Having played guitar and sung in doo-wop groups in high school, Reed studied poetry at Syracuse University under Delmore Schwartz, and had served as a radio DJ, hosting a late-night avant garde music program while at college. After graduating from Syracuse, he went to work for Pickwick Records in New York City, a low-budget record company that specialized in sound-alike recordings, as a songwriter and session musician. A fellow session player at Pickwick was John Cale; together with Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise, they would form the Velvet Underground in 1965. After building a reputation on the avant garde music scene, they gained the attention of Andy Warhol, who became the band's manager; they in turn became something of a fixture at The Factory, Warhol's art studio, and served as his "house band" for various projects. The band released their first album, now with drummer Moe Tucker and featuring German singer Nico, in 1967, and parted ways with Warhol shortly thereafter. Following several lineup changes and three more little-heard albums, Reed quit the band in 1970.
After leaving the band, Reed would go on to a much more commercially successful solo career, releasing twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask (1982) and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York.
Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6.
He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015.
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Reed
Studio albums
Lou Reed (1972)
Transformer (1972)
Berlin (1973)
Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974)
Sally Can't Dance (1974)
Metal Machine Music (1975)
Coney Island Baby (1975)
Rock and Roll Heart (1976)
Street Hassle (1978)
The Bells (1979)
Growing Up in Public (1980)
The Blue Mask (1982)
Legendary Hearts (1983)
New Sensations (1984)
Mistrial (1986)
New York (1989)
Magic and Loss (1992)
Set the Twilight Reeling (1996)
Ecstasy (2000)
The Raven (2003)
Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007)
Sunday Morning
Lou Reed Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴
Brings the dawn in
It's just a restless feeling
By my side
Early dawning
Sunday morning
It's all the wasted years
Watch out the world's behind you
There's always someone around you
Who will call
It's nothing at all
Sunday morning
And I'm falling
I've got {a} feeling
I don't want to know
Early dawning
Sunday morning
It's all the streets you've crossed
Not so long ago
Watch out the world's behind you
There's always someone around you
Who will call
It's nothing at all
Watch out the world's behind you
There's always someone around you
Who will call
It's nothing at all
Sunday morning
The lyrics of Lou Reed's "Sunday Morning" evoke a sense of restless nostalgia, capturing the fleeting moments of life as they slip by. The song opens with the image of a new day dawning, but instead of feeling refreshed or renewed, the singer is plagued by an overwhelming sense of unease. The Sunday morning he sings of is not a day of rest and contemplation but rather a day of confusion and longing.
As the song progresses, we get the sense that the singer is haunted by memories of the past. The wasted years are "so close behind," and the streets he has crossed are still fresh in his mind. The repetition of the phrase, "watch out the world's behind you," underscores the feeling of constantly being pursued by the past, by missed opportunities and moments that can never be regained.
Yet despite this sentiment of loss, the song retains a kind of resigned acceptance. The line "it's nothing at all" is repeated several times, suggesting that the singer has come to terms with the transience of human experience. In the final lines, the singer voices the fear that we all carry with us: the fear of falling, of being unable to control our destiny. But even this fear is oddly comforting in its familiarity, a reminder that we are all subject to the same inevitable cycles of life.
Lyrics © GARNANT MUSIC , SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: TODD N. TERRY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind