'The nature of Lou Reed's lyric writing that had been hitherto unknown in rock ... gave us the environment in which to put our more theatrical vision. He supplied us with the stretch and the landscape, and we peopled it.' - David Bowie

A 2019 Music Book of the Year, THE TIMES

Out of print for several years, a comprehensive volume of Lou Reed's lyrics with brand new introductions, now updated in a new text design to include the lyrics from his final album with Metallica, Lulu.

Through his many incarnations-from proto punk to glam rocker to elder statesman of the avant garde Lou Reed's work has maintained an undeniable vividness and raw beauty, fueled by precise character studies and rendered with an admirable shot of moral ambiguity. Beginning with his formative days in the Velvet Underground and continuing through his remarkable solo albums like Transformer, Berlin, and New York, Doin' The Things We Want To is crucial to an appreciation of Lou Reed, not only as a consummate underground musician, but as one of the truly significant visionary lyricists of the rock n' roll era.

Containing a body of work that spans more than six decades, this is a monument to the literary qualities of an American original.