Originally Posted by
On another board
First thing you learn is that you always gotta wait”
Sorry this AOTW is a bit late – I screwed up the time difference thingy.
The reason I have called you all together is to talk to you about The Velvet Underground. Everybody knows the Velvets, right? Well, surprisingly, like a lot of bands I get the sense they are more talked about and revered than listened to. But I think they are so essential, and so great, that having a listen is totally worthwhile.
This is not going to be an immaculately researched and footnoted wall of text, what I am going to do is give a brief overview, then a headsup on the albums, then a totally indulgent Top 10 of my favourite tracks.
So, imagine its New York City in the early -mid 1960’s. The band has four members:
Lou Reed: Reed had been a paid songwriter for a record company, been to college, plays guitar and sings.
John Cale: Cale is Welsh, i.e. from Wales and is a classically trained viola player who ended up in New York to pursue avant garde music career.
Sterling Morrison: guitarist. Played with Lou in an earlier band.
Maureen Tucker. Drummer and quite the avant gardist (is that a word?) herself.
Andy Warhol’s Factory happening thing is like, where all the hep cats are at, man. And he becomes their manager (in 1965). He is the darling of the art world and they get a recording contract. And he has this multimedia extravaganza thing called the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, which tours. And the Velvets provide the music for it. Pretty easy to roll your eyes at this point and go “Fuck off, hippies, or “Fuck off art-wank”. But persevere! What saves us is the songs.
The songs are incredible. You have two main themes going on: the total avant garde thing personified by Cale, and the pop sensibility of Reed. And they write songs about shit that no one else is writing songs about at the time: sado masochism, scoring drugs, transvestitism, weird ass stuff that they see. And sometimes it sounds like a popsong. Sometimes not so much.
The officially recorded/released output is only four albums!* You really need all four.
1967 “The Velvet Underground and Nico” - This is the record with the banana on it. Warhol was the nominal producer, and Nico who was a chanteuse (whatever that is – I thought it was some kind of weird liqueur) sings on some songs. (Thus, the & Nico) thing. She flat out cannot sing. Honestly, she is flat. And her voice is deep. I used to hate her songs on this record but I am (to coin a phrase) “Beginning to see the light”. Having said that, this album has “Heroin” (Hey kids, lets do some drugs”) “Waiting for the Man” (Hey kids, lets go uptown to score some drugs” ) and “Run Run Run” on it so I pretty much used to skip her vocals. Not so much lately though. The deep flat drone kind of works with some of the more drone-y material.
1968: White Light/White Heat. By this stage Warhol has been ditched, so has Nico, and the band are doing what they do. John Cale is on record as saying the record is “Anti- beauty” This album has the song “White Light/White Heat” on it which is (surprise.....) about drugs. Amphetamines to be precise. There are a couple of more experimental pieces (“The Gift” and “Lady Godivas Operation”) plus the songs about drag queens and lobotomies etc. This (despite WL/WH) was the album I took the longest to get into. I find it really great to listen to late at night when tired though, for some reason.
1969: The Velvet Underground. Cale is out! Reed seizes control! Pop songs abound! New member is Doug Yule who was shoulder tapped after Cale left. This is stark contrast to the last album which is quite abrasive described by Robert Christgau as "folk rock". This has some killer material though: “Pale Blue Eyes”, “What Goes on” and “Beginning to see the Light”
1970 Loaded. This is actually the first record of theirs I ever heard. A guy I flatted with loved it and would play it over and over. Not hard to see why: “Lonesome Cowboy Bill” “Sweet Jane” “Rock and Roll”, seriously there is not a bad song on this record. If you only buy one album, make it this one.
And thats it. Two other things to mention. The “lost” album of 1969: they did some recording while on the road, they argued with their record company but they recorded some stellar stuff. This was eventually released (in the 80’s?) as VU. Get it for “Foggy Notion” if for no other reason.
The final footnote is an album by Doug Yule (trading as The Velvet Underground) in 1973 called “Squeeze”. I’ve never heard it. I doubt I would buy it.
Oh yeah, if you’re buying Velvets stuff again probably your best bet is to pick up the “Peel Slowly and See” boxset. If for no other reason than the liner notes are great, plus you get hugely expanded (and in some cases demos and alternate mixes and stuff) editions of the four studio albums and another of demos etc. The “Fully loaded” reissues are also good. There is also a huge vinyl boxset I eye hungrily whenever I go into my LRS. But for nearly $300 it can sit there a bit longer....
OK: my self indulgent top ten (I am reading Nick Hornby’s HIGH FIDELITY at present):
10:What Goes On
9:Sunday Morning
8:Pale Blue Eyes
7: Heroin
6: New Age
5: White Light/White Heat
4: Sweet Jane
3: Run Run Run
2: Rock and Roll
1: Foggy Notion ( no idea why. I love this song. I have a playlist at work which is this song repeated five times...)
samples:
[youtube]NcDuR9BF0Oc[/youtube]
[youtube]nkumhBVPGdg[/youtube] There is also the Lou Reed solo kick ass rock and roll version of this on Rock N Roll Animal. That plus the intro are worth the entry price
[youtube]CiT_O90jkUI[/youtube]
[youtube]VEM1wayCOjI[/youtube] Sister Ray live in 1969 (listen to that git-box!)
one more:
[youtube]RT6lL7DGb2Q[/youtube]
Anyway, I feel I have kind of half arsed this a bit. but its difficult to find a balance with such an important and well known act. If this does nothing else than inspire someone to dust off some dusty old CD's or (even beter) records, then I am happy.
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