A WALK ON THE NOT-SO-WILD SIDE\It's all in the songs for veteran rocker Reed, on the road for\'Set the Twilight Reeling,' colored by divorce, death, love and\renewal.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

Lou Reed would be a major figure in rock even if he had dropped out of sight in 1970 after leaving the Velvet Underground. But since then Reed hasn't turned down the volume.

With a reputation as a cantankerous coot whose split-second mood swings make interviews difficult, it seemed out of character to hear the 54-year-old rocker sounding almost optimistic as he plugged his 18th album - "Set the Twilight Reeling" (Warner Bros.), his first disc of new material since 1992.

Part of the new Lou may be attributed to his current live-in love - performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson, to whom Reed dedicates his new album.

Some of the songs on "Twilight" hint at the renewal he apparently feels since divorcing Sylvia Reed, his wife of nearly 15 years.

"You can see it in the lyrics," he said simply. "The songs tell you whatever you want to know about me. They're about as clear as you can get. I never know what I want to write until I write it. I don't have a song bank to delve into. There's no vault of Lou Reed songs."

There is more than a new album for Reed, who appears Monday at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. The veteran rocker is the subject of a scathing new 446-page unauthorized hardcover biography, two boxed CD sets, numerous bootlegs, several paperback books and oodles of speculation on his personal life.

But none of this has affected his well-known sardonic sense of humor, as evident on the current album. The opening track, the cloyingly simplistic "Egg Cream," for example, could be taken as a slap at those who complained that his last solo outing, "Magic and Loss," with its theme of death and mourning, was too morose for comfort.

"With that album, people concentrated more on the loss aspect than the magic," Reed said.

"Twilight" does have its share of upbeat, strong material, including "Trade In," which discusses Reed's change of life since meeting Anderson, the single "HookyWooky," "NYC Man" and "The Proposition." Reed's typically tuneless, deadpan delivery and unique noise-guitar and vocal phrasing are the attention-getters they've always been.

The Brooklyn, N.Y., native's popularity in mainstream rock circles peaked in the mid-'70s with the "Rock & Roll Animal" and "Sally Can't Dance" albums. In 1973, his "Walk on the Wild Side" single, co-produced by David Bowie, reached the top 20.

But his trilogy of terrific albums beginning in 1989 - "New York," "Songs for Drella" and "Magic and Loss" - revealed a new songwriting maturity as he tackled topics such as urban decay, third-generation welfare dependency, the life of the late pop artist Andy Warhol and the cancer deaths of several close friends.

"Lou has always been an astute artist who pays attention to what's going on in the world," said guitarist Wayne Kramer, formerly of Detroit's politicized '60s band the MC5 and now a solo artist. "There aren't a lot of rock artists that share his political sensibility."

Of course, Reed is most revered for launching the highly influential Velvet Underground along with John Cale, the late Sterling Morrison and drummer Mo Tucker. During the band's short existence, Reed chronicled aspects of city life that had never before been broached in song. "Heroin," "Venus in Furs," "Sister Ray," "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'm Waiting for the Man" were pop songs about drug addiction, scoring dope, S&M, nightclubs, one-night stands and low-rent stardom.

With music raw, distorted and primitive, the Velvets wore black clothing, sunglasses after dark and hung with patron Warhol's downtown Factory crowd. British producer Brian Eno's famous quip has it that while the band didn't sell a lot of records, everyone that did buy a Velvets album went out and started a band of their own. Among the legions of musicians who credit the group as inspiration are R.E.M., Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Roxy Music, Bowie, Wire and Eno himself.

Last month, the Velvet Underground, the recent subject of the acclaimed five-CD box set, "Peel Slowly and See," was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Reed dedicates "Finish Line," the third song on the new album, to founding guitarist Morrison, who died last year.

"The Velvet Underground will never play again," Reed said. "We can't. There's no way without Sterling. He was somebody who was seriously underrated, even by me. He contributed so much."

Reed, who studied with the hard-drinking poet Delmore Schwartz at Syracuse University, was also the subject of a box devoted to his solo material, "Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology." His collected lyrics and writings were issued last year in the volume, "Between Thought and Expression."

Reed is also the subject of Victor Bockris' rather unsavory biography, "Transformer: The Lou Reed Story," which dwells on such aspects of the singer's life as his relationship with "Rachel," the transvestite drag queen who was Reed's muse in the '70s.

"I wouldn't read that trash," Reed said. "I don't relate to gossip or that celebrity stuff. I'm a rock 'n' roll guy. I screwed around a lot. Who didn't? I might write my own autobiography when I'm 80 or something, but I'd much rather play music than write about my life."

The bisexual, drug-fueled Reed mythology that Bockris makes much of in the biography is an alien concept to Reed.

"I don't have anything to do with it," he said. "I can't relate to it. It's basically another person. It's like when people ask me if I hear my influence on younger bands today. I always say, 'No, I don't!' Because I really do not."

Preproduction on "Twilight" took more than two years as Reed tinkered with the latest high-tech recording equipment at his Manhattan home studio called the Roof.

"I was figuring out how to go about doing it," he said. "I was unhappy with the recording process, and thanks to some of the new technology, it made the recording easier. I've always looked for ways to make records sound more real. So I worked on production and setting up my studio."

Reed's optimism surrounding "Set the Twilight Reeling" is tempered with a healthy dose of low expectations.

"I don't go into anything with high hopes," he said. "I can never figure out what anybody wants, anyway. Like with radio, who can figure? I'm just happy I can make records anymore."

With more than 30 albums of various kinds under his belt, does Reed ever listen to his old material?

"Never," he said. "All I hear are the mistakes."

THE FACTS

Who: Lou Reed, with opener Luna.

Where: Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 8 p.m. Monday.

Tickets: $30 to $37.50.

Information: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

Photo (1) Touring in support of his latest Warner Bros. album, "Set the Twilight Reeling," Lou Reed, at left with Victoria Williams, is the subject of two CD box sets and an unauthorized biography. (2--Cover--Color) Lou Reed's 'Twilight' Zone