Lou Reed Dead, 71

Slate.com is reporting Lou Reed died today, age 71.

 The cause of death has not been announced, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May. Reed joined up with John Cale to form the band that would later become Velvet Underground with guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker. Although their debut album was “met with total commercial indifference when it was released,” a characteristic that mostly continued with the band’s three subsequent albums, “they’d be embraced by future generations, cementing the Velvet Underground’s status as the most influential American rock band of all time,” notes the Rolling Stone.