Lou Reed — music (velvet underground) with roots in the Russian Empire
Lou Reed was an American rock musician and songwriter who co-founded The Velvet Underground and built one of rock's most influential solo careers. Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side, Transformer, and Berlin cemented his place as one of rock's great literary voices — bringing the underground world of New York to a mass audience.
Tracing the roots — Russia (Jewish)
Born Lewis Allan Reed in Brooklyn in 1942, his parents Sidney George Reed and Toby Futterman were both from Jewish families who had emigrated from the Russian Empire. Reed grew up on Long Island in a Jewish household, and the restless outsider energy, the literary ambition, and the refusal to look away from difficult truths that define his work carry that cultural inheritance.
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Russia (Jewish). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.
A career defined by ambition
"I am the Velvet Underground. I always was."