The three musical icons Lou Reed thought were “talentless”
Lou Reed was a truly singular talent – his whole career was built on that. From the moment he emerged, he became a reference point. Bands wanted to sound like The Velvet Underground, and artists aspired to match the conceptual ambition of his solo work. That’s the reward – and sometimes the cost – of forging your own path. Along the way, Reed met collaborators who understood him completely. But he also crossed paths with plenty of people he didn’t like, or couldn’t understand.
The singularity comes into play here, too. While Reed’s taste and scope of influence were incredibly eclectic, and the man clearly wasn’t shy about venturing outside of the genres he first fell in love with, it was more his artistic ethos and understanding of what it is that wouldn’t budge. Sometimes, that fostered incredible and enriching friendships or introduced him to idols. A shared understanding of creativity drew him to David Bowie. Reed’s ideas around lyricism and poetry led him to love Bob Dylan. It led him to his Velvet Underground bandmates, even if it also pulled him away from them. But when those things clashed, they clashed badly.
And, of course, Reed was never shy about it. In the days before media training, artists would be unrestrained in laying down exactly how they felt about the music world around them, not being scared to name names and dish out criticism, even if it simply came down to not meshing with the music.
In Reed’s case, though, it was often less about the music and more about the man. Things often got personal as he didn’t just criticise a particular song or project, but would go straight for the person behind the microphone or the guitar.
Pete Townshend would attest to that as one man on the receiving end. In 1969, The Who were riding high off the back of Tommy, their majorly acclaimed record that feels like the kind of conceptual piece that Reed might like. But no, he didn’t. “Tommy is such – Jesus, how people get sucked into that,” Reed said, making his feelings know. Out of all the band members, Townshend caught the blows as Reed continued, “So talentless, and as a lyricist [Townshend is] so profoundly untalented, and, you know, philosophically boring to say the least,” essentially calling The Who member dumb.
Something or someone being dumb or lacking depth was often a reason for Reed’s hatred. It was one of many, many reasons why he hated Jim Morrison—but really, this was nothing new or surprising. The Doors singer had few fans in the industry. In particular, he had few fans in the industry on the East Coast, as the New York scene never really meshed with the LA band’s hippie, spiritual energy.
“We had vast objections to the whole San Francisco scene. It’s just tedious, a lie and untalented,” Reed once said, taking shots at a whole scene as he said, “They can’t play, and they certainly can’t write.” But it was Morrison who came to represent that as he added about The Doors, they “were just painfully stupid and pretentious, and when they did try to get ‘arty,’ it was worse than stupid rock and roll.”
In case you missed the dig, he clarified it when he said, “What I mean by ‘stupid,’ I mean, like, The Doors.”
‘Talentless’, ‘Stupid’; Reed’s insults are getting harsher and harsher until they hit the ultimate red mark next to any musician’s name, ‘loser’. That’s the label he assigned to Frank Zappa, another West Coast artist he could see no appeal in. “He’s a two-bit pretentious academic, and he can’t play his way out of anything,” he said, adding, “He can’t play rock ’n’ roll because he’s a loser. And that’s why he dresses up funny. He’s not happy with himself, and I think he’s right.”
But Zappa perhaps got the clearest and most cutting take down of all as Reed looked right down the barrel of an interview and said simply, “He’s probably the single most untalented person I’ve heard in my life.” Harsh words, incredibly harsh.
