Lou Reed, frontman of the gritty-cool 1960s band The Velvet Underground, was a key influence on punk, grunge, and other musical movements that gave voice to the harder-edged realities of city life. A poet at heart, Reed illumined the lives of junkies, trans sex workers, and other “undesirables” with passion and precision, and collaborated with Andy Warhol, David Bowie, and avant-garde artist and musician Laurie Anderson.

But before that, Reed began his career writing and performing rip-offs of then-current pop trends—surf music, girl-groups, British Invasion—for a budget record label called Pickwick whose platters sold for 99 cents in supermarkets.

In September last year, Light in the Attic records brought out a compilation of those early ditties as a service to Lou Reed completists, and Will Hermes (M.A. ‘95) noted it in his Substack, a subscription-based service where writers share their work.

“Finally,” Hermes wrote, “Reed’s wild, pre-Velvet Underground bargain bin rock’n’roll records get a proper historical reissue.”

Hermes knows whereof he speaks. A longtime writer on music and the culture that surrounds it for Spin, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and other publications, and a contributor to National Public Radio, he’s also the author of Lou Reed: The King of New York (2023), which the Washington Post called “the only Lou Reed bio you need to read.”

The book tells Reed’s story from his Jewish ancestry to Pickwick pop to international stardom, and grew out of Love Goes to Buildings on Fire (2011), Hermes’ richly detailed history of popular music in New York in the early ‘70s. That era was a period when the hippie ethos of 1960s rock encountered the edgy experimental music of downtown Manhattan, and disco, hip-hop, and the Brooklyn jazz scene emerged.

Reed, of course was a key player in that mix—and when Hermes decided to write his biography, he took another look at the entire NYC arts world of the day.

“Reed studied with the great postwar poet Delmore Schwartz at Syracuse University,” Hermes says. “He connected with Andy Warhol, and so was part of that world of visual arts and experimental filmmakers. He had a very long career and worked with Laurie Anderson in the ’90s [who would later marry Reed in 2008]. The more I considered it, the more I thought, ‘Wow, this is a New York story, but through the lens of one incredibly talented musician who was everywhere.’”

Just as important to Hermes, though, was his feeling for the man’s music.

“I love the empathy in his songwriting, the way he can draw characters without judgment,” he says, “and the way he puts it together with straightforward music. He’s a great songwriter, but he’s also a great storyteller. As a writer myself, I love that he identified himself as a writer who wanted to make rock’n’roll an adult art form.”

Pursuing creative writing

Hermes, a native New Yorker who grew up listening to WNEW-FM and other progressive rock stations in the New York City area, attended the State University of New York at Binghamton and became a disk jockey and music director at the college’s radio station. He later earned a master’s degree in education at Queens College and taught in the New York City public schools.

“But I really wanted to write,” he says, so he began looking at graduate writing programs. The U of M’s master’s-granting precursor to today’s M.F.A. track offered him financial support, and he decided to come to Minnesota.

While he studied and worked on short stories, he also picked up writing assignments at City Pages, the late Minneapolis alternative weekly. He calls that stint his favorite job ever.

“I could see the effects of my writing on the cultural life of my town,” he says. “I would write about some obscure artist from Hungary who was coming, then go to the show, see a lot of people there, and hear from the bookers that, ‘yeah, after your piece ran in City Pages, ticket sales really took off.’”

As for his master’s, “the thrust was creative nonfiction in those days,” he recalls. “A lot of people working in memoir. Eventually I started merging my interest in fiction-writing technique with my desire to write about the arts, music in particular. I was approaching my assignments at City Pages with more excitement than I was my fictional work.”

He began freelancing for publications on both coasts, building a distinguished career that also includes teaching. These days Hermes lives in upstate New York, where his wife, Anne Galperin, teaches graphic design. Hermes still comes into Manhattan to introduce students at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts to the glory days of New York art and music. Hermes has recently been on the book promotion circuit, too, supporting the recent release of his Reed bio in paperback.

Hermes has watched the magazine world decline as the internet has risen, but he still freelances in major outlets, including the New York Times and Rolling Stone, and, like many journalists in today’s less-than-encouraging climate, writes a Substack— “New Music + Old Music”—as one income stream and a way to keep at his craft on a daily basis.

“Substack has been a great experience,” he says. “I can choose what I want to cover week to week, and even write more than once a week. It’s been a kind of rediscovery of the way I wrote when I was working at City Pages.”

Jon Spayde is a freelance writer in the Twin Cities.

If you liked these stories, Minnesota Alumni magazine publishes four times a year highlighting U of M alumni and University activities. Early access to stories and a print subscription are benefits of being an Alumni Association member. Join here to receive a printed copy at home.