Say something BORING about the Velvet Underground

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― fritz, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

if ILM is Beatles-phobic, is it VU-philic?

my feelings re: VU discussion: "Too much of good thing is killin' me" - Reg presley of the mighty Troggs

― fritz, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They're really important.

― charlie va, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Agree Fritz, ILM is turning VU in the most boring band ever. Indeed, one could make the ultimate ILM snore-thread Taking Sides: Velvet Underground vs. Radiohead vs. Joy Division. Just don't forget to uncheck the e-mail notification. ;)

― Omar, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not that many people bought their first record, but everyone who did went off to start a band. That's what they say anyway.

― DeRayMi, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh yeah sorry the boring thing, I forgot. "Junkies say that 'Heroin' really sounds great on smack." Yawn.

― Omar, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

We can thank them for many of the wonderful genres we enjoy today.

Or not.

― Curt, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

not trying to be an ungrateful prig nor devalue their contribution just wondering how much is left to be said about their brilliance around here.

no offense to those who've been enjoying the latest VU threads, honestly I haven't paid them much mind so I could be way off in dismissing them out of hand.

― fritz, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They were more important than the Beatles you know?

― Ronan, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Apparently they are the bridge between rock and the NYC '60s avant-garde...

― Andrew L, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

1. Andy Warhol discovered them.
2. The classic line up was Reed, Morrison, Cale and Tucker.
3. The Strokes sound like them.
4. Some people don't agree with 1-3 above.

― Jeff W, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

velvet undergr is boring.

god this is a doss job isnt it.

― XStatic Peace, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like 'em. Haven't listened to 'em in a long long while.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They have nice...uh...shoes?

― Lord Custos, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think I could name you a Velvet Underground song if you played it for me. Despite all the chatter here, they remain completely off my radar.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Their music was at odds with the optimistic, "flower power" sound of the time and so no one listened to their dark songs about drugs and Lady Godiva having an operation.

― Graham C, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nico had an affair with Jackson Browne! Can you believe that?!?

― Arthur, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I got the &Nico album, total yawnfest. what is the fuss?

― jel, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"They gave the 60s the kick in the ass they neededzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."

― Sean Carruthers, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Their abysmal record sales belie their tremendous influence on the artists with abysmal record sales of today.

― fritz, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They were singing about drugs/gay sex/etc when the Beatles were singing about holding hands!

― nickn, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Why are they all wearing sunglasses?

― DavidM, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

John Cale was married to Betsey Johnson! Can you believe that?!?

― Arthur, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Irrespective of the depths of their unpopularity during their unpopular period their influence can be heard today in every sound reverberation that reaches our ears from the rumble of a garbage truck to a baby's gentle coo.

― fritz, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Velvet Underground never sold many records, but everyone who did buy them became a rock critic.

― Michael Daddino, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

whip dancing.

― ducklingmonster, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Caused me to look up "seminal" in a dictionary at a young age.

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather . . .

― felicity, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Lou Reed is the most luminous and shocking POET of this [long dead days of yore] generation, viz. "Hey hey hey/too busy sucking on my ding dong" and/or "lonesome cowboy Bill/rides the rodeo/you oughta see him go/yo-de-le-dee-oh", plus "it appears to be my fancy/to make it with Frank and Nancy", not to mention "insects are evil thoughts..." and the tricky Shakespearean sonnet couplet of "I'm waiting for my man/Twenty-six dollars in my hand" [If Mike Love was a NYC junkie, he'd have written...well, probably something better.] Such PROFOUND lyricism, borne out of Reed's Syracuse graduate/Delmore Schwartz-mentored INTELLECTUALISM, in conjunction with a hard-hitting SOUL OF A STREET POET faux-sophisticated shuck 'n'jive also happily gave rise to such trans-generational rock & roll classics as "Coney Island Steeplechase" and "Sad Song" (quote: "Fourteen hundred and ninety two/I'm in love with Mary Queen of Scots").

[If Greil fucking Marcus can presume to trace the amphetamine ass-kid caterwauling of a bunch of "dispossessed" English youth circa-1976/77 all the way back to some dubious millenarian movement or other, then I can just as easily (and certainly more JUSTIFIABLY) trace Lou Reed's idiot babble all the way back to a whole slew of village idiots from the medieval era.]

― J Sutcliffe, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Post of the year, so far.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If West coast flower power represented the 60s dream, the Velvet Undergound was its demonic East coast nightmare cousin.

― N., Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Did they do that song called 'With Whom To Dance'?

― Grace Jarvis, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maybe. They've got a song on Rhino's doo-wop box, that much I know.

― Michael Daddino, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Even so-called 'freaks' were shocked and appalled by these mutants in black leather and sunglesses. (Brooding, surly singer Lou Reed always wore a pair...even at night!) Maybe their deceptively abrasive soundscapes and pretty-sounding ballads (which often hid sinister, ambiguous multiple meanings) were too much of a "bad trip"! Pop idol of the era Cher famously said, "It will replace nothing, except maybe the Allman Brothers"

― dave q, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's quite interesting to hear the tension within the first two records between Cale, the avant-garde Welshman, and Reed, the New York hipster-poet.

― Clarke B., Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The book is better.

― helenfordsdale, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

theyre boring. probably.

― ambrose, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mo Tucker drummed in a very primitive way. She looked androgynous.

― Sterling Clover, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Squeeze, the album after Lou Reed left, is really bad.

― Michael Daddino, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

On the first album, you could actually peel the banana.

― nickn, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The drumming in Heroin occasionally goes out of time.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

they have a female drummer.

― di, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Doug Yule.

― JM, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It would have been more radical if you could have eaten the banana.

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

- Lou Reed played in a doowop band called "The Shades".
- John Cale played in LaMonte Young's experimental minimal band called "The Dream Syndicate" (nothing to do with the Paisley underground DS).
- They played together in "The Primitives" where Lou Reed wrote the song "The Ostrich" which was supposed to be a new dance.
- The name Velvet Underground comes from a novel (forgotten which one, some horror stuff I guess).
- Andy Warhol discovered and managed them. He added Nico to the line- up against the will of the other members.

― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, 23 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

not a novel . a how to sm book , like most sm books mostly dull.

― anthony, Wednesday, 23 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dean Young says something interesting about the Velvet Underground here.

― youn, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I once interrupted a Velvets thread on here to talk about "Penda's Fen".

― Robin Carmody, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

Lou Reed hatched a plot to kill the Crown Prince of Saudia Arabia

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/WORLD/meast/06/10/libya.saudi/story.gadhafi.jpg

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Most of their third album was boring, actually.

― chuck, Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

They explored the fetid, sordid underbelly of downtown New York.

― shookout (shookout), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 101 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

The Velvet Underground were the first interactive website.

― Freedom, Monday, 6 July 2009 16:00 (sixteen years ago)

The Velvet Underground were the first and last real band to ever exist. They acted the coquette towards modernity without becoming drowned in it, like so many subsequent bands. The Beatles, Dylan etc., on the other hand, were retro in the sense that they never escaped the atmospheric limitations of the monochromatic suggestion. The VU transcended that.

― Freedom, Monday, 6 July 2009 16:04 (sixteen years ago)

sister ray is long

― SUNNY ☺))) (Future_Perfect), Monday, 6 July 2009 16:10 (sixteen years ago)

Maureen Tucker's androgyny has often been commented on, but her importance in fact lies in how she assimilated the proto-Rhea Perlman aesthetic.

― Freedom, Monday, 6 July 2009 16:11 (sixteen years ago)

Nico, while physically beautiful, also represented the end of beauty, in the same way that "All Tomorrow's Parties" represented the end of blues. Bring the two together and what do you get? Blue beauty.

― Freedom, Monday, 6 July 2009 16:16 (sixteen years ago)

They couldn't play their instruments very well! But it didn't matter!

― mike t-diva

beg to differ: they sound like that intentionally. any band that can make their sound that deceptively simple, and can sometimes be out of tune and still sound great are brilliant musicians.

― outdoor_miner, Monday, 6 July 2009 16:39 (sixteen years ago)

nyc, speed, andy warhol, heroin, sellin yr ass to get $ for speed/heroin, yell at people over folk chords, make feedback, repeat.

― jdchurchill, Monday, 6 July 2009 20:05 (sixteen years ago)

I once wrote a blog post arguing that "I'm Waiting for My Man" was actually about Lou waiting for his drycleaner to deliver his clothing.

― steen gonna shine in my BIG HOOS (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 6 July 2009 20:53 (sixteen years ago)

well he feels sick and dirty, i'll give you that

― kamerad, Monday, 6 July 2009 20:57 (sixteen years ago)

although he came from well-to-do parents, they gave him shock treatment cuz they thought he was homosexual, right?
that'll help yr songwriting!

― jdchurchill, Monday, 6 July 2009 21:00 (sixteen years ago)

they were the first pseudo-punk band led by a slumming rich kid

― kamerad, Sunday, July 5, 2009 6:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

where would punk be without slumming rich kids?? nowhere!

― bodyguard/publicist Tank (M@tt He1ges0n), Monday, 6 July 2009 21:03 (sixteen years ago)

four months pass...

lou reed kinda comes across in interviews like the most insufferable prick ever. however, he wrote some pretty good songs so i choose to mostly ignore this. mostly.

― messiahwannabe, Friday, 6 November 2009 17:59 (sixteen years ago)

Most of the time, if I like the art, I can forgive or overlook the bad behavior of the artist. In Lou's case I make an exception.

― irmão tuomas (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 6 November 2009 18:01 (sixteen years ago)

give some examples please xp

― Ismael Klata, Friday, 6 November 2009 18:02 (sixteen years ago)

After Lou Reed left the Velvet Underground, he bought a nissan (it's true).

― J4mi3 H4rl3y (Snowballing), Friday, 6 November 2009 18:03 (sixteen years ago)

I read that Lou Reed Invisible Jukebox thing in the Wire this month -- kinda hilarious. He seemed quite taken with "He Loved Him Madly" -- and rightly so!

― tylerw, Friday, 6 November 2009 18:23 (sixteen years ago)

He got that from Bob Quine!

― irmão tuomas (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 6 November 2009 18:27 (sixteen years ago)

http://www.furious.com/perfect/quine.html

― irmão tuomas (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 6 November 2009 18:29 (sixteen years ago)

yeah? he seemed to think he'd never heard it before ... and that his Metal Machine Music trio sounded exactly like it!

― tylerw, Friday, 6 November 2009 18:32 (sixteen years ago)

ismael: i can't pinpoint any particular example off the top of my head, but if you were to google "lou reed interview youtube" or whatever, anything that pops up will probably have you going "oh, i see exactly what he means now"

― messiahwannabe, Friday, 6 November 2009 18:36 (sixteen years ago)

metal machine music is hard to listen to, but it had moments of unique otherwordly beauty and was way ahead of it's time

― messiahwannabe, Friday, 6 November 2009 18:38 (sixteen years ago)

Say something BORING about the Velvet Underground

The third album. (Well, most of it.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 6 November 2009 20:33 (sixteen years ago)

I tried to look for some quotes of Lou being a prick, but all I got was:

"I like to think of us as Clearasil on the face of the nation. Jim Morrison would have said that if he was smart, but he's dead."

― Ismael Klata, Friday, 6 November 2009 21:15 (sixteen years ago)

Those quotes are hiding in plain sight.

― irmão tuomas (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 6 November 2009 23:12 (sixteen years ago)

I read that Lou Reed Invisible Jukebox thing in the Wire this month -- kinda hilarious. He seemed quite taken with "He Loved Him Madly" -- and rightly so!

― tylerw, Friday, November 6, 2009 10:23 AM (5 hours ago)

ysi?

― ♪♫(●̲̲̅̅̅̅=̲̲̅̅̅̅●̲̅̅)♪♫ (Steve Shasta), Friday, 6 November 2009 23:47 (sixteen years ago)

i just read it off of the newsstand. The Wire costs like $11 out here.

― tylerw, Friday, 6 November 2009 23:58 (sixteen years ago)

here's the last third of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3LFIKmBvmw
it's on "Get Up With It" and "Complete Onna Corner Box"

― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Friday, 6 November 2009 23:59 (sixteen years ago)

If VU had toned down the weird and not let that EuroJunkie sing, they could have been as popular as Luna.

― brotherlovesdub, Saturday, 7 November 2009 00:58 (sixteen years ago)

I tried to look for some quotes of Lou being a prick, but all I got was:

you kinda have to see him on screen to get the full effect

― messiahwannabe, Saturday, 7 November 2009 05:46 (sixteen years ago)

four years pass...

Unlike most drummers of the era, Maureen Tucker was a woman.
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, June 15, 2004 12:20 PM

Can't remember if I screwed this up somehow - should've been "unlike most drummers but like most Maureens of the era..." - or just thought it was more boring (and therefore better) the other way.

― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 16:23 (twelve years ago)

anyone mentioned the s word yet? oh, er... seminal

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 13 November 2013 17:55 (twelve years ago)

they are considered to have inspired a look that other bands have imitated

― i wish i had a skateboard i could skate away on (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 18:12 (twelve years ago)

I checked out Lexington Ave at 125th Street and it doesn't "feel" like you can cop dope there anymore, though I can't be sure about that.

― et tu, crute (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 18:20 (twelve years ago)

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

- Kurt Loder, from the 80s reissue liner notes.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 18:22 (twelve years ago)

Man a mischievous c&p-er could do a lot with this thread rn

― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 18:24 (twelve years ago)

They were one of the first bands to take on taboo subject matter in their lyrics.

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 13 November 2013 19:04 (twelve years ago)

Their record sleeves were square, but the band members weren't.

― never have i been a blue calm sea (collardio gelatinous), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 19:12 (twelve years ago)

There was an Australian band by the same name that had nothing to do with the Reed/Cale axis or knew of its existence. Just came across the same book.

― Stevolende, Wednesday, 13 November 2013 19:21 (twelve years ago)

they were neat!

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 19:23 (twelve years ago)

you certainly could not get much on Lex & 125 for $26 these days, cept perhaps a lovely red velvet cake.

― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 20:39 (twelve years ago)

see if they were starting out today, they might be called the Red Velvet Cake, and do shows w/ Matt & Kim.

― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 20:41 (twelve years ago)

Iirc, BON SCOTT had something to do with the Aussie VU.

― A Made Man In The Mellow Mafia (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 20:59 (twelve years ago)

it was Malcolm

Malcolm first played with a Newcastle, New South Wales band called 'The Velvet Underground' (not to be confused with the New York-based Velvet Underground).[2] playing cover versions of T. Rex and The Rolling Stones songs.

― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 November 2013 21:01 (twelve years ago)

xposts: You could get a few Big Macs at the 24Hr McDonalds and still have change for a couple cases of Polish Spring at the Pathmark.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 21:03 (twelve years ago)

Post something BORING about the VU:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wseWpxsYSM

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 21:04 (twelve years ago)

Spanish: B-
Italian: F

― et tu, crute (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 21:21 (twelve years ago)

English: Bored, scripted, failed faux-enthusiasm

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 21:24 (twelve years ago)

The Velvet Underground wrote about realistic things like hard drugs and S&M, unlike other bands of the era.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 21:30 (twelve years ago)

They were too cool for school

― paolo, Thursday, 14 November 2013 08:53 (twelve years ago)

I'm waitin' for my Mac
$3.99 in my hand

― i wish i had a skateboard i could skate away on (Hurting 2), Thursday, 14 November 2013 14:47 (twelve years ago)

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