(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Wed 25 June 2025 17:09, UK
So many bands and artists in the world of alternative music feel like cold soup warmed up when they are interviewed. So media trained and scared of public backlash for anything they might say, most artists these days tend to either avoid showing themselves in conversations with the media or choose to just pump out highly curated social media posts as their way to connect with the fans. It’s all very beige. Late frontman of The Velvet Underground and master of glam rock, Lou Reed was one of the most colourful personalities that music has ever seen.
A prickly character, alongside his pioneering musical efforts, he was famous for his vitriolic tongue, and over the years, fans, journalists and peers all felt his wrath. We’d be lying if we said watching Reed tear people apart hadn’t entertained us, but at points, it could be so vengeful that it made for uncomfortable watching.
It would be a different story if Lou Reed was some forgettable has-been, but he was one of the greatest songwriters of all time, and this is why he was given the pedestal to destroy people with such reckless abandon. What the man did to advance music and culture cannot be understated, meaning that his criticisms of others weren’t coming from unfounded places. His back catalogue speaks for itself, and if it didn’t then he certainly could have.
The songwriter was perhaps one of the quickest draws when it came to firing insults and routinely took shots at some of the biggest stars in the business. But perhaps his most devastating ability was to cut so quickly and so hard that he showcased the very nub of the issues for all to see. Simply put: he was harsh, but quite often right.
That’s not to say he was a barbarian. Accounts of Reed’s personality varied wildly depending on who was asked. The pattern was no enigma; if Reed liked someone, he would sing their praises to anyone within earshot and likely get on well with them, but if he wasn’t fond of you or your art, you’d better hope he wasn’t asked about you in an interview. Rarely did Reed back down from a straight question, and his responses usually came back with similar intensity and a scything arrow-like direction.
Although we could spend an age discussing Lou Reed’s artistic efforts, it would be rude not to concentrate on the many hilarious times he tore into some of his most prominent musical peers. Of course, some of his most famous targets were the likes of The Beatles and The Doors, but many others also found themselves in the firing line.
Unfortunately, one of the most lauded groups Reed had in his crosshairs were art-rock masters Roxy Music, which is somewhat surprising when you note that both share many artistic similarities. The story goes that after Reed left The Velvet Underground in 1970, he spent more time in the UK, and it was here that he recorded his first solo album and its acclaimed successor, Transformer.
With David Bowie and Mick Ronson producing Transformer, it was imbued with a heavy sense of glam, which led to him being hailed as a pioneer of the genre alongside the likes of his producers, Mark Bolan and, of course, Roxy Music. However, Reed made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of the Bryan Ferry-led troupe, and it might be to do with the fact that he hated British rock ‘n’ roll.
“I don’t Like ’em,” Reed said in an interview in the mid-’70s. “I saw them at the Bowie concert, and we were all there waiting to be impressed. They bored me, and I went out half-way to get a drink. I’ve heard some of the other stuff that’s supposed to be up my alley. But they don’t know what they’re talking about. I’ve been doing this stuff a long time, and all of a sudden people are starting to talk about it. They’re saying: ‘Hey, look, we’re civilised, man, and we want to know about it.’”
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