read and whose company he enjoyed. After reading this sublime and subtle book, the mystery of Lou's respect for Anthony is revealed. Anthony is a great story teller, a writer's writer, turning pain into beauty the way Lou did in his songs
There were, [DeCurtis] states in the introduction, "aspects of his sex life, his drug use, and his cruelty" that Reed would "have loved to erase" - yet, while less prurient than other recent biographers, DeCurtis recognises that an airbrushed portrait would be a travesty of a life
An even-handed, well-researched portrait
A serious and comprehensive account
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
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
See more reviews