Havel and Lou Reed: how a New York band helped shape Czech freedom

This sounds invented and is mostly true. In the early 1970s a few young men in communist Czechoslovakia passed round smuggled records by a New York band most of the world had ignored. Twenty years on, the country's president was a playwright who admired the same band, and its singer came to Prague to meet him.

That is the thread between Václav Havel and Lou Reed. Some of it is well documented, some has been polished by retelling, and I've tried to keep the two apart.

Why the Velvets mattered in Prague

The Velvet Underground were never a mainstream hit in the 1960s. In Czechoslovakia, after the Soviet-led invasion of August 1968 ended the Prague Spring, they became something more: a sound the authorities disliked and young people therefore took seriously.

The band that took it up most famously was The Plastic People of the Universe, formed in 1968. They played their own songs and covers, Velvet Underground material among them, and refused to adapt to what the regime wanted. Bands needed official approval to perform. The Plastic People never got it, and carried on in private parties, village halls and tape copies. For the political backdrop, see the Prague Spring of 1968 explained.

The trial that changed things

In March 1976 police arrested members of the Plastic People and people around them, and several were tried later that year. The charge was disturbing the peace, not music itself, but everyone understood what was being punished.

The case shocked many people with no interest in rock, among them writers and former reformers silenced after 1968. Havel was one. The solidarity around the trial is generally counted among the strands that led to Charter 77, the January 1977 declaration demanding that the government respect the human rights it had signed up to. Havel was one of its first spokespeople.

A president who liked rock

When Havel took office he did something unusual for a head of state: he made no secret of liking rock. He received Western musicians in Prague and drew a line from the underground of the 1970s to the freedom of 1990. Frank Zappa visited in January 1990. Lou Reed met Havel in April 1990, and the two stayed in touch. Accounts of the details of that meeting differ, so treat dinner-table stories with care. What isn't in doubt is that Havel regarded the music as part of the story of his generation, and said so.

Following the thread in Prague

There's no Velvet Underground museum, but you can see the context.

• Start with the Velvet Revolution explainer.
• The Václav Havel Library in the centre keeps his archive and holds public events; check its website for what's open.
• Historic coffeehouses, including Café Slavia, which Havel's circle frequented, are in our guide to historic Prague cafés.
• Prague's international airport has carried Havel's name since 2012.
• For music rather than monuments, Lucerna Palace, built by Havel's family, is the best single stop for a concert and some history.
• Havel grew up a few doors from the Dancing House, the building he backed for the empty site beside his old home.

What the story is really about

In a country where public culture was controlled, a rock band's music became a way of saying your life belonged to you. When the system changed, people who had listened in secret ended up in government, and some wanted the musicians who inspired them to see the result. Reed died in 2013, two years after Havel.

Reading Havel

If this makes you want the man himself, start with his essay The Power of the Powerless (1978), which argues that ordinary people sustain a regime by pretending to believe in it, so refusing the pretence is a political act. His plays, such as The Memorandum, are absurdist comedies about bureaucracy and language, and Letters to Olga collects the letters he wrote to his wife from prison.

Frequently asked questions

Did Václav Havel really meet Lou Reed?

Yes. Lou Reed met Havel in April 1990, when Havel was president, and they stayed in contact. For specifics, rely on the Václav Havel Library and reputable archives.

Who were The Plastic People of the Universe?

A Prague underground rock band formed in 1968 that played its own songs and Velvet Underground material without official approval. Their 1976 trial became a rallying point for dissidents.

Was the Velvet Revolution named after the Velvet Underground?

The standard explanation is that it was 'velvet' because the change of power was smooth and non-violent. A link to the band is a popular story.

Can I see anything connected with Havel in Prague?

Yes: the Václav Havel Library, the airport that bears his name and the historic cafés and theatres of the centre are the usual starting points.