‘We have lost an original’: Lou Reed tributes pour in

Tributes to rock legend Lou Reed flooded in today.

The Walk on the Wild Side and Perfect Day singer died of an ailment following a liver transplant earlier this year.

The former Velvet Underground frontman had just one Top 20 hit in a 40-year career, but the outpouring of grief underlined Reed’s continuing relevance in the music world.

His literary agent Andrew Wylie said the 71-year-old was “as great an artist as it was possible to be”, adding: “It’s a great loss.”

Celebrities wrote their own brief tributes on Twitter. The actress Susan Sarandon wrote: “NY lost one of its originals with Lou Reed’s passing. So sad. RIP.”

Judd Apatow, the filmmaker, tweeted: “I met Lou Reed and told him he gave me tinnitus at a concert in 1989 that never went away and it was worth it. Dirty Blvd. Love to Lou.”

Reed, whose band fused music and art in collaboration with its early benefactor, pop artist Andy Warhol, died at the Long Island home he shared with his wife, Laurie Anderson.

Formed by Reed and classically trained Welsh-born musician John Cale in the mid-Sixties as an experiment in avant-garde rock, The Velvet Underground gained Warhol’s notice soon after hitting the New York club scene.While the band never achieved great commercial success, it revolutionised rock with a mixture of thrashing guitar licks and smooth melodies sung by Reed or the German model Nico.

Boy George: Lou Reed’s albums were a crucial rite of passage

I first saw Lou Reed at Charlton Football Club with The Who in 1974 after discovering him through Bowie. I have been a huge fan since then and got to meet him very briefly … well, I got a wink, which was perfect. We were watching Antony & The Johnsons in New York and I tried not to bother him, but at one point I caught his gaze and he gave me a wry smile and a wink.

A fan wanted to take a picture as Lou was leaving and it was one of those unprepared moments with lots of fumbling cameraphone malarky and Lou said “anytime this week”, which made me chuckle because it’s something I say all the time.

I heard he was quite prickly but I guess when you are that legendary and seminal it must come with a certain annoying responsibility.

Any kid seeking rock’n’roll credibility has to own The Velvet Underground & Nico and, of course, Transformer.

Both albums are part of the rites of passage into the realm of taste and musical enlightenment. Walk On The Wild Side made every gay kid feel like they were walking on invisible heels and Lou had a tone that evoked unimaginable sexual ambiguity but with an air of “so what?” He was so f***ing cool and when he said “my bullshit is worth more than other people’s diamonds”, he was so right.