Lou Reed, genius who inspired the stars, dies aged 71

Lou Reed 
1942-2013

Lou Reed never had the prominence or commercial sales of 1960s peers such as the Beatles or Bob Dylan - his only major commercial hit was Walk on the Wild Side. But his influence was just as vast, if not more so.

Punk, post-punk and most strains of underground music of the past 40 years would not exist without the one-of-a-kind merger of music and words pioneered by Reed and his groundbreaking band, the Velvet Underground.

Reed died on Sunday at 71 in Southampton, New York, of an ailment related to a liver transplant he underwent in May, his literary agent said.

He leaves behind one of the most profound musical legacies of any 20th-century artist. His lyrics suggested a new kind of street poetry, at once raw and literary. His music - conceived with John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker in The Velvet Underground - merged primitivism with sophisticated avant-garde ideas. The Velvets made four landmark studio albums before crumbling in 1970, each a template for the underground music to follow.

The artists in their debt include R.E.M., David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, Roxy Music, U2 and Patti Smith, and stretch from Iceland (Bjork) to South America (Os Mutantes).