Lou Reed Dies At 71: How The Velvet Underground Musician Influenced Hispanic Julian Casablancas Of The Strokes

Lou Reed, legendary singer and songwriter and frontman of the Velvet Underground died today aged 71, Rolling Stone reports. The cause of death has not yet been released. Reed was one of the most influential musicians of the last 50 years, both with the ground-breaking Velvet Underground and through his own solo career. As part of New York's proto-punk rock scene, Reed "fused street-level urgency with elements of European avant-garde music, marrying beauty and noise, while bringing a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry." Although the Velvet Underground experienced little commercial success, they have been credited as one of the most influential bands of the 1960s: as Brian Eno explains, they may habe only sold 30,000 copies in its early years, but "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band."

Julian Casablancas was one such musician who started a little band called The Strokes. You might have heard of them. Casablancas sites Reed and the Velvet Underground as one of his greatest musical influences. He says the band "were way ahead of their time." It was Reed's amazing songwriting in particular that influenced the Strokes frontman: in his Rolling Stone article on the cult band, Casablancas writes about how Reed captured the spirit of the era through his lyrics: "[he] could be romantic in the way he portrayed these crazy situations, but he was also intensely real. It was poetry and journalism." The Strokes' initial sound was also hugely influenced by Underground: Casablancas describes how he "listened to Loaded all the time when we started the band, while I was writing my first songs." More than anything, Casablancas credits The Velvet Underground for giving him the most important lesson in music "they taught me just to be myself."

Casablancas was able to meet his long-time idol at a screening of "Blow" with Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz. The experience didn't go quite how Casablancas imagined. He recounts "Lou Reed was there in the line and I was really freaked out that I was right next to him - Lou Reed! I couldn't help myself, I just had to go, 'Hey, I'm just a huge fan, and I know you get this all the time,' and he didn't look amused at all," he explains. "Just out of curiosity I said, 'Have you ever heard of a band called The Strokes?' -- this was only about six months ago -- and he just looked at me and said, 'No,' really grumpy and short."