Lou Reed was one of the most influential musicians the world has ever seen. With pioneering New York band the Velvet Underground and as a solo artist, Reed has an enormous catalog that spans over forty years. It's no surprise that numerous filmmakers have found that the elusive song they absolutely need to make the scene work has turned out to be a Reed composition.
In a 1998 BOMB Magazine interview with Tim Nye, Lou Reed, in response to a question regarding analyzing artists' lyrics and their meanings, said, "If I went and defined it, there are listeners out there who would be very disturbed... I think people ought to be left alone to have fun with records." And so we've had the privilege of watching Reed's music accompany a variety of scenes, working with the myriad contexts and intentions of different filmmakers. From Danny Boyle's Trainspotting to Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, among others, each Underground/Reed song added value to scenes that are now almost inseparable from the songs themselves.
To honor to the legend, here are The Best Uses of Lou Reed's Music in Movies.
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