Lou Reed Never Liked The Beatles Because 'They Were Garbage'

The PBS Digital Studios series Blank on Blank recently unearthed an old interview with Lou Reed where he trashes two of your dad's favorite bands: The Doors and The Beatles.

In the interview, which was recorded in 1987, Reed said his goal with Velvet Underground was to "elevate" rock songs to a higher ground than previously realized.

"I'm saying, from my point of view, I know this sounds pretentious, but I just thought the other stuff couldn't even come up to our ankles," he said of some of the group's contemporaries. "Not up to my kneecap, not up to my ankles, the level we were on compared to everyone else. They were painfully stupid and pretentious. Then when they did try to get in quotes, 'arty,' it was worse than stupid rock and roll. What I mean by stupid, I mean the Doors."

Asked about John Lennon and the Beatles, Reed didn't hide his disdain.

"I never liked the Beatles," he said. "I thought they were garbage."

Not that either the Beatles or the Doors should feel too upset. "If you said like, 'Who did you like?'" Reed added, "I liked nobody."

Watch the full Blank on Blank video below.