Lou Reed - The RCA and Arista Albums box set

The Guardian 80

This 17-CD set gathers together a hefty chunk of Reed’s solo output, from 1972’s Lou Reed to 1986’s Mistrial. It tells quite a tale

Lou Reed liked to tell people that his recorded output was not unlike a book. “Every record a chapter … Listen to it in order, there’s my great American novel,” he once remarked: a quote reprinted in the book that accompanies The RCA and Arista Album Collection, a box set compiling virtually everything he made between 1972 and 1987. It’s a lovely idea, not least because it suggests that Reed had a plan all along: a carefully thought-out plot outline that he adhered to throughout the 15 years this collection covers and beyond.

It also goes without saying that he didn’t have anything of the sort. What the 17 CDs here reveal is a brilliant, mercurial artist in a constant state of flux, buffeted and bewildered by the changeable winds of fame and commercial success (never a problem when he was frontman of the Velvet Underground, who never had much of either during their lifetime), changing course with a kind of whimsical abruptness that may well have had something to do with the gargantuan quantities of amphetamine he kept ingesting, continually crashing into frustrating dead ends.