Julian Casablancas on The Velvet Underground: “I couldn’t believe this wasn’t the most popular music”
No artist sets out to be ahead of their time when they start. Musicians often simply write what’s in their hearts, and finding a massive audience is usually an unexpected bonus. While The Strokes received a rapturous reception upon their debut, Julian Casablancas felt that The Velvet Underground deserved similar acclaim, considering them one of rock’s true pioneers.
For all of their accolades now, though, Lou Reed’s brainchild was practically the laughingstock of the underground rock scene at the time. Critics wanted absolutely nothing to do with them, and since most wanted to hear something adjacent to The Beatles, it’s clear that a song like ‘Heroin’ or ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’ wasn’t going to sit well with them when they put the needle on the vinyl.
But Reed wasn’t really writing for that crowd, anyway. All that he knew about was life in the gutter half the time, so writing about what he saw on the street was the only way for him to document what was happening. No one was going to hear him write an upbeat love song that could compete with The Beach Boys, but he really didn’t want to get people’s attention by going along with the program.
No, they got people’s attention because of how much they went against the grain. White Light/White Heat had a reputation for being one of the most unlistenable albums of the late 1960s, but considering what it did for the world of noise rock later on, Reed was actually well ahead of the curve.
For Casablancas, The Velvets were his bible for everything that was cool about rock and roll, telling Rolling Stone, “The Velvet Underground were way ahead of their time. And their music was weird. But it also made so much sense to me. I couldn’t believe this wasn’t the most popular music ever made.”
Even though The Velvet Underground was a product of its time in some respects, it’s not like they were that hard to understand, either. Yes, they did have songs that were a bit rough around the edges, but there are just as many gorgeous pieces of their discography that everyone takes for granted, like the tender love song ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ or the Beach Boys-esque pastiche on ‘Sunday Morning’.
And if anyone has listened to The Strokes at any point in their lives, chances are they owe Reed’s estate royalties at this point. Casablancas may have been upfront when talking about stealing from artists like Tom Petty on ‘Last Nite’, but everything from his dry vocal tone to his too-cool-for-school demeanour onstage is something that Reed had down to a science before he was even born.
But maybe that’s why The Velvet Underground are put up on such a high pedestal. They were never that cool in the first place, yet they found out that if the music sticks around long enough, all sense of critical acclaim fades away.
