Lou Reed is the face of the Velvet Underground. The band would not have had the impact that it did without the contributions of John Cale, Nico, Mo Tucker and Sterling Morrison, but it was Reed, with his idiosyncratic songwriting style and iconoclast image, who remains the band's most legendary member.
The impact of Reed's contributions is what made his sudden departure from the Velvet Underground so surprising. He was a founding member of the band in 1964, but he decided to walk away in 1970, two years before the band officially dissolved. There were a multitude of reasons why Reed decided to leave when he did, and he was forthright about them in the decades that followed.
Lou Reed quit the band in 1970
For one, Reed has grown tired of the Velvet Underground's lack of success. The band has received critical praise, and has subsequently been dubbed one of the most influential musical acts of the 60s, but they could not score a hit to save their lives. Reed wanted to go it alone in an attempt to break out commercially.
It didn't help that Reed's relationships with those close to the band were deteriorating. He was at odds with Velvet Underground manager Steve Sesnick, and Doug Yule, who had joined the band in 1968, believed Sesnick's tactics hastened Reed's unhappiness. "He and Lou had a relationship where Lou had depended on him for moral support," the singer explained. "And he trusted him, and Sesnick basically said 'screw you.'"
Reed left the Velvet Underground shortly before the release of the album Loaded, and was angry to discover that a verse of his song "Sweet Jane" had been removed. Furthermore, he expressed anger toward Yule for continuing to release music under the band's name until 1973. Reed went solo, and eventually scored the commercial success he hoped for with 1972's Transformer.
Reed reformed the band in the 1990s
Despite leaving the Velvet Underground before Tucker or Morrison, Reed was the creative engine behind the band's sporadic reunions in the 1990s. The band's original lineup, which consisted of the aforementioned three and John Cale, came together for a series of tours, but tensions between Reed and Cale (the reason Cale was fired from the band in 1968) led to another split in 1996.
The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, though Nico and Doug Yule were excluded. Reed continued to produce solo material until his death in 2013.