The two greatest songs Lou Reed ever heard
Lou Reed is among the most complex figures in musical history. Depending on your persuasion, he was either one of the most prolific and gifted musicians of the 20th century or a deeply flawed and problematic figure who relied upon the musical talent of others to further his own career. While both those statements have elements of truth behind them, Reed’s songwriting tends to speak for itself.
Given how influential The Velvet Underground – and Reed’s songwriting in general – were on the rock scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the New Yorker was surprisingly secretive about his own influences. Of course, he took every opportunity to espouse the brilliance of Delmore Schwartz, the poet and scholar who had mentored Lou during his time at college. However, there were a few more mainstream artists that had an effect on Lou Reed’s songwriting talents.
It can often be difficult to gauge what Lou Reed actually thought about anything. His endless hatred for journalists meant that every interview he ever did could easily be attributed to some kind of subversive performance he was doing to frustrate the interviewer. However, some things can definitely be taken as read, including his complicated relationship with The Beatles.
The songwriter repeatedly affirmed his hatred for The Beatles, which makes sense when accounting for the idea that Reed and the Velvets represented the underground of music, while The Beatles were the archetypes of mainstream pop rock. Nevertheless, Reed could at least appreciate the writing of John Lennon, listing one of his post-Beatles tracks as a personal favourite. In an interview, he once said, “[Lennon] wrote one song that I admire tremendously, I think it was one of the greatest songs I ever heard, called ‘Mother’.”
Continuing in a later interview, he added: “When I first heard it, I didn’t even know it was him. I just said, ‘Who the fuck is that? I don’t believe that.’ Because the lyrics to that are real.”
Reed is an icon of New York, so it seems fitting that he regularly paid tribute to the songwriting genius of a fellow New York legend, Bob Dylan – who moved to the city in the early 1960s. Much like Reed himself, the songwriting of Dylan is undeniable, with the folk star responsible for some of the most profound prose of all time.
Sharing his appreciation for Dylan’s lyrics, Reed said, “Now, other than Dylan, there’s not much there. […] The thing Dylan did with Sam Shepherd, ‘Brownsville Girl’, I mean, I think that is one of the greatest things I ever heard in my life.”
Explaining, “I fell down laughing. You can listen to that, you can listen to the words going on and it’s tremendous.”
Although Reed’s appraisal of Dylan is more than a little reductive, it does show a rare glimpse at the true feelings of the Velvet Underground frontman. While everything he ever said is subject to question, his appreciation for the great songwriters of the world seemed to be as genuine as he ever got.
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