Rocker has built career on rejecting boundaries

Correspondent

Rock 'n' roll icon Lou Reed seems as busy as he was during his notoriously experimental days in the Velvet Underground and his heyday as a solo artist in the early '70s.

Does he agree? Well, he's a little fuzzy on it.

"If I could remember everything else, I could," he said in one of two phone interviews in the past week.

Reed's most memorable tunes, "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Sweet Jane," along with his association with artist Andy Warhol, are certainly etched upon our American pop culture minds. Yet, recent years have witnessed a spurt in activity that many casual fans may not be so aware of.

As a photographer, Reed has published two books - "Emotions in Action" (2003) and "Lou Reed's New York" (2006) - and he is working on a third.

Last year he recorded his first album of meditation music, "Hudson River Wind Meditations."

As for playing live, Reed performed "White Light/White Heat" with The Raconteurs at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards and later that year at a tribute to Leonard Cohen, which included Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and Bad Seed member Nick Cave. His most important outing, however, came in December 2006 with a five-night live performance of "Berlin."

In 1973, Reed released "Berlin," his third solo album and a highly anticipated follow-up to "Transformer." "Berlin," a rock opera about depression and drugs, received lukewarm critical responses, at best, and didn't sell well. Reed and producer Bob Ezrin canned plans for a live stage adaptation.

"Berlin" gradually came to be seen as an album ahead of its time. This, and a prodding by close friends, led to the effort to commemorate the album with the live performances at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., filmed by director Julian Schnabel, a friend of Reed.

Schnabel had told him that "I always wanted to do something with it," Reed said. "He was going to be in charge of the sets and directing it. So we did it. It is a beautiful, beautiful film."

In March, "Berlin" was screened at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. The film is being released internationally throughout the spring and is scheduled for select American movie theaters July 18.

Reed attended the Austin screening, participated as a keynote speaker and turned out for a Lou Reed tribute party by joining Moby onstage for a performance of "Walk on the Wild Side."

As of last Friday, Reed and his band - Steve Hunter (who played guitar on the original "Berlin" album), bassist Rob Wasserman, guitarist Mike Rathke, multi-instrumentalist Kevin Hearn and drummer Tony "Thunder" Smith - were in rehearsals for the spring tour, which will stop at The NorVa on Friday,.

Expect a variety of music spanning his career, but nothing from "Berlin."

Lou Reed is already moving on.