Editing Lou Reed (section)

===1980–1989: Mid-period===
Reed's 1980 marriage to designer Sylvia Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's ''[[Growing Up in Public (Lou Reed album)|Growing Up in Public]]''{{sfnp|Reed|1991|p=71}} and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's ''[[The Blue Mask]]''. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed's ''The Blue Mask'' is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?"<ref name=carson>{{cite magazine|last1=Carson|first1=Tom|title=The Blue Mask|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=April 15, 1982|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/the-blue-mask-19820415|access-date=September 4, 2017|archive-date=November 3, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103181236/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/the-blue-mask-19820415|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the ''[[Village Voice]]'', [[Robert Christgau]] called ''The Blue Mask'' "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=2150|website=RobertChristgau.com|title=Lou Reed: The Blue Mask|first=Robert|last=Christgau|access-date=July 4, 2021}}</ref> After ''[[Legendary Hearts]]'' (1983) and ''[[New Sensations]]'' (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for [[Honda]] scooters.{{sfnp|Bockris|1994|p=351}} In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including [[Chuck Hammer]] on ''Growing Up in Public'', and [[Robert Quine]] on ''The Blue Mask'' and ''Legendary Hearts''.

Reed's 1984 album ''[[New Sensations]]'' marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's ''[[Street Hassle]]'', and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's ''[[Coney Island Baby]]''. Although its [[lead single]] "[[I Love You, Suzanne]]" only charted at No. 78 on the [[UK Singles Chart]] it did receive light rotation on [[MTV]]. Two more singles were released from the album: "[[My Red Joystick]]" and the Dutch-only release "[[High in the City]]" but they both failed to chart.

In 1998, ''[[The New York Times]]'' observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes."<ref name="Lewis">{{Cite news|last=Lewis|first=Randy|date= October 28, 2013|title= Lou Reed, 1942 - 2013 Influential pioneer of punk, art rock|work= [[Los Angeles Times]] |page=1 |url=https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-lou-reed-20131028,0,347074.story?page=2 |access-date=December 7, 2013}}</ref> The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married."<ref name="Lewis"/>

[[File:Lou Reed-Conspiracy of Hope-by Steven Toole.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|Reed performing live during a benefit concert for [[A Conspiracy of Hope]] at [[Giants Stadium]] in [[East Rutherford, New Jersey]], 1986]]
On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first [[Farm Aid]] concert in [[Champaign, Illinois]]. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set. In June 1986, Reed released ''[[Mistrial (album)|Mistrial]]'' (co-produced with bassist [[Fernando Saunders]]). To support the album, he released two music videos: "[[No Money Down (Lou Reed song)|No Money Down]]" and "[[The Original Wrapper]]". In the same year, he joined [[Amnesty International]]'s [[A Conspiracy of Hope]] short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on [[Steven Van Zandt]]'s 1985 [[Apartheid|anti-Apartheid]] song "[[Sun City (song)|Sun City]]", pledging not to play at [[Sun City (South Africa)|that resort]].

The 1989 album ''[[New York (album)|New York]]'', which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist [[Jesse Jackson]], then-President of Austria [[Kurt Waldheim]], and [[Pope John Paul II]], became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997.<ref name="riaa"/> Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album.<ref name="Caulfield"/>