An Animated Lou Reed Explains The Velvet Underground’s Artistic Goals, and Why The Beatles Were “Garbage”

Blank on Blank returns this week with anoth­er one of their groovy ani­ma­tions. This time, we find Lou Reed recall­ing the goals and ambi­tions of his avant-garde rock band, The Vel­vet Under­ground. We want­ed, he says, “to ele­vate the rock n’ roll song, to take it where it had­n’t been tak­en before.” And, in his hum­ble opin­ion, they did just that, far exceed­ing the musi­cal out­put of con­tem­po­rary bands like The Doors and The Bea­t­les, which he respec­tive­ly calls “stu­pid” and “garbage.” If you lis­ten to the com­plete inter­view record­ed in 1987 (web — iTunes), you’ll hear Lou diss a lot of bands. But which one did he give props to? U2. Go fig­ure.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Lou Reed Reads Del­more Schwartz’s Famous Sto­ry “In Dreams Begin Respon­si­bil­i­ties”

Teenage Lou Reed Sings Doo-Wop Music (1958–1962)

Watch Red Shirley, Lou Reed’s Short Doc­u­men­tary on His Fas­ci­nat­ing 100-Year-Old Cousin (2010)