I started with the VU's 3rd, and self-titled, album. Standouts from the album: Some Kind of Love, Pale Blue Eyes, I'm Set Free, After Hours. It's a much better

I started with the VU's 3rd, and self-titled, album. Standouts from the album: Some Kind of Love, Pale Blue Eyes, I'm Set Free, After Hours. It's a much better album than Loaded, which has some great songs (Sweet Jane, I Found a Reason, Sweet Nothin'), but Reed famously complained that he gave them an album full of hits, and they returned shit (to paraphrase). The Velvet Underground and Nico has its share of accessible songs, too: Sunday Morning and I'll Be Your Mirror stand out (Venus in Furs and Heroin are also great songs but not particularly accessible). White Light/White Heat is great, but it's almost entirely experimental noise rock. Transformer is another good starting point. Other posters mentioned Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side, and Satellite of Love, but Andy's Chest and Goodnight Ladies are also great. How Do You Think It Feels, Oh Jim, and Sad Song are songs I'd also recommend from Berlin (like the recommendations of Lady Day and Caroline Says II). From Street Hassle, Gimme Some Good Times is right there with his best work (as is the title song), and Wait is one of my favorite Lou Reed throwaways. There are albums as good as Street Hassle, but for my money, there are none better. Stupid Man, With You, City Lights, and Families are standouts on from The Bells. Don Cherry worked on this album with Lou, and Transformer and Street Hassle are his only 70's albums I'd put ahead of it (similar level to Berlin and Coney Island Baby, though they all have completely different sounds). I like 80's Lou considerably less, but Blue Mask is a great album (Underneath the Bottle and Waves of Fear are also great tracks from it). New Sensations doesn't get the love it deserves (I Love You Suzanne, My Red Joystick, and the title track are great). New York is probably his best 80's album aside from Blue Mask. Romeo Had Juliette, Halloween Parade, and Last Great American Whale are my standouts, but it's a pretty consistent album. Outside of his work with the VU and his 70's masterpieces, Ecstasy might be my favorite Lou Reed album. The title track, Baton Rouge, and Big Sky are all perfect, and Mad and White Prism are both clever and pretty devastating. The quote about the first VU album, only selling 5,000 or 30,000 copies but everyone one who bought one started a band, is attributed to Brian Eno (brilliant musician in his own right), FWIW. Lou Reed studied literature at Syracuse under Delmore Schwartz (he was the first great man I ever knew, Reed sings of Schwartz in My House). No musician has been more influential to rock music than Lou Reed. When the Beatles and Stones were trying to sound like Blues or R&B Bands, Reed was making altogether new sounds. John Cale's solo stuff is also worth checking out (Paris 1919 and Fear are good places to start).