Influential Rock Musician Lou Reed is dead at age 71 of an unspecified liver disease.  A self-acknowledged former hard drugs user and heavy drinker, Reed had been sick for a while and had received a liver transplant in May of this year.

Reed’s career stretches back to the 1960s with his band The Velvet Underground.  As most of his contemporaries were writing and performing songs about sunshine and flowers, Reed was telling about the New York experience in the darker shadows away from 5th Avenue.   

His songs chronicled sex and drugs:  “Sister Ray”, 17 minutes of distorted guitars, told of sailors, oral sex, murder, intravenous drug use;  “Heroin” in which he declares the drug is his “life” and “wife”; And his signature song “Walk on the Wild Side,” which brought the world of art gallery transsexuals to top-40 radio.

In the 1980s, Reed displayed a decided un-morose side, appearing in commercials selling Honda Scooters, and proving to “Suzanne” that he can, indeed, dance.  Before the end of the decade, he was ripping off his robot face and slamming the growing chasm between rich and poor in post-Reagan America.

The extent of Lou Reed’s inspirative powers on popular music cannot be understated. Musician Brian Eno famously said, “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.”

Leading performers from practically every genre cite his influence, and tributes from musicians and actors have been pouring in since the world learned of his death.

Check out this amazing clip of Lou doing "Perfect Day" with a Tai Chi practitioner on Later with Jools Holland.