Lou Reed has done as much to shape the course of rock and roll as any of the industry greats. From his first doo wop record, "So Blue," released in his teens, to garage rock and psychedelic rock with the Velvet Underground, through his twenty-year solo career in glitter, punk, disco, alternative, and sober rock, he stands in the foreground as a major innovator and trendsetter. The Velvet Underground is now regarded as second only to the Beatles as the most influential group of the 1960s.

When he launched his solo career in 1972, he appeared along with David Bowie and Marc Bolan in the vanguard of glitter rock. Soon after, he flung himself into the pit of punk with the ultimate album of the genre, Metal Machine Music. He went on to paint a portrait of one man's life in the underbelly of New York City through the 1970s, 80s, and 90s with fifteen more solo albums.

Lou Reed emerges from the pages of Victor Bockris's internationally acclaimed biography as a brilliant lyrical innovator. It is as a writer that Reed has been able to traverse the various terrains of his career decade by decade. And it is from his position as a writer that he stands alongside his peers, Bob Dylan and Neil Young.