Early in the movie Almost Famous, the gruff journalist Lester Bangs sizes up the young music writer William Miller with a litmus test: “And you like Lou Reed?” William, at once cocky and nervous, stumbles as he tries to impress his elder. He tells Bangs he’s into “the early stuff” but that these days (the 1970s), Reed is trying to be David Bowie. Wrong! Bangs proceeds to school William, and perhaps the film’s audience: It’s Bowie who’s “doing Lou.” William is a fictional character based on the filmmaker Cameron Crowe’s teenage self, but Bangs was a real music critic, and he was very much obsessed with Reed, putting him on a pedestal not unlike the way others deified Bob Dylan. Bangs wasn’t the only one to recognize Reed’s genius. Nevertheless, Reed and his former band, the Velvet Underground, have never fully penetrated the casual music fan’s mind. The Velvets are perpetually shirked or misunderstood—more “heard of” than heard. Certain bands, such as the Beatles, eventually come for us all, but you have to go out …