Lou Reed, 71, polymorphous poet of rock

Lou Reed, the influential songwriter whose groundbreaking work with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s and as a solo artist did more to expand the lyrical parameters of rock songwriting than anyone other than Bob Dylan, has died. He was 71.

Rolling Stone magazine first reported the death of Mr. Reed, who underwent a liver transplant this year. "I am stronger than ever," he wrote on his website in June. "I am a triumph of modern medicine, physics and chemistry. . . . I look forward to being on stage performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and spirits and the universe well into the future." But on Sunday, Andrew Wylie, his literary agent, confirmed that Mr. Reed had died that morning on Long Island of an ailment related to the transplant.

Lou Reed had his greatest commercial success as a solo artist, and his best-known song was "Walk on the Wild Side," the 1972 hit produced by David Bowie that chronicled the exploits of hustlers and denizens of the night at the New York club Max's Kansas City, and whose reference to oral sex went unnoticed by Top 40 radio censors at the time.

It was fitting that his breakthrough came with a song celebrating transgression. In his years with the Velvets - managed early on by pop art entrepreneur Andy Warhol, who designed the famous yellow banana cover of their 1967 The Velvet Underground & Nico debut - Mr. Reed wrote songs like "Venus in Furs," "Waiting for the Man," and "Heroin" that made rock and roll safe for junkies, prostitutes, transvestites, and all sorts of decadent souls.

In their first incarnation (Mr. Reed left the band, which later re-formed in the 1990s, in 1970), the Velvets never made the mainstream. But as time wore on, the legend of the group - other key members included John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker - grew, as did its impact on the coming punk and alternative-rock movements. In an oft-repeated quote, British record producer Brian Eno said in 1982 that although The Velvet Underground & Nico sold only 30,000 copies in the years after its initial release, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band."

 Mr. Reed grew up in Freeport, N.Y., on Long Island; in 1956, he was given shock treatment intended to cure him of bisexuality. In 1960, he entered Syracuse University to study journalism and creative writing. He found a mentor in poet Delmore Schwartz, whom he called in "My House," on the 1982 album The Blue Mask, "the first great man I ever met."

In the early 1960s, Mr. Reed worked as an in-house songwriter for the Pickwick label, and during sessions for a novelty song called "The Ostrich" he met Cale, a Welshman who had been playing viola with experimental composer La Monte Young.

He and Cale formed the artistic core of the Velvets, but Mr. Reed's songwriting continued to thrive when Cale departed after three albums, and signature Reed songs like "Pale Blue Eyes" on 1969's The Velvet Underground and "Sweet Jane" on 1970's Loaded continued to appear.

In the '70s, Mr. Reed stepped out as a glam rock star, with Transformer (1972), Berlin (1973), and the classic live album Rock 'n' Roll Animal in 1974.

In his career as in his lyrics, he always had a taste for the perverse: In 1975, he released the double LP Metal Machine Music, four sides of screaming feedback. It was widely panned, but rock critic Lester Bangs, a frequent Reed champion (and nemesis) wrote "it shows integrity - a sick, dunced out, malevolent, perverted, psychopathic integrity, but integrity nonetheless."   

Mr. Reed is most strongly associated with the Velvets and his '70s solo albums, but he had many fertile periods. In the 1980s, he worked with guitarist Robert Quine on The Blue Mask (1982) and Legendary Hearts (1983), then tackled a pop renaissance with 1984's New Sensations.

 All along, he believed that rock and roll was capable of birthing creations as exalted as any art form. "I've always thought that if you thought of all of it as a book, then you have the Great American Novel, every record as a chapter," he said in 1987. "You take the whole thing, stack it, and listen to it in order, there's my Great American Novel."

Mr. Reed is survived by his wife, songwriter and performance artist Laurie Anderson.