Notes from the Velvet Underground: The Life of Lou Reed

These were the innocent early years of childhood when Lou discovered the pleasure of drinking egg cream – milk shake made with soda – in the milk bars on Kings Highway, which he sang about nostalgically in his 1996 song ‘Egg Cream’.

Lou’s relationships rarely ran smoothly. By the time the Velvets came to record the Banana Album, he and Nico were finished. She dumped him, announcing the split to the band with the words: ‘I cannot make love to Jews any more.’29 As a result, Lou was not nice to her at Scepter Records, and the other musicians took their lead from Lou.

Their first family home was a small house on Avenue V in the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn. Shortly after the end of the war (Sid was registered for service, but not called up), they moved to a larger house in leafy Midwood.

One of Lou’s songwriting maxims was ‘to be terrific, be specific’,