Lou Reed's Unexpected Musical Passions Revealed

"He loved pop music and that was true [although he] wasn't always doing that, by any means," says Anthony DeCurtis, speaking with NPR. "But he was taking pop elements. On the first Velvet Underground record, if you listen to a track like "There She Goes Again," he lifts Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike" for the riff. There's an element of loving what pop music is and all of those teenage emotions. Lou's deep, passionate love of doo-wop and that kind of adolescent 'swept-away-on-the-wings-of-love' � it was a very essential emotion for him and it remained that way."