Lou Reed has probably loomed larger in my musical life than anyone else. Both as a solo artist and in his band The Velvet Underground.

Like most people my age I discovered him in my mid-teens through what was (and still is) his only hit single, Walk On The Wild Side, back in 1973.

It was only a few years later that I began to delve deeper, discovering the extraordinary conceptual masterpiece of Berlin – surely his greatest achievement.

Then further to discover the pleasures of The Velvet Underground, which would probably not have appealed to me in my younger teens.

But while Berlin may be his best, its traumatic tale makes it a tough listen and one that you wouldn’t play repeatedly. My favourite Lou Reed album remains his sixth solo effort, Coney Island Baby.

It came out in January 1976 and is the result of a concerted effort by Reed to demonstrate that he could write and perform proper songs after the patchily dreadful Sally Can’t Dance and the extraordinary but unlistenable Metal Machine Music.

It’s a love letter to his then-girlfriend Rachel, especially this tune, left over from the Velvets era, in which Lou serenades his best friend – “certainly not the average girl.” Which is one way of describing a trans woman.