Velvet Underground & Nico

As I celebrate my new album (love it by the way) I can't help it, I just have to ask...

What's with the banana?

 

Hey, what the fuck? You got The Velvet Underground & Nico and you didn't even tell me? Well, that's awesome. However, I thought you said that you couldn't find any Velvet Underground albums...

Anyway, the banana was designed by Andy Warhol, who produced the album. I'm not sure if it has any significance to the band or not. It looks cool though.

So, what's your favorite song from the album? Mine would have to be either Venus in Furs or Heroin. It's hard to choose...

Heh, I can't wait until your mother asks you "Katie, what song are you listening to?" and you respond with "Heroin." Haha...

 

Well, I just got it today and there was more important news to tell first!

I normally can't find any, but on the way to the "W" (no Who by the way... those bastards! ) I happened to see a big yellow banana it reminded me of you, and I had to get it!

It was funny, as my brother was flipping over my new albums, he says, "Johnny Lennon... Bobert Dylan... Banana?"

Out of those two, I like Venus in Furs a little better. Though Heroin is pretty cool as well.

Haha, oh yeah she LOVES it.

She came in while I was listening to "European Son" and asked if I was joining a cult.



... Parents.

 

Very important album! It's talked about a little too much, but it's a very revolutionary album nevertheless.

'Sunday Morning' is my favorite track.

 

On the original vinyl editions from '67, the banana is actually peelable. There was actually a rumor at one time that the banana was steeped in acid (lol).

 

Yes, it was peelable, and it had an awesome looking pink banana underneath!

 

I do like "Sunday Morning." I didn't realize until recently, however, that it's about paranoia.

 

Really? I didn't know that.

I always thought that it was literally about a Sunday morning, following a long night of partying, and the wasted, depressed, worn out feeling that comes with it.

 

Well, that's what I read, and then when I listened to it again, it made sense.

Look at the lyrics:

Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call It's nothing at all
Sunday morning and I'm falling
I've got a feeling I don't want to know


I can understand that being about paranoia...

 

Yeah, I guess there is an element of paranoia in there, probably the result of a long night of taking speed (something the Velvets certainly took a lot of).

 

Yet another of Andy Warhol's fervent attempts to justify his own existence. Still, props for getting a decent album at such a young age. Get "White Light/White Heat" next, it's fucking seminal.

 

Haha, true. I also think that your interpretation could be correct. I don't know, I guess you'd just have to ask Reed.

However, I think we can both agree that Katie now needs to check out White Light/White Heat. God, I love that album.

 

As to which track, "All Tomorrow's Parties" is just amazing, it's reassuring to learn that, actually, people were as isolated and devoid of self-worth in the liberal egalitarian bacchanalia of the sixites as they are today.

 

Yeah, that's probably why they were so influential to a lot of late 80's/early 90's alternative/grunge bands.

 

Just wondering: is there any real precedent to VU's sound? I was trying to describe them to a friend, and couldn't think what their obvious influences were. In the end I had to say Sonic Youth and hope he wouldn't check the dates.

 

Well, if you take the two creative forces in the band, which for the first two albums was Lou Reed and John Cale, and you look into their backgrounds, you get a good sense of why the VU sounded the way they did.

Lou Reed was influenced by early rock & roll and bands like the Stones, Bob Dylan, etc..

John Cale had a more classical background, and he studied under avant-garde composer LaMonte Young in the early-mid 60's, prior to joining the band.

So when you listen to their overall sound, you can hear those rock influences blended together with Cale's experimental, feedback-laden, musique concrete influences. And that was basically how they got their sound, combined with their general musical amateurity, giving the music a very raw, sometimes cathartic sound.

 

Well, I know that Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman influenced Reed during the White Light/White Heat era, but other than that, I'm not really sure.

 

And now the conversation begins to float over my head....

 

You seem very intelligent and mature for your age. You don't hear of many 13 yr. olds listening to VU. I didn't even really start to get into a lot of these groups until I was about 16 or so.

 

You know, I read something interesting that I didn't know before. We all know that The Velvet Underground is a much softer album due to the loss of Cale. That much is obvious.


However, I read that just before the recording of The Velvet Underground, the band's array of effects boxes was stolen. The original album was supposedly supposed to be more distorted. I never knew that...