So Far, So Close

It's hard to imagine two musicians more different from each other than Frank Zappa and Lou Reed. Aside from nationality, they have practically nothing in common. One was ironic, bizarre, intolerant of any kind of dependency, and obsessed with technique; the other was tragic, cursed, proudly attached to his three- or four-chord compositions, and dependent on substances.

For annia this distance led Lou Reed to voice some extremely harsh judgments about Frank Zappa. There's a famous statement from the Seventies in which he calls him "probably the least talented person I've ever heard," accusing him of being "pretentious" and incapable of playing real rock'n'roll. Knowing Lou Reed, this wasn't simple dislike or competition: the two were playing entirely different games, so real competition couldn't even exist. Those words instead reveal the existence of two opposing ideas of the avant-garde, two divergent ways of being unique within a musical world that constantly tends toward standardization.

After years of mutual indifference, during which both consistently pursued their own path, on December 4, 1993 Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer diagnosed too late. It was the beginning of another story.

It was indeed Lou Reed who paid tribute to him during his induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1995. In his speech, the New York songwriter set aside his old invectives and sincerely highlighted the honesty and consistency of an artist who was much more than just a rock musician: one of those people who "leave things better than they found them." Reed admitted he regretted not having had the chance to know him better, and he admired his purity and consistency, qualities rarely found in the music industry.

According to Reed, Zappa's irony and supposed vulgarity were his way of exposing the hypocrisy of American society, false and self-righteous, forcing it to confront itself without filters. Deep down, he seems to acknowledge that the two of them always had something in common: both outsiders, both wary of the majors, both determined to defend their own identity to the very end.

If Lou Reed dismantled the lies of American society and its politicians through tragedy, Zappa did so through irony and mockery. Perhaps, then, the two were closer than anyone was willing to believe — and both left the world better than they found it.

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30/03/2026