Who

The former frontman of the Velvet Underground and a prolific artist in his own right, Reed is known as the godfather of punk and has been a downtown icon for nearly four decades.

Backstory

Born Lewis Rabinowitz—his father changed the family name to Reed when he was a baby—the future singer was raised in a middle-class family on Long Island. Reed's teenage years were hardly conventional: At 17, his parents sent him to a mental institution on account of his "homosexual tendencies," and he was subjected to electroshock therapy. He eventually made his way to Syracuse University where he found a mentor in poet Delmore Schwartz; he later dropped out and moved to New York City, where he teamed up with avant-garde cellist John Cale to found the Velvet Underground. The group soon attracted the backing of Andy Warhol and became the house band to the Factory scene. After four seminal albums, in 1970 Reed left the band and embarked on a solo career. He's since released over twenty albums, although his biggest hit remains the David Bowie-produced "Walk on the Wild Side" in 1972.

Of note

"Only a thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground album," musician Brian Eno famously said, "but all of them went out to form a band." The group's abrasive sound and accounts of junkies, transvestites, and hustlers stood in stark contrast to the peace-and-love mood of the late-1960s, but their music is widely acknowledged as the starting point for punk and everything that came after it.

Reed's solo career has been erratic and he's gone through long dry stretches; still, several of his albums are regarded as classics and his status as the poet laureate of the New York City underground remains unchallenged. (One sign that he may be getting more respectable in his old age: He was recently invited to the United Nations to speak in honor of incoming Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.) More recently, Reed published a book of photos, engaged in high-profile collaborations (Antony and the Johnsons, The Killers) and released an album of ambient meditation music.

For the record

His 1975 album Metal Machine Music—which consists of over an hour of grinding guitar feedback without any other instruments or vocals—is considered by some to be the worst album ever made. Reed has alternately been quoted as saying that he made it as a joke to fulfill a contractual obligation, that he was "serious…[but] also really, really stoned," and that "anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." The album did, however, find one notable enthusiast in influential rock critic Lester Bangs.

Personal

Reed has been openly bisexual since his days with the Velvet Underground. His first marriage, to Sylvia Morales, lasted over a decade and was followed by another brief marriage to a flight attendant. In 2008, he again tied the knot, this time with Laurie Anderson, a musician and performance artist with whom he's collaborated on several albums. Reed lives on West 11th Street.

No joke

When the Velvets disbanded, Reed's parents came to fetch their son, then 28, and put him to work as a typist for his accountant father for $40 a week.