Transformer: The Lou Reed Story [Paperback]

Victor Bockris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997

As cofounder of the Velvet Underground -- regarded as one of the most significant groups of the 1960s -- and solo artist, Lou Reed has influenced a wide range of rock musicians, from David Bowie to the Sex Pistols, from Patti Smith to U2. His innovative skill as a singer and songwriter of over 250 songs, including "Heroin" and "Walk on the Wild Side", and his multiple musical transformations during a twenty-year career have thrust Reed into the forefront of alternative rock, from garage to glitter, punk, disco, and rap.

Based on exclusive interviews with Reed and his friends, family, and associates, and including incisive portraits of John Cale, Andy Warhol, Nico, David Bowie, and others, Transformer offers an uncompromising and compelling view of a true rock 'n' roll chameleon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bockris, biographer of William S. Burroughs and Andy Warhol, presents a detailed portrait of former Velvet Underground frontman Reed. Born in 1942, the only son and eldest child of a Jewish middle-class family from Long Island, Reed still harbors resentment toward his parents for having raised him in a suburban lifestyle, according to Bockris. An "outsider" fueled by a desire to belong and to control, the singer developed, then destroyed, relationships with his mentor Warhol, former bandmate John Cale and glam-rock superstar David Bowie. A bisexual and former speed addict, Reed is accredited to be the godfather of punk. Though the author relies on too many cliched phrases, he provides insight into the private life that led Reed to create many of rock's memorable songs, including "Heroin" and "Walk on the Wild Side." As a bonus, Bockris concludes with a 1979 episode in New York City when he introduced Reed to Burroughs, an amusing anecdote in which the writer assured the rocker that "it is not very often that a writer will have to actually make it with his publisher in order to get published."
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A journalist at Andy Warhol's Interview from 1977 to 1981, Bockris (Keith Richards, S. & S., 1993) here presents the life and transformation of rock pioneer and poet Lou Reed. He chronicles Reed's life from adolescence in Freeport, New York, to his involvement with Warhol and the Velvet Underground. Also covered are his glam and punk rock phases, his reunion with the Velvet Underground in 1993, and his recent association with Laurie Anderson. The author does a good job of providing balance in presenting Reed's career through a multitude of interviews with Reed's cohorts as well as Reed himself. This first full biography of the influential performer and songwriter is an important addition to the genre. It is thereby recommended for large public libraries and academic music collections.?Ronald S. Russ, Brooklyn P.L.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Pr (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306807521
• ISBN-13: 978-0306807527
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,521,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put it down, May 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Transformer: The Lou Reed Story (Paperback)

Like its subject, Bockris's book is flawed and fascinating. Bockris is obviously a huge fan of the Velvet Underground and much of Reed's solo work, and his book covers seemingly every aspect of Reed's life. A couple dozen people, not including Reed but including many people who knew him well, were interviewed for this book. Every album and every available detail, lurid or otherwise, about Reed's personal life gets written up. The Lou Reed that emerges is not a pleasant person, but a fascinating and brilliant one nevertheless. With all that said, the book's flaws are many. Bockris, like Reed, seems to be an extremely perverse individual, which perhaps explains his fascination with Reed. His misstatements of fact are frequent (he says Brian Jones was murdered, and that Peter Laughner was the lead singer of Pere Ubu), leading one to suspect that many of the details he provides about Reed are not quite true either. At occasional junctures he says things that he seems not to really mean -- for example, that John Cale's solo albums are a better body of work than Reed's, or that Albert Goldman was the leading American rock critic of the 1970s -- probably just for the sake of being perverse. Still, for longtime followers of Reed's career, the book is riveting; and as a full-length biography of Reed, it has no substitute.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars rock'n'roll Boswell, August 30, 2004

By 

Sean C. Scott "bibliomane" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Transformer: The Lou Reed Story (Paperback)

Lou Reed has used his songwriting and sociopathic P.R. persona to tell the world more than anyone could have wanted to know about a middle-class Jewish kid from Long Island who just happened to revolutionize rock'n'roll. So why does the world need another soon-to-be remaindered rock-bio?

Two reasons. One: Reed changed his personalities more often than his underwear, contradicting himself and opening as many mysteries as he solved. Two: Victor Bockris has done a damn fine job of playing Boswell to Reed's drugged-out bisexual Dr. Johnson. Collating endless reviews, interviews, and other views of Reed's life and work, Bockris has used his considerable literary skill to form a coherent, insightful narrative from Reed's often incoherent chaos of a life.

Bockris has an authorial voice that's lively yet restrained; his writing takes a back seat to the biography, but his brisk style and intelligence are worthy of Reed, America's most literary rock star. Rock journalism needs a Victor Bockris almost as much as rock music needs a Lou Reed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helping, September 26, 2006

By 

j - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transformer: The Lou Reed Story (Paperback)

This book is far superior to Doggett's "Growing up in Public". I recently read them both. Just wanted to help out if anyone was deciding between the two.