Lou Reed: Metal Machine Mystic

David Holzer is a British author who has been described as a wild scholar. He has written about the most extraordinary and overlooked aspects of music and musicians, Beat literature and art, the counterculture, and varieties of contemporary spirituality. His work explores and attempts to resolve the mystery of why some works of art by remarkable artists have the power to fascinate him and his readers. In 2025 he wrote the liner notes to Sony Legacy's Metal Machine Music tribute album, Power To Consume Vol. 1. This is his first book about music. He lives in Spain and Hungary with his wife.

If Metal Machine Music wanted to be a book, Metal Machine Mystic is the book. And no other book will do. Every chapter is rich in its insight and joyful in its connections to so many of Lou Reed's characters. Particularly the gossamer Rachel. A Tragic Angel and the Muse of Metal Machine Music. - Victor Bockris. Lou Reed once told me that Metal Machine Music was 'gibberish from start to finish'. David Holzer thinks there's a lot more to it, and Metal Machine Mystic tells us why. A deep dive into Lou's most controversial album, Holzer's book is immersive, fascinating, and long overdue. - Allan Jones. David Holzer has done incredible research on the available facts of MMM, plus the various theories and rumours around the album and its wider intellectual and social context. He also offers some of his own well-researched and information-based speculations, which he always reveals as such. He clears up the facts so that now the readers might make up their own minds. - Ulrich Krieger. This book is great becuz Metal Machine Music is beyond great. That s how this works. -Thurston Moore