Lou Reed calls The Beatles “garbage” and The Doors “stupid” in an interview

An interview with the late Lou Reed from 1987 has been digitalised and animated by Blank on Blank for their PBS series.

The project is a mission to “preserve and re-imagine the American interview”, with Lou Reed the latest figure to be recast by animation. The original interview dates back to 20th March, 1987 with journalist Joe Smith, recently uncovered from the Library of Congress in America.

The five minute interview features Reed discusses chasing college kids of his lawn with a shotgun, as well as disclosing that he wanted to write “the great American novel” when studying English at Syracuse University.

On his time with Velvet Underground, Reed said “What we had was ambition and a goal…to elevate the rock and roll song and take it where it hadn’t been taken before.” He goes on to say The Beatles were “garbage” and that the Doors were “stupid”, considering both artists not in the same league as his band.

Watch the animation which features Lou Reed’s interview from 1987, below.