The Velvet Underground & Nico poll

hard as fuck

but i gotta vote Heroin

1, 2, 4, 6 or 9

love nico?

yeah those two songs especially, but choosing between the five is impossible.

These days it's 'I'll be your mirror', but in three weeks it might well be another. 1-2, 4, 6-7 and 9 are all contenders in my book.

by elimination - i wouldn't vote for 1,3,6 and 9 - they are great of course (except maybe Mirror), but the others are even better.

no love here for Femme Fatale (yet)

you know why i made this poll?

because lou reed is dead! that's why!

lol tell mazzy star 9 ain't great

I don't dislike it or anything, the chorus is great, especially the backing vox. But it's not a favorite of mine, no.

xpost

the songs here are basically divided to 1/3 arty twee 1/3 garage 1/3 psych/experimental/ proto everything

Has to be "Heroin". As mentioned in one of the Lou Reed threads, it's the one I played in the school common room to annoy my fellow pupils after I'd sneaked my sister's copy of the album into school one day. I also took this album to the school Rock Appreciation Society (run by an eccentric right wing teacher who had a massive collage cut out from NMEs/Melody Makers on his wall) and my friend David Judge brought in his brother's copy of "Dance of the Lemmings" by Amon Duul II.

8 just makes me think of this johnny marr interview where he said when he wrote the intro to there's a light that never goes out he was trying to catch people out because the vu were very in vogue at the time and everyone would think he lifted it from 8 but in fact he lifted from the stones version of hitchhiker (wtf?)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Aq2VpBYzwHQ/ThE_AcRqWtI/AAAAAAAABY0/uyFzmlhRCOs/s1600/poster.jpg

btw 11 divided by 3 is 3 and two-thirds

1, 4, 6, or 7

^4 of the greatest songs ever

"Waiting for the Man" vs. "I'll Be Your Mirror" -- would have to flip a coin.

I think "Run Run Run" is maybe the most underrated, if anything on this album can be called underrated. Though it's also the most Dylanish -- you could sing the verses of "Highway 61 Revisited" over it.

femme fatale

Impossible poll...

^

One of the most consistently great all the way through records for sure

All Tomorrow's Parties has it all.

voted I'm Waiting For the Man. Something about the pulse of that song, the way it's just like ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE instead of 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4. I had never heard anything like that before I heard this record and it made a huge impression on me.

Something about the pulse of that song, the way it's just like ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE instead of 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4

Owes something to "Season of the Witch" perhaps? Actually I don't know when that was released, so maybe not.

It reminds me more of minimalism

I'll never forget the first time I heard the Velvet Underground, watching Oliver Stone's THE DOORS.
Venus in Furs

I abstain. I played "Run Run Run" alone yesterday cuz I wanted to hear it; but I don't think you can, if yer taking this srsly, vote for that or "FF" bcz if all the tracks were like either of those, it wd not be a landmark album.

... uh, not. "Season of the Witch" was released in September 1966. (xxxxp)

agreed morbius, but that's damn cool filler we're talking about

agreed about Run Run Run but not Femme Fatale. Maybe I just have a special place in my heart for that song because my wife and I have had a years-running thing of imitating Nico in that song to each other.

"WHAT A CLOWN"

VAT A CLOWN

clone

The line in "Venus in Furs" where Lou impersonates Nico "Bleeeeeeeeeeeeed for meeee" then audibly smirks...

it's VAT A CLON

lol fish bringin the mathematical realness

Her voice plus the fuzzy red-line production makes FF so weird. You don't know whether to laugh or run away.

VIF: is it bleed or plead?

no it's what a clown, just in a berlin accent

the songs here are basically divided to 1/3 arty twee 1/3 garage 1/3 psych/experimental/ proto everything

^^^ this (math be damned) and each third balances out the other two wonderfully. Hell of a journey between "Sunday Morning" and "European Son."

I guess I'm playing it this week cuz I don't remember how "European Son" goes

It goes drone/scrape/drone/squeak/drone...

This may be discussed on another thread, but has anyone read James Young's Nico book? Any good? I mean, is there value to it beyond just, "boy was Nico a wreck in the '80s"?

...and sound of breaking glass

"European Son" is my vote and tbh the one i always want to hear off this, the others blow in and out

This may be discussed on another thread, but has anyone read James Young's Nico book? Any good? I mean, is there value to it beyond just, "boy was Nico a wreck in the '80s"?

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Monday, November 4, 2013 4:39 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...and sound of breaking glass

― OutdoorFish, Monday, November 4, 2013 4:41 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bleak lol at this xpost

after listening to this alb, on and off, for the best part of 30 years, I finally got to stand at Lexington/125 earlier this year, so just had to vote for 'Waiting...'

Forget the lyrics. "Venus in Furs" is so sexy and odd and wondrous.

"Heroin," just barely over "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "Tomorrow's Parties." Least favourite: "Venus and Furs," "I'll Be Your Mirror."

One of the last two - probably "Black Angel..."

There's an amazing couple of minutes in Jonas Mekas's As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty that uses "Run Run Run" as Mekas's kid runs around frantically. Skimmed through the half of the film that's up on YouTube, but couldn't find it.

i read a book about nico but i don't remember which one it was. it definitely talked a lot about how much of a mess she was in the 80s.

can I vote for the banana?

nico icon wasn't exactly a flattering portrait, kinda flawed but compelling.

She was a despicable racist scumbag

also I would have to vote "Venus in furs", one of my favorite songs (and inexplicably the first song my kid ever said "yay!" about at the end)

"All Tomorrow's Parties" - mono album version. Scepter Studios forever.

xp James Young's book is one of my favourite rock memoirs ever. He's a fantastic writer and it's as much about life bumping along the bottom of the music industry as it is about Nico.

^^this

In the restaurant at the Chelsea Hotel sometime in the very early 1970s, Nico sat with a bunch of musicians, among them a beautiful mixed-race singer who'd worked with Jimi Hendrix. According to Fields, "Nico was, I dunno, feeling neglected, or drunk, but suddenly she said 'I hate black people,' and smashed a wineglass on the table and stuck it in the girl's eye. There was lots of blood and screaming. Fortunately she just twisted it around her eye socket, so the glass never reached [the eye] but it's not like she was being cautious." Fields claims the Warhol crowd spirited Nico on to a plane and out of the country the next morning, while somehow managing to placate the victim and hush up the affair.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/mar/16/popandrock3

voted I'm Waiting For the Man. Something about the pulse of that song, the way it's just like ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE

Also see the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction".

Voted "Sunday Morning" cos GOD is that song too beautiful for words.

I never understood why mixed race people are more black than white. can anyone elucidate?

To a Nazi shithead like nico anything other than pure caucasian ancestry is to be abhorred obv

I always found something very scary about her eyes an facial expression

"[Hendrix] was the most sexual man I ever saw on stage", Nico confessed, "even Mick Jagger said so. It was not all the vulgar things he did with his guitar, though I enjoyed when he burned his guitar at the festival. It was his presence. He was like a cat. He moved elegantly for a man. He was suave. Did you know he was half Indian? Cherokee. I think these mixtures are very good. I am a mixture, part Turkish, part Russian. We would have made wonderful children together, such a mixture".

she had a kid with Alain Delon, looks exactly like Alain Delon..

No one should be overly surprised that Nico could be prone to contradict herself. However, that story from the Guardian is indeed horrible. It was new to me.

Alain Delon, as pretty as he was, is hardly an item for her defense. He's a miserable shithead.

she was the Ty Cobb of chanteuses

soz I misspoke: nazi shithead who fancied jimi hendrix

i never knew that either. really gross. but that's what i gathered from the book i read too -- that she just turned into a really mean/selfish/ugly to the core sort of person.
it was like she ended up spiritually hollow, and that's lamentable when it happens to anyone.

Yeah, that's about the impression I got from watching Nico: Icon last night. A long descent, basically.

she had a kid with Alain Delon, looks exactly like Alain Delon..

extended junkiedom usually accompanied by (or requires?) a certain narcissism (see also: Chet Baker)

thanking u, morbs

Actually before the kid even came up thought about posting in comedy French accent defending his mother's honor.

she was the Ty Cobb of chanteuses

Sunday Morning is the one I listen to most often

I remember buying this on cassette for £3.99 around 91 in the Our Price in Victoria station.

Supposedly, when she broke up with Lou Reed, he asked her why, and she simply said, "Louuuuu, I just can't sleep with Jews anymore!"

There's different versions of that story. One says he dumped her, and she was quoted on that afterwards.

i first listened to VU and Nico when i was 17.

I'm Waiting sounded very strange to me. the melody was good, but i didn't know what to think about the minimalist monotonic drumming.
obviously, the ONE ONE ONE drumming is what makes the song special. otherwise, it would be a garage number like There She Goes.

i remember loving Venus In Furs because of the violin and the dramatic atmosphere. now it's overplayed.

but Heroin was and still is the best song i heard from this record.
the straightforwardness and sincerity of it sounded amazing. they still do. the noisy -ahead of it's time- guitar in the 2nd part and the intensive drumming sounded so special and matched the lyrics perfectly. they still do.

Lee's voice didn't change much since, which is a virtue.

lou's of course..

after these stories of Nico just randomly stabbing people in the eye and shit i'm kinda picturing her tenure with VU being like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x3rzeDeOuk

5. "Run Run Run" 4:22
10. "The Black Angel's Death Song" Reed, Cale 3:11
11. "European Son" Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker 7:46

i like these the best

I take it all the people going for 5, 10, 11 didn't rate the third album very highly, but loved the second.

Different days of the week, bro.

love them all
xpost

WL/WH is my favourite Velvets album but on the debut I prefer the more straightahead material...and VIF.

also , White Light sound different from 5,10, and 11

eh I've always felt like the last 10 minutes of this album start to get a bit grating tbh

Venus. 2 is rock n roll, but ViF is so alien, so strange, and that's before you even ponder the lyrics

'european son' is the only song here i don't love. sounds like they wanted to do 'sister ray' but hadn't figured out how to do it yet.

Oh, the "Waiting for the man" thing:

I'm sure you all know the 'bang bang bang' of the piano, the surprise is that the mono version has the piano mixed right back and the guitar being the loudest instrument. I guess Lou was in for the mono mixing session then..

this is as tough as a poll gets.

i had to go with "sunday morning" though. painfully gorgeous, it anchors the whole record, ushers it in, creates space and a sense of anticipation, between the opening celesta and the bass, for all the noise, midday hustle and nocturnal weirdness to come later. it's a cliche to say that vu&nico changes lives, but it's true, and that change starts right there, with those opening notes...so you can't forget that. i can't. there's nothing subtle about it at all.

I love wlwh, I love booker t so much and I heard her call my name is brilliantly crazy, as is lgo in a totally different way. I think the third album is overall too soft for me as a whole, although it had brilliant songs. Taking the best track tracks from both albums, you have an album that rivals the debut. I prefer tge noise songs on wlwh to 10, 11 on this, concur with jd

Today it's "All Tomorrow's Parties"

"waiting" for me, despite good arguments here and elsewhere for many other tracks, because it's the one song on here that, when I heard it for the first time, I said "my God, this is the greatest rock song ever written."

always gonna be "all tomorrow's parties" for me

How can this not have been polled before? Heroin.
I met a lady named Rosebud at a museum opening tonight who claimed to have introduced Lou and Andy. She was the filmmaker Harry Smith's "wife" in the OTO--that Crowley Thelema religion where Smith was a high priest--and she was going on about Ludlow Street and how she thought Maureen was the most beautiful boy the first week she knew her and all about the Cafe Bizarre residency, etc. She said she went to Andy and said, "you gotta hear them, they are the future!" I gotta admit, she was strangely convincing but there are probably 100 people walking around who claim the same thing

love all these songs, but the for me the definitive versions of lots of them are elsewhere. waiting would be my no. 1, but the cale solo performances are how i think of it. second is mirror, but there are more delicate versions elsewhere, including lou reed solo.

sunday morning, venus in furs, all tomorrow's parties, and heroin are the four tracks that feel like they belong on this album and nowhere else. and of those, venus is just too self-important and ridiculous to vote as the best. of those i gotta go with heroin because it works as a song as much as a performance, but where this particular recording is the one where everything works -- the weakness in the voice, the uneasy un-groove it un-settles into, the hesitant toms. still just fucking thrilling.

oh god and cale strangling his viola in early art-freakout mode without that being the only point of the song. it has that balance that he followed for the rest of his career.

"All tomorrow's Parties" has such a harsh yet glorious ringing sound.

It's gorgeous.

This is one of those albums that I really wish I could have heard with no preconceptions. I can't imagine picking it up at random and trying to make sense of the band from "Sunday Morning" onward.

When i was a teen/tween i loved all the twee VU tracks and was mystified by the noisier, more challenging stuff. When it all "clicked" after i reallly felt the last minute or so of "heroin" it was world-exploding. I think a lot of listeners are similar: they form a relationship with some songs, with nico, and then are more willing to be led into artier music for the first time.

oh god and cale strangling his viola in early art-freakout mode without that being the only point of the song. it has that balance that he followed for the rest of his career.

so otm

cale's so great because he he's this bizarre mix of compromise and uncompromise

Yeah I think Heroin is the best at offering everything that this record has to offer

Waiting over Heroin.

Q: how many people listened to Heroin and thought, I'll have some of that please VS those who thought, this is amazing and all but thanks for the warning, never going to do that.

"sunday morning, venus in furs, all tomorrow's parties, and heroin are the four tracks that feel like they belong on this album and nowhere else."

otm

"How can this not have been polled before? "

see also the 3rd VU record

the noisy -ahead of it's time- guitar in the 2nd part

I think that's viola you're hearing there but I'm not sure what you mean by the 2nd part tbh

I take it all the people going for 5, 10, 11 didn't rate the third album very highly, but loved the second.

there is perfectly fine stuff on everything after WLWH but i don't think of it as the VU

In my first term at university this is one of the handful of albums that my new clique of friends could agree on so I heard it dozens of times. At first my favourite was Venus in Furs because it was weird, then Heroin because it was terrifying, then Sunday Morning because it was beautiful, then I wasn't sure. When this poll came up I wasn't going to vote because what's great about this album is that every track is a distinct entity, almost from a different band, so choosing a favourite becomes an apples-and-oranges situation, but when I did my ballot for the big Lou Reed poll I surprised myself by choosing I'm Waiting for the Man as my #1. It's just so relentless and perfect and startling, coming after Sunday Morning, and it tells you everything about Lou. His literary ambitions really make sense here - these could be the first lines of a novel. He doesn't just write explicitly about drugs, he gives you an address and a price tag. He puts you right there on the corner.

there is perfectly fine stuff on everything after WLWH but i don't think of it as the VU

VU in the 1969 is exactly what I think of as the VU

the first is + Nico
the third and fourth are - Cale
so WLWH is the only real VU record..

as if the terminology makes a difference..

"he noisy -ahead of it's time- guitar in the 2nd part

I think that's viola you're hearing there but I'm not sure what you mean by the 2nd part tbh"

the part after "and it's my wife haha" and yeah, it's a viola, but still, the SY/Les Rallizes Dénudés sound is ahead of it's time..

the jamc once said in an interview that heroin was the best song ever, apart from the violins

Guys I checked allmusic and it turns out all of those albums are by the velvet underground xps

even squeeze

Sure why not

(

Have never heard it)

JAMC also said I Wanna Be Your Dog was the best song ever "apart from that fucking horrible guitar solo". I used to love JAMC interviews.

Voted Sunday Morning.

that's not my post otm

they were a better band with Yule imo. I could listen to "Foggy Notion" and Live 1969 all day.

eh scratch that. Like Roxy, they weren't a better or worse band with the loss of an essential member, just different.

I take it all the people going for 5, 10, 11 didn't rate the third album very highly, but loved the second.
― OutdoorFish, Monday, 4 November 2013 22:58

i like 3rd a lot

(xp) My thoughts entirely, though tbh I listen to the Yule era about 100 times more often than the Cale era, although there is a lot more to listen to

Venus in Furs and European Son and maybe maybe Run Run Run are the only songs on this album that I occasionally skip. The rest is perfect. I voted Heroin even though the recorded version is just about the worst version of it in existence.

curious what you'd pick as better versions? i sort of feel the opposite way about it.

Same here

Basically any live version. I even love the version on the Live '93 disc, although I think most people don't.

Basically I think it's a much better song when the drums are in sync with the rest of the music.

The Noise is much better on the album version

Run Run Run -- it's all about that groove, and especially about the way those first four notes of the guitar solo rip so invigoratingly through the surface of the song

how ironic, got the flatmates cd I ordered today, very good. thought it was finished, went out the room and a bit later I hear music. huh? what d'ya know, a hidden track cover version of femme fatale.

Think I prefer the Columbus Run, Run, Run cos it sounds more like a Dresden air raid

My older brother bought the cassette of this in 1985, but it jumbled the running order to maximize tape (as pre-recorded cassettes often did). "Black Angel's Death Song" is second, and "I'm Waiting For The Man" is 10th. I actually prefer it that way; "Waiting" feels like a more natural lead-in to "European Son."

So weird to go from Sunday Morning to Black Angel's Death Song imo

It didn't seem weird to me at the time (that is, for the first 10 years or so that I was listening to it -- I didn't know it was the wrong running order until Peel Slowly came out), but in retrospect, it does seem odd.

It worked, though; after the lilting "Sunday Morning" I thought, "Wow, what a nice pop song! Wonder what all the fuss was about? Why were they so reviled?" (cue "Black Angel's") "OH, I UNDERSTAND NOW."

yeah that is strange. my cassette was in the same order as the LP, but the cassette of wlwh was different from the LP. I heard her call my name opened the second side.

It does on the LP, too.

I bought the cassette in '85 too, and after playing "Sunday Morning" I wondered where the proto-punk noise was; then, instead of continuing through to "Watiting For The Man", I flipped it and got to hear the final few minutes of "European Son" instead.

I knew it was going to be an interesting trajectory from start to finish.

the way reed sings

oh
and i guess
i just don't know

at the very end of 'heroin' may be my favorite few seconds of vocal performance by anyone.

oh yeah, side one was the title track followed by sister ray, side two was call my name followed by the rest of side one

u spit on those under 21

european son is too short (the tune itself)

ATP

oh yeah, side one was the title track followed by sister ray, side two was call my name followed by the rest of side one

― OutdoorFish, Tuesday, November 5, 2013 2:48 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Weird! That's pretty much the worst/most anti-climactic imaginable running order for that record.

Is it true Velvet Underground albums were out-of-print in the early 80s?

out of personal reasons it has always been femme fatale for me. but sunday morning, run run run, all tomorrow's parties, i'll be your mirror and european son are as good or even better musically.

Very much so (xpost). I spent years assembling the first four, and my #1 and #3 are really oddball issues. I think it was Another View that sparked reissues in the mid-'80s.

Iirc, The two Atlantic/Cotillion album and 1969 Live were the only ones in continuous print.

^^this

Yeah i remember paying dearly for imported vu, in early eighties montreal

They were all out of print in Canada for about a decade. My copy of Loaded, bought sometime in the late '70s:

http://rymimg.com/lk/f/l/b0cf6ba57288f7161f51eed1e53a6530/1715872.jpg

I think there were reissues in about 1979. I know I was able to get the first couple of lps in the early 80s and remember Loaded being a mid-price lp.

There was an article on the band in NME in '79 or '80 that I thought coincided with reissues though maybe it was something else. Think I remember reading a review of various lps at some point in a set of music press that my elder brother had from the turn of the 80s.

I definitely remember reading an article on the best VU bootlegs somewhere in there too.
Really wish I still had that collection of the papers, had some very interesting stuff in.

Actually, it was VU that kicked off the reissue program in 1985. Their first 3 records were re-released simultaneously with VU's release. Another View came out in '86 or '87.

xp

No, I definitely got the lps new in the early years of the 80s. from racks that had a number of other copies.

But that was UK so may have been different on the other side of the Atlantic. Though surprised taht the label would miss there being some market for the material again.

First time I went to Amsterdam I was more amazed by all the VU records than the ubiquitous weed

a heady combination

aye sailor

According to Discogs & Nico has been issued 120 times around the world
including lp version in the US in 1978
& Netherlands and UK in 1981 & several European versions in 1983.

As I recall, there was a lot of talk about the VU in the early 80's - my knowledgeable friends were playing second-hand vinyl and making tapes for their friends. I think I got 'Loaded' on cassette in '86 or '87 or thereabouts.

I first saw the Velvets albums sometime before France declared war on Germany in August 1914; the tariff was so high at that point that I couldn't get a copy, so as the war raged copies around Europe vanished bit by bit.

VU, that's what I meant--the one with "I Can't Stand It."

My copy of the first one, which I also bought in '78 or thereabouts, is West German.

http://www.discogs.com/Velvet-Underground-Nico-The-Velvet-Underground-Nico/release/588673

(xpost) Okay, I must have one of those WWI copies.

When was Uptight published? That's early 80s sometime isn't it. Just wondering if that might be what prompted the NME article at the turn of the decade. Would definitely been covered anyway.
Maybe article was just band history on a group that was being talked about a lot. Not sure if previous 1973 version was deleted or still doing the rounds. Velvets were a band with large influence on punk & post-punk anyway.

Maya Deren let me look at her copy of White Light/White Heat, but she wouldn't play it for me. Said I wasn't ready.

did it have the peelable banana?

xxpost

WWI copies came with an actual banana, as the concept of 'peel slowly and see' still had kinks to be worked out.

Maya Deren let me look at her copy of White Light/White Heat, but she wouldn't play it for me. Said I wasn't ready.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), T

Maya Deren had reached her limit.

I take it it was peelable

collardio was like an octopus, vu albums all over the place

According to Discogs & Nico has been issued 120 times around the world
including lp version in the US in 1978

I think I can attest to this! I had a copy with no gatefold, no peelable banana, plastic inner sleeve. Bought new about a year before the reissues with the printed inner sleeve with Kurt Loder (?) liner notes came out.

"The Velvet Underground was a dark star in the giddy pop firmament of the 1960s."

Yep, that was Loder.

very tough poll but I really love Black Angel Death Song so there you go.

have lived w/ this record for over 25 years and ViF's patina of weird magic is still baffling & beguiling & rich w/ temporal distortion

ppl who call it overplayed and/or ridiculous and then pull the lever for heroin well I guess but I just don't know

I actually feel that more about 7 than 4

I found the NME article and it was a 1981 5 page thing based around an interview with Sterling, if that is indeed the same thing.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/magazines/magazinesenglish.html#uk
NME - 25 April 1981

The Lost History Of The Velvet Underground

Mary Harron

New Musical Express, April 25, 1981, p. 27-30 & 53

5-page article based on an interview with Sterling Morrison, with 8 B&W photographs - some rarely seen. Small insert on cover.

"The Velvet Underground were the first avant-garde rock band, and the greatest."

I had it my mind as being in the pretty much chronologically ordered pile around the same place as the first mentions of the Cramps. So could be this, with me trying to remember after 20+ years or could be another thing.

Sounds had a history in 1977. & Sounds was at pretty much the same level of popularity as NME & Melody Maker.

Velvet Underground starring Andy Warhol

Giovanni Dadomo

Sounds, May 14, 1977, p. 18-20 & 22

Full-page Velvet Underground cover: "The Velvets - A punk legend unpeeled". 4-page history by Giovanni Dadomo. Two other separate episodes about Lou Reed and solo.

Reproduced in Velvet Underground Scrapbook Volume 1.

"You wanna know about The Velvet Underground, is that right? I see, somebody told you that if you weren't for The Velvets there'd be no such thing as 'punk rock', or at the very least that today's teen rebels would probably look and sound one hell of a lot different if the V.U. had never existed. Not to mention the fact that without Lou Reed the people who make leather jackets and shades would probably have gone bankrupt years ago. Alright then, let me set you straight."

Hadn't realised that Uptight was as late as 1983 so I must have picked it up soon after it came out.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/books/books.html

& while I would have picked up the & Nico lp in late 1981 or 1982 I was already at least partially familiar with it from my elder brother's copy. I remember singing what I knew of Waiting For The Man as I walked around school when I was around 14.

I found the NME article and it was a 1981 5 page thing based around an interview with Sterling, if that is indeed the same thing.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/magazines/magazinesenglish.html#uk

NME - 25 April 1981

The Lost History Of The Velvet Underground

Mary Harron

New Musical Express, April 25, 1981, p. 27-30 & 53

5-page article based on an interview with Sterling Morrison, with 8 B&W photographs - some rarely seen. Small insert on cover.

"The Velvet Underground were the first avant-garde rock band, and the greatest."

====================================================================================================

I had it my mind as being in the pretty much chronologically ordered pile around the same place as the first mentions of the Cramps. So could be this, with me trying to remember after 20+ years or could be another thing.

Sounds had a history in 1977. & Sounds was at pretty much the same level of popularity as NME & Melody Maker.

Velvet Underground starring Andy Warhol

Giovanni Dadomo

Sounds, May 14, 1977, p. 18-20 & 22

Full-page Velvet Underground cover: "The Velvets - A punk legend unpeeled". 4-page history by Giovanni Dadomo. Two other separate episodes about Lou Reed and solo.

Reproduced in Velvet Underground Scrapbook Volume 1.

"You wanna know about The Velvet Underground, is that right? I see, somebody told you that if you weren't for The Velvets there'd be no such thing as 'punk rock', or at the very least that today's teen rebels would probably look and sound one hell of a lot different if the V.U. had never existed. Not to mention the fact that without Lou Reed the people who make leather jackets and shades would probably have gone bankrupt years ago. Alright then, let me set you straight."
====================================================================================================

Hadn't realised that Uptight was as late as 1983 so I must have picked it up soon after it came out.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/books/books.html

& while I would have picked up the & Nico lp in late 1981 or 1982 I was already at least partially familiar with it from my elder brother's copy. I remember singing what I knew of Waiting For The Man as I walked around school when I was around 14.

Remember seeing this UK comp a lot when I was first getting into the Velvets in the early 80s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol's_Velvet_Underground_Featuring_Nico

Yeah, my sister had that, or borrowed it or something, that was where I first heard "Sister Ray". Lou Reed was not exactly an unknown in the 70s, so I don't think the Velvets were exactly languishing in obscurity until the 80s.

Heh first time I ever heard 'Sister Ray' was on 'Closer' by Joy Division. Seeing the name Morrison in the songwriting credits, I thought it was a Doors cover.

Anyone else got this compilation? It was my introduction to the VU. For some reason it seems to be quite rare.

http://eil.com/images/main/Velvet+Underground+-+Andy+Warhol%27s+Velvet+Underground+Featuring+Nico+-+DOUBLE+LP-361886.jpg

Oops, sorry, I didn't see that it was mentioned just upthread.

ward, you mean Still

i do, i do

Anagram, yep, me too. This was the only thing available for that time where the LPs seemed to be 'unavailable/missing', along w/ "Squeeze" at the time.

Heh first time I ever heard 'Sister Ray' was on 'Closer' by Joy Division. Seeing the name Morrison in the songwriting credits, I thought it was a Doors cover.

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 09:44 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and so did I. To my 'older, cooler' friends. They were kind....

Goddess on the mountain top
Burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS8VcNy1c6uF6qcmdjuFHUMJEBTjH7pH8y2g3TPSs08eFU8yleupLE-mOc

That one needs a varispeed turntable

anna magnifying glass

My sister had this (and I assume still has it):

http://images.45cat.com/the-velvet-underground-inside-your-heart-aeb.jpg

"I'm Waiting sounded very strange to me. the melody was good, but i didn't know what to think about the minimalist monotonic drumming.
obviously, the ONE ONE ONE drumming is what makes the song special. otherwise, it would be a garage number like There She Goes."

as demonstrated in the 1969 live record

Anagram: I bought that double in the States in the early '80s, I think right after I left a French import of WL/WH in a car trunk after some drunken escapade (not a stupor, though)--I think it contained the whole album, or very close. I kept it for a while, then traded it to a friend and resumed looking.

ppl who call it overplayed--Don't think you could ever say that about any of their albums. Over-written-about, over-name-dropped, etc., yes, but unless you're overplaying it yourself--in which case you shouldn't be complaining to yourself about yourself--no one else is in any kind of a public context.

I think what people are referring to is overexposure. that's not my opinion, but how I interpret overplayed. I did get thst sense with nevermind, however.

Guys, Gerard Malanga is giving a reading at the Jefferson Market library tomorrow.

Or maybe he is just introducing a reading.

Will he bring his whip?
Will he bring his cigarette buttss?

None of that was mentioned on the poster.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted for the obvious choice.

Yeah, I went with "Heroin" too.

But since this record is longer than 45 minutes, my dub of my older brother's cassette cut off the ending to "European Son." Still weirds me out to hear it follow through to its conclusion.

'european son' is the only song here i don't love. sounds like they wanted to do 'sister ray' but hadn't figured out how to do it yet.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 4 November 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not as intense and pleasing as an experience as Sister ray (more to do with length), but they sure figured out a lot if European Son is the result.

Used to feel exactly the same way about "European Son" but the bass line has grown on me over the ears.

years

pulled out my used vinyl copy, playing now. still has the sticker on it:

Venus Records (long gone) $5.00

wow, Nico really does sing CLON

Reminding me of that bit from Sleeper.

Didn't Venus move from 8th Street near 6th Avenue over to St. Marks Place where it hung on for a while?

yeah

now BLEEEEEED for me

Venus was on St Marks for the better part of a decade, i think?

Yes. I guess those decades flew by fast.

hey Yo La Tengo uses opening bass riff of "European Son" in "Moby Octopad"

... and Julian Cope pointed out the similarity between it and the bass at the start of Can's "Father Cannot Yell"

Clinic used the bassline as well

Are you excited to find out Heroin as the winner in a couple if hours?

no that would be as boring as hell

not my vote

I would have possibly voted for it when I was 16

Are the results in yet?

No. But a source leaked me the results and it's Femme .what did you do ilm?!

hey white boy, what you doin' uptown?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

excellent choice

you better hit 'er

it's all because i said Heroin will win.
some wise guys decided to deliberately choose Waiting.
i control the world.

Black Angel should be higher imo

I voted mirror, but I love waiting nevertheless

you have patience

and I love my own reflection

Although I voted BADS I wish I Run Run Run was higher. Great poll though.

pleased at the winner, wish "Femme Fatale" were higher

In retrospect, wish I'd thrown "There She Goes Again" a bone.

YES

is this the most popular poll ever? (166 votes)

after much relistening lately, gotta say this is one of those meat in the middle albums. 4-7 such an amazing stretch of songwriting-soundmaking

4-7 1-11 such an amazing stretch of songwriting-soundmaking

i'm surprised Heroin's so high (even though i love it & no pun intended) and Femme's so low. agree about the winner though

http://exeterrecordclub.com/2013/11/11/halloween-special-round-6-the-velvet-underground-nico-nicks-choice/

I thought for sure this would be one of those polls with no option shut out. "There She Goes Again" would be the best song of most other people's careers.

Yup

especially for Marvin Gaye and the Stones.

B-b-but what about The Vandellas and The Smiths?

what about the Las?

It's incredible how a song as stupid as "Venus in Furs" ranks among the sexiest songs ever. I need more viola scraping and Lou shouting SEVERIN in my life, clearly

it's the caustic drone, they could be singing about types of mushrooms and I'd still be there

maybe he was!

https://www.severin.com/mushroom-soup-with-par-c9cab832

https://pitchfork.com/news/kurt-vile-michael-stipe-iggy-pop-st-vincent-and-more-cover-velvet-underground-and-nico-for-tribute-album/

Tracklist:

01 Michael Stipe: “Sunday Morning”
02 Matt Berninger: “I’m Waiting for the Man”
03 Sharon Van Etten with Angel Olsen: “Femme Fatale”
04 Andrew Bird / Lucius: “Venus in Furs”
05 Kurt Vile & The Violators: “Run Run Run”
06 St. Vincent / Thomas Bartlett: “All Tomorrow’s Parties”
07 Thurston Moore: “Heroin” [ft. Bobby Gillespie]
08 King Princess: “There She Goes Again”
09 Courtney Barnett: “I’ll Be Your Mirror”
10 Fontaines D.C.: “The Black Angel’s Song of Death”
11 Iggy Pop / Matt Sweeney: “European Son”

Thurston Moore: “Heroin” [ft. Bobby Gillespie]

Errrrrrrrrrrrr....

HI DERE

looks pretty boring, but maybe some of these people will try something interesting? doubtful!

I can totally imagine CB doing "I'll Be Your Mirror"; should be great (I'll probably skip the rest).

Are we doing tribute records again? Aren't there enough regular records no one is interested in?

I would have thought they'd have roped Cale and Tucker in here somehow.

You'd think something baring "executive produced by Hal Wilner" would have at least one or two leftfield selections

These songs are on a level so high that I'm happy to hear almost anyone perform them.

xp yeah, Willner should've gotten the Sun Ra Arkestra to do VU & Nico.

Not having Mdou Moctar doing "Run Run Run" seems like a real missed opportunity

yeah at this point with VU covers, you may as well go in unusual directions. a bunch of indie rockers is a little dull. kurt vile doing "run run run" sounds exactly like you'd expect it to.

Idk a lot about Gillespie but I think it's actually pretty smart for Thurston to focus on the guitars in "Heroin" and let someone more, uh, experienced handle the words. He wouldn't be a very convincing junkie.

Iggy Pop / Matt Sweeney is kinda cool pairing.

only 10,000 people bought the first Velvet Underground album, and all of those people formed bands, but all of them are now free to also get into some more recent music

it's hard to actually hear this album over all the overbearing mythology. including about its influence which the tribute album makes look narrower and more insular than it probably is

what was the thread about things you don't like but have to admit are good? this album and band are mostly that for me. I like the dream pop songs but reed and nico are unlikable characters (presumably the point) and the whole grimy nyc boho heroin thing is so unappealing. which may also be the point but if they weren't glamourising it the subsequent mythology certainly has done

oh it was a movie thread

Please shut up

Last three tracks are making me sit up..

Could potentially be great.

Mickey Stripe on track one is a safe, certainly...

R.E.M. already covered two of the songs from this record.

Idk a lot about Gillespie but I think it's actually pretty smart for Thurston to focus on the guitars in "Heroin" and let someone more, uh, experienced handle the words. He wouldn't be a very convincing junkie.

HI DERE!

hey ward eat shit

the influence of the band is certainly wider than suggested by the tribute album lineup but if i were to take that at face value then it has not been a positive one at all afaic. moore/gillespie says it all really

I'm more interested in this:

What Goes On: Songs of Lou Reed
The latest in Ace Records’ Songwriters series takes the listener from a version of ‘Why Don’t You Smile Now’ from Lou Reed’s pre-Velvet Underground days through selections from the band’s albums to songs from 1972’s solo “Transformer”. Tracks: 1. I'm Waiting For The Man - Beck, 2. What Goes On - Bryan Ferry, 3. Vicious - Lloyd Cole, 4. Perfect Day - Kirsty MacColl & Evan Dando, 5. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams - Nico, 6. New Age - Rachel Sweet, 7. I'll Be Your Mirror - The Primitives, 8. Run, Run, Run - Echo & The Bunnymen, 9. Train 'round The Bend - The Soft Boys, 10. Pale Blue Eyes - Alejandro Escovedo, 11. All Tomorrow's Parties - June Tabor & Oysterband, 12. Why Don't You Smile Now - The Delmonas, 13. Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies, 14. Jesus - Swervedriver, 15. Femme Fatale - Tracey Thorn, 16. I'm Set Free - Yo La Tengo, 17. Sunday Morning - Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, 18. Rock 'n Roll - Detroit featuring Mitch Ryder, 19. Walk On The Wild Side - The Dynamics, 20. We Are The People - Iggy Pop

(Always craved more country takes----Elizabeth Cook did cover "Sunday Morning." and Lee Ann Womack/Willie Nelson (or Kelly Hogan/Mike Ireland) "Pale Blue Eyes"= mah ideeel)

surely these people can find black artists who cover these songs?

It is true that thanks to Lou Reed I took heroin and now the heroin and I are married.

i'm sure they could have done if they'd tried but also it's not at all surprising they didn't or couldn't xp

yep. looking at these tribute albums really puts the vu in the past in a way that feels like a misstep. also the songs are maybe less interesting if the people who are interested in covering them are like median age 50.

“The Black Angel’s Song of Death”

It would be funny if all the titles were like this

9. Walk On The Wild Side - The Dynamics. The Dynamics are Black. Black Rock Coalition members Eye & I covered "Venus In Furs," which was pretty good, I thought, but can't think of other Black covers of Reed. although his friend from pre-VU days Garland Jeffreys has some live versions of "I'm Waiting For My Man" on the 'Tube.
Most of those Ace comp versions were recorded when the cover artists were under 50 (a long time ago), and the ones I'm familiar with are really good, esp. Nico's "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" and Detroit/Mitch Ryder's "Rock & Roll."

unbelievably boring choices of cover artist imo

Reminds me: most of this (12 out of 17 tracks so far) is good---...Modern Love, a diverse compendium of specially commissioned cover versions of rarities and classics in tribute to David Bowie.
Featuring an array of artists such as Jeff Parker, We Are KING, Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, Nia and more, Modern Love seeks to champion Bowie’s lesser-known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel. The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album is an eclectic tribute featuring a group of artists who not only fit together creatively, but who, like Bowie, straddle different worlds musically, with soul and jazz at their core...https://bbemusic.bandcamp.com/album/modern-love

"European Son" would seem ripe for a jazz musician, but I love Iggy so I can't complain.

John Zorn would be too right but maybe too familiar given his collaborations with Lou. If Ornette Coleman were alive and well, I would have loved to hear him try it.

*right (not too right)

It is true that thanks to Lou Reed I took heroin and now the heroin and I are married.

If this was a response to me, I am more than fine with people writing or singing about things they haven't experienced firsthand. (I'm not even sure Reed had done heroin yet when he write the song.) I just don't think Thurston Moore would be convincing delivering those lyrics but do think he could sound great doing the music.

*wrote

Thurston Moore could interpolate the words to "Junkie's Promise" while Gillespie sings the original lyric, so everyone knows where he stands.

Cale did some 50th anniversary shows where every song on the LP was performed and nearly every one covered by someone else with Cale accompanying. If it was recorded, it would be nice to put this out somewhere like on Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc. The visual element was quite nice.

"wouldn't be a very convincing junkie" = "wouldn't do a convincing job as a vocalist of portraying a junkie", although it can get tricky to sort out what every mind-melting take is responding to

It's about three notes in all so Bobby should be able to handle it.

Halfway there OTM though

If this was a response to me, I am more than fine with people writing or singing about things they haven't experienced firsthand. (I'm not even sure Reed had done heroin yet when he write the song.) I just don't think Thurston Moore would be convincing delivering those lyrics but do think he could sound great doing the music.

― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Thursday, July 15, 2021 1:40 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

No. Left.

Thurston spent the early 80s selling Chipwich ice cream sandwiches out of a freezer-cart, those were nearly as addictive.

Ah, sorry, Alfred.

On my 90s show this week I had a 55th birthday celebration for this album:

FIRST HOUR:
Nina Hagen - Sonntagmorgen (1996)
Vanessa Paradis - I'm Waiting for the Man (1992)
Teenage Fanclub - Femme Fatale (1997)
The Ukrainians - Chekannya (Venus in Furs) (1993)
Bettie Serveert - Run Run Run (1998)
Bryan Ferry - All Tomorrow's Parties (1993)
Billy Idol - Heroin (1993)
John Doe - There She Goes Again (1995)
Richard Barone - I'll Be Your Mirror (1990)
Smile Kick - The Black Angel's Death Song (1999)
Ride - European Son (1990)
Mike Flowers Pops - The Velvet Underground Medley (1996)

SECOND HOUR:
Luminous Orange - Sunday Morning (1999)
Blackbird - I'm Waiting for the Man (1990)
Orly Zilbershatz-Banai - פאם פאטאל (Femme Fatale) (1991)
Psychopomps - Venus in Furs (1997)
Motorcycle Boy - Run Run Run (1990)
Iva Davies & Icehouse - All Tomorrow's Parties (1995)
Angry Samoans - Heroin (1996)
Cosmic Psychos - There She Goes Again (1992)
Los Nikis - Yo soy tu sombra (1987)
Clowns Smiling Backwards - The Black Angel's Death Song (1992)
Bettie Serveert - European Son (1998)

Three years ago, we had a string duo play Sunday Morning as our wedding processional. Best cover ever.

<3

I may be incredibly hungover but I struggle to hear European Son in that Ride track.

It's slowed down, but it's the same bassline and (such as it is) melody.

!

https://press.warhol.org/press/the-warhol-announces-the-discovery-and-digitalization-of-the-rare-master-tapes-of-the-velvet-undergrounds-debut-album-the-velvet-underground-nico/

The Andy Warhol Museum announces the discovery and digitization of the rare master tapes of the Velvet Underground’s debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967, Verve Records). Recently identified while processing Andy Warhol’s archive at The Warhol, the nine initial tracks recorded by the band were the bedrock of the album that became one of my most jarring and influential albums in rock music. The monophonic reel-to-reel ¼” tapes feature alternate versions and mixes of songs later issued on the 1967 release.

just in time for a 56th anniversary box!

assuming there's nothing unheard on here, but it'll be cool to hear the Scepter stuff minus the acetate crackles.

I keep getting very IA every time I see that damn YouTube/NFL Pass ad featuring "Sunday Morning".

Me too. I know I should be immune to this stuff by now, but it’s still so jarring

I heard that from the other room and tried to figure out what it was

As mad as we are about this, you should give other people just a little chance. In football anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMQrD-HK4SY