Chris Connelly Releases Doo Wop In The Dark: A Portrait Of Lou Reed

Chicago-based Scottish artist Chris Connelly has released his new album Doo Wop In The Dark: A Portrait of Lou Reed, out today via Shipwrecked Industries with distribution by Virtual Label.

The 21-track album mixes Lou Reed compositions from across his career with original songs written by Connelly. Together they trace Reed’s turbulent creative journey, from his teenage years right through to his death in 2013.

Leading the release is Bye Bye Johnny Viola, a Connelly original that looks back at John Cale’s departure from The Velvet Underground in 1968. It is set against the backdrop of Andy Warhol’s shooting and the release of the band’s second album, White Light/White Heat.

“‘Bye Bye Johnny Viola’ is a postmortem on John Cale being fired from the Velvet Underground,” Connelly explains. “Like ‘House of 70’s’, the timeline whirls with events of the time: it’s 1968, Valerie Solanas has shot Andy Warhol, ‘White Light/White Heat’ was a sonic hammer on the hippie dream, and Lou sent Sterling Morrison round to John’s apartment to fire him.”

The album was previewed by two earlier singles. Nothin’ But A Rock Song arrived with a video by Glasgow’s Iain Mutch of Walkerandwilliam, while lead track House of 70’s came with a video produced by Someoddpilot Studios and directed by Chris Eichenseer.

Rather than a straightforward covers record, Doo Wop In The Dark is a reflection on artistic inheritance. It explores how Lou Reed’s restless, confrontational sensibility helped shape Chris Connelly’s own creative identity, and how one artist’s work can become part of another’s emotional and musical vocabulary.

Musically, the album moves between tenderness, menace, alienation, decadence and damaged beauty. Reed is treated not simply as an influence to be celebrated, but as the catalyst for a whole way of making music. The result is a record about finding your own voice by wrestling with the voices that came before you.

The project follows a similar path to Connelly’s acclaimed 2022 album Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico, his portrait of one of the most unique, tragic and misunderstood artists in modern music.

This time the dedication goes to the wildfire, tempestuous spirit of Lewis Allan Reed, better known as Lou Reed, and to Connelly’s dear friend Zak Boerger (1973-2025).

For Connelly, the connection to Reed goes back to childhood. He traces it to a shopping trip with his mother in Edinburgh in 1974, when he was nine years old.

“The kid was out shopping with his mother: a mandated, boring, endless Saturday afternoon. Spring, maybe summer, 1974. Downtown Edinburgh, some department store. On Princes Street, she shopped; he wandered aimlessly from the toys to the records. He was too old for toys, and didn’t really care about records – not yet – but something caught his nine year-old eye: a nightmarish yet beautiful photo of a strange yellow ghost.”

“Not man not woman, all ghost, as yellow as the sodium street light that illuminated the streets there at night. The ghost seemed to be dancing, arms aloft, blurry jewelry, black lips, dead eyes. It was the Rock N Roll animal.”

That image was the cover of Lou Reed’s 1974 live album Rock n Roll Animal, and it never let go. “Fast forward to 2026, and 52 years later the same kid is still obsessed with the same photo,” Connelly continues. “The same kid ended up buying the record in the late 70s or early 80s when he was informed by everything that this untamable spirit was every bit the drug dervish, serpent king of NYC, and the encapsulation and custodian of all the real rock myths, along with Iggy, Bowie, and The Dolls.”

Most of the album was produced by Connelly and his Sons of the Silent Age bandmate Alan Holden Berliant. Four tracks, Babyface, Bye Bye Johnny Viola, Doin’ The Things That We Want To and One Too Many Mysteries, were produced by Chris Bruce, whose credits include Meshell Ndegeocello, Seal, Aaron Neville, Bob Dylan, The Waterboys and Sheryl Crow.

Berliant and Bruce mixed the record in Chicago and New York between 2023 and 2026, and it was mastered by James Scott at Populist Recording & Mastering. Connelly plays vocals, guitar, harmonium, bass, keyboards and glockenspiel, with Jebin Bruni adding keyboards to Bye Bye Johnny Viola.

The release also comes with sleeve notes by Lou Reed biographer Aidan Levy, author of Dirty Blvd: The Life and Music of Lou Reed, alongside supporting videos and select live dates.

Chris Connelly has been making music for more than four decades. Since his early days with Fini Tribe, he has been part of Ministry, The Revolting Cocks and Pigface, and has built a solo catalogue of over 20 releases. He is also the author of four books. The Spill Magazine has described him as a masterful musical chameleon.

It has been a busy spell. 2025 brought the 3-disc Fini Tribe anthology The Sheer Action of Fini Tribe: 1982-1987. Before that came The Lives and Loves of the Serial Homesick, Vol. 1, an album dedicated to his beloved Edinburgh, and The Birthday Poems, featuring Monica Queen of Belle and Sebastian and Thrum.

Doo Wop In The Dark: A Portrait of Lou Reed is out now everywhere digitally, including Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon and Bandcamp, where the limited edition two-CD set is available. A selection of tracks is also available on vinyl.

The album’s 21 tracks alternate between Connelly’s own songs and Lou Reed material reaching back to The Velvet Underground, including Black Angel’s Death Song and Sister Ray, through to solo songs such as The Bed, Rock and Roll Heart and Magician (Internally).

Here is the full track list, with songwriters in brackets.

1. Intro (Connelly)
2. Real Good Time Together (Reed)
3. Cerletti’s Way (Connelly)
4. Black Angel’s Death Song (Reed/Cale)
5. Sister Ray / The Murder Mystery (Reed/Cale/Morrison/Tucker)
6. Bye Bye Johnny Viola (Connelly)
7. A Difficult Man (Connelly)
8. The Bed (Reed)
9. Nothin’ but a Rock Song (Connelly)
10. Babyface (Reed)
11. House of 70s (Connelly)
12. The Rachel Papers (Connelly)
13. I Shared My Veins (Connelly)
14. Rock and Roll Heart (Reed)
15. Dirt (Uptown/Downtown) (Reed)
16. The Bells (Reed/Fogel)
17. Doo Wop My Future (Connelly)
18. Doin’ the Things That We Want To (Reed)
19. Dime Store Mystery (Reed)
20. Magician (Internally) (Reed)
21. One Too Many Mysteries (Connelly)