The complete lyrics from one of the defining artists in Rock n' Roll, this collections spans Lou Reed's days with the epic Velvet Underground and his solo career. Containing a body of work that spans five decades, "Pass Thru Fire" is a stunning gathering of the lyrics of an American original. 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, 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 career-albums like "Transformer", "Berlin", "New York", "Magic and Loss", and "Ecstasy-Pass Thru Fire" is breathtaking in its power and raw beauty and crucial to an appreciation of Lou Reed, not only as a consummate musician of the underground, but also as one of the truly significant poets of our time.