Reed was born into a Jewish family in 1942 at Beth El Hospital in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, New York. Contrary to some sources, his birth name was Lewis Alan Reed, not Louis Firbanks (that name was a joke started by Lester Bangs for Creem magazine). He developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in a number of bands. His first recording was as a member of a doo wop-style group called The Shades.

Reed received electroconvulsive therapy in his teen years in response to his homosexual behavior; in his dark 1974 song, "Kill Your Sons", he revisited the experience. In an interview, Reed said of the experience:

“ They put the thing down your throat so you don't swallow your tongue, and they put electrodes on your head. That's what was recommended in Rockland County to discourage homosexual feelings. The effect is that you lose your memory and become a vegetable. You can't read a book because you get to page seventeen and have to go right back to page one again.”

Reed began attending Syracuse University, where he hosted a late-night radio program on WAER called "Excursions On A Wobbly Rail" (titled after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor), which typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Many of Reed's innovative guitar techniques were inspired by jazz saxophonists, notably Ornette Coleman. While Reed dropped out before graduating, he was later granted an honorary degree in English.

Noted poet Delmore Schwartz, then in the last years of his life, taught at Syracuse and befriended Reed, who in 1967 dedicated to Schwartz the song "European Son," included in the debut "The Velvet Underground and Nico" album. Later, in 1982, Reed recorded "My House", as a tribute to his late mentor: "My Dedalus to your Bloom was such a perfect wit." Schwartz's influence on the aspiring writer seems to have been through encouragement, but Reed also credits him for insisting on use of colloquial language in his writing. He said later his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album.

Source: Lou Reed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia