Lou Reed released his first solo album this month

Lou Reed Lou Reed

Released: May 1972 Peak: 189 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU, 13 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. I Can’t Stand It [2:37] Going Down [2:57] Walk and Talk It [3:40] Lisa Says [5:34] Berlin [5:16] I Love You [2:21] Wild Child [4:41] Love Makes You Feel [3:13] Ride into the Sun [3:16] Ocean [5:07] All songs written by Lou Reed. Total Running Time: 38:08 The Players: Lou Reed (vocals, guitar) Caleb Quaye (guitar, piano) Steve Howe, Paul Keough (guitar) Rick Wakeman (piano) Les Hurdle, Brian Odgers (bass) Clem Cattini (percussion) Kay Garner, Helene Francois (harmony vocals)

Rating: 3.540 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Post-Velvet Underground After leaving Velvet Underground in 1970, Lou Reed and his soon-to-be first wife Bettye Kronstad hung out a lot at the Manhattan apartment of Richard and Lisa Robinson. They were a husband-and-wife team of “writers/producers/scenesters/tastemakers.” ER-13 Richard and record executive Dennis Katz facilitated the release of Reed from his contract with Atlantic Records and got him signed to RCA. ER-13 It is important to recognize that “it would be years before the cult of the Velvet Underground became big enough to mean anything commercially.” AM That meant that on the doorstep of his solo career, Reed was “pretty much back where he started from in the public eye after five years of hard work, and he seemed to be searching for a different musical direction on this set without quite deciding what it would be.” AM As such, neither Reed nor RCA quite knew what to do. The Recording of His Debut Album In an effort to distance himself – literally and figuratively – from New York City, to which Reed’s Velvet Underground was so tied, Reed headed to London with Robinson (who served as producer) to record his first solo album. In what seemed an odd move, Reed tapped a lot of session musicians – including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from Yes – who “were luminaries in the prog rock field,” ER-13 not exactly a genre associated with a man credited with birthing punk and heavy metal with Velvet Underground’s experimental, proto-punk rock. “This is not a bad album, but its greatest sin is just how totally and utterly ordinary it is.” ER-14 “The production is flat, the playing competent but sparkless, and the singer tentative.” ER-14 “One wonders what Richard Robinson’s role was in the studio.” ER-14 The Material “While the best tunes are admirably lean, no-frills rock & roll, there are also several featuring tricked-up arrangements that don't suit the material terribly well.” AM Part of the problem is Reed’s lack of new material. Eight of the ten songs on his debut album were “revised and dusted-off VU chestnuts,” ER-13 although many of the versions by the Velvets wouldn’t see official release until years later. The trend would continue over several more Lou Reed solo albums. This means that “the versions of these songs are not the best they can be.” ER-14 Over the years, they have changed “arrangements and even lyrics as their creator continuously tinkers.” ER-14 Ultimately, Lou Reed’s first solo album serves “as a stepping stone for what’s to come, and while it leaves much to be desired, we are all the better for it.” ER-14 On its own terms, Lou Reed isn't a bad album, but it isn't a terribly interesting one either, and since superior performances of most of these songs are available elsewhere, it stands today more as a historical curiosity than anything else.” AM Notes Early versions of “I Can’t Stand It,” “Lisa Says,” “Ocean,” “Ride into the Sun,” “Walk and Talk It,” and “I Love You” are all available on the Velvet Underground’s box set Peel Slowly and See. An early version of “Love Makes You Feel” is also available on the Velvet Underground’s Fully Loaded reissue of Loaded. On top of all that, the song “Berlin” then also shows up as the title cut for Reed’s third solo album. The Songs Check the track listing above for links to the songs that originated as Velvet Underground songs. The songs that were first recorded by Lou Reed for his first solo album are detailed below.

Going Down Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Lou Reed (1972), Legendary (box set: 2002) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.71 streaming About the Song: “Lou’s dry, slightly askew ‘ballad-style’ voice” ER-14 is “curiously buried in the mix. He sings as if he truly wants to believe in the lyric’s tried-and-true tale of bleak realizations and deflated dreams, but he remains hesitant.” ER-14 This is an idea that runs roughshod throughout this album: hesitancy, as if the artist was just really not sure of what he was creating…The band, in their impeccable, professional way, keep things moving along, bu the end results add up to precious little.” ER-14

Berlin Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Lou Reed (1972), Berlin (1973), Rock and Roll Diary (compilation: 1980), Retro (compilation: 1989), The Best of Lou Reed & Velvet Underground (compilation: 1995), Different Times: Lou Reed in the ‘70s (compilation: 1996), The Very Best of (compilation: 2000), NYC Man – The Ultimate Collection (compilation: 2003), NYC Man – Greatest Hits (compilation: 2004) Peak: 33 CL, 28 CO, 16 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 3.71 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: Most of the songs featured on Lou Reed’s self-titled debut solo album originated as Velvet Underground songs that didn’t see release at the time. “Berlin” was one of the few songs that was new to this album but it also saw different incarnations – just in the opposite direction. In this case, the song started here but “would germinate and blossom into much heartier, juicier fruit in the future, but you wouldn’t know that here.” ER-15 “The listener can’t help but pine for the song’s penultimate representation a few years later” ER-15 “that caps the later album of the same name.” ER-15 On this, the original version, “Rick Wakeman’s cocktail piano sets the stage for our mini tableau of Lou’s many lyrical images. Clem Cattini’s soft brushwork compliments the mood as Lou reservedly croons about walls, height measurements, and syrupy liqueurs on ice.” ER-15 “Lou delivers a vocal performance that cautiously rises above the album’s typically tepid delivery. The last 30 seconds of the song bring a pointless up-tempo vamp that suggest little more than a musical stage show’s closing number.” ER-15 Reed reworked the song for his 1973 album of the same name. The newer version “is lyrically simplified, the key changed and re-arranged for piano.” WK “Lou’s emotional commitment to his vocals, while hushed and subdued, is stunning, and the full sonic palette on offer here, courtesy of Bob Ezrin, has a lush and panoramic dimension to it.” ER-29

Wild Child Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Lou Reed (1972), Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of (compilation: 1977), Retro (compilation: 1989), The Best of Lou Reed & Velvet Underground (compilation: 1995) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.32 streaming About the Song: This track “is not only sonically more than functional but almost fun as well. Lou’s delivery raises its temperature noticeably, as he rolls through lyrics that blend his typical character-driven narrative with the occasional low-wattage, now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t surrealism of his words that can both tickle and tempt the listener in equal measures.” ER-16 “At the conclusion of the second set of verses, just before the first chorus, Lou lets rip with a very uncharacteristic Jagger-esque yelp, as if to show the listener that he really means this one.” ER-16 “Ultimately, it’s just a nifty little rock ‘n’ roll song.” ER-16

Love Makes You Feel Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Released: Lou Reed (1972), Different Times: Lou Reed in the ‘70s (compilation: 1996), Legendary (box set: 2002) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.46 streaming About the Song: “This song, yet another polished-up relic from the near-past, stands out with regard to the fact that it is the album’s most musically complex song. While that’s not saying much…it has too many chords for a Lou Reed song…The lyrics, which revolve around the already generally settled idea that ‘love makes you feel ten feet tall,’ are basic in the extreme.” ER-16 There’s a point where the band plays “a tom-tom-driven rave-up with super-strummy guitars that lasts for 30 seconds before finding its denouement and returning the song to its original tempo and subsequent resolution…This section does the song no service, but prog-rockers gonna prog-rock.” ER-16

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Mark Deming ER Ethan Roy (2023). On Track…Lou Reed 1972-1986. Sonicbond Publishing: United Kingdom. Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/28/2008; last updated 9/10/2026.