Born in 1942 in Brooklyn, Lou Reed was the lead guitarist, singer and principal songwriter for the Velvet Underground, before embarking on a legendary solo career that spanned five decades. He released more than sixteen albums, including Coney Island Baby, Berlin and Transformer. Faber & Faber published a collection of his lyrics, I'll Be Your Mirror, in 2019; it was a The Times Book of the Year. Reed died in 2013.