Reed began a long and eclectic solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", although for more than a decade he evaded the mainstream commercial success its chart status offered him. Reed's work as a solo artist has frustrated critics wishing for a return of The Velvet Underground. The most notable example is 1975's infamous double LP of recorded feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which Reed later commented: "No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive." By the late 1980s, however, he had garnered recognition as an elder statesman of rock.
On April 12, 2008 Lou Reed married longtime companion Laurie Anderson in a private ceremony in Boulder, Colorado.
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