the velvet underground & nico

The Velvet Underground redefined the possibilities of rock and laid the foundation for alternative movements in music with the defiant decadence of their explosive, experimental debut album. Discovered by Andy Warhol during their residency at Cafe Bizarre in Greenwich Villiage, the band was invited to participate in his Exploding Plastic Inevitable multi-media events. Warhol got them a contract with MGM's Verve Records and produced their debut with German actress, model, and singer Nico. Most of the album was recorded over four days at Scepter Studios (in the same building that housed Studio 54) financed by Warhol and Columbia Records exec Norman Dolph. Columbia, Atlantic, and Electra Records all passed on the album before Verve took on distribution. At that point Tom Wilson took over production for the lush album opener 'Sunday Morning'. According to John Cale, "The band never again had as good a producer as Tom Wilson; Andy Warhol didn't do anything." Sterling Morrison says Warhol produced the album "in the sense of producing a film. We used some of his money and our money...Andy was the producer but we were the 'executive producers' too. We made the record ourselves and then brought it around and MGM said they liked it." Lou Reed considers that Warhol's hands-off approach was invaluable: "He just made it possible for us to be ourselves and go right ahead with it because he was Andy Warhol. In a sense, he really did produce it, because he was this umbrella that absorbed all the attacks when we weren't large enough to be attacked... and as a consequence of him being the producer, we'd just walk in and set up and do what we always did and no one would stop it because Andy was the producer. Of course he didn't know anything about record production—but he didn't have to. He just sat there and said 'Oooh, that's fantastic,' and the engineer would say, 'Oh yeah! Right! It is fantastic, isn't it?'"

While there were shimmering pop moments, much of the album had a gritty urban realism to it. The dark subject matter stood in stark contrast to the flower-power and hippie movements going on at the time. Songs about drugs, prostitution, and other deviant behaviors were too cutting edge for mainstream rock audiences. Reed says, "That's the kind of stuff you might read. Why wouldn't you listen to it? You have the fun of reading that, and you get the fun of rock on top of it." 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' sold poorly for years; but it has become one of the most influential albums of all time.






www.velvetundergroundmusic.com

"I'm Waiting for the Man"

"Femme Fatale"

"All Tomorrow's Parties"

"Heroin"

"I'll Be Your Mirror"

'The Velvet Underground & Nico'

full album:

All tracks written by Lou Reed unless otherwise noted.

Side A
1. "Sunday Morning"   Lou Reed, John Cale 2:54
2. "I'm Waiting for the Man"   4:39
3. "Femme Fatale"   2:38
4. "Venus in Furs"   5:12
5. "Run Run Run"   4:22
6. "All Tomorrow's Parties"   6:00
Side B
7. "Heroin"   7:12
8. "There She Goes Again"   2:41
9. "I'll Be Your Mirror"   2:14
10. "The Black Angel's Death Song"   Lou Reed, John Cale 3:11
11. "European Son"   Reed, Cale, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker 7:46