The Velvet Underground & Nico cover design by Andy Warhol
The Velvet Underground and Nico is the debut album by the highly influential band,The Velvet Underground, released in March,12,1967, featuring German singer, Nico. Although it was ignored by a majority of critics upon release (because this was before hipsters existed), it has since been cited as one of the greatest and most influential album of all time. Although it's not fully /mu/core, it's still appreciated and talked about by the /mu/ community.
Background on the album[]
After Andy Warhol been introduced to the Velvet Underground, he became the manager of the band, in which the Velvet Underground preformed in Andy's show, Exploding Plastic Inevitable.playing show in New York, while they still preformed, they decided to record an album. The album was Recorded around April of 1966 at Scepter Studios. by the help of Andy Warhol. and Columbia Records' sales executive, Norman Dolph. who brought an acetate disc to Columbia so the album can be distributed.
A Acetate disc of the original Velvet underground and nico recordings
but they decline along with Atlantic Records and Elektra Records, until Verve Records (owed by MGM Records), accepted the recordings. with help from Tom Wilson, who has worked with very influential artists, like Bob Dylan.The album consist of the Original line up of The Velvet Underground members. like Lou reed on lead vocals (also doing lead guitars and backing vocals), Sterling Morrison on guitar, John Cale on electric violin/Piano/celesta/ect, Maureen Tucker on drums, and Nico on vocals on tracks like Sunday morning, Femme fatale, All tomorrow's parties, and i'll be your mirror.
Album Cover[]
The album cover was designed by Andy Warhol, it's a banana. Early copies of the record included " Peel slowly and see", in which you peel the banana skin to reveal a pink banana. Since this was considered shocking at the time, the album art is often seen as a precursor to that of No Love Deep Web.
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Peeled version of the album cover
lyrics and themes[]
The lyrics on The velvet underground and nico cover such topics as drugs, in which the second track, I'm Waiting for the Man, talks about a man who waiting for his dealer. Venus in Furs, which is based off the book of the same name (which has BDSM), and heroin, which involves a person experience through heroin, and There she Goes again, which is about prostitution. Lou Reed said in a interview that joining gritty subject matters and music was "obvious" and "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", although some of the songs are not about dark themes. like Femme Fatale and i'll be your mirror
TRIVIA (aka, shit i got off songfacts)[]
- Lou Reed wrote Sunday morning on a Sunday morning around 6am. Andy Warhol, who helped finance the album, suggested he write a song about the paranoia associated with the effects of a drug wearing off.
- The Velvet Underground & Nico is ranked #13 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, calling the album "the most prophetic rock album ever made".
- Reed wrote Sunday morning for Nico but then decided not to let the German ex-model sing it. Instead he impersonated her himself. (tfw i just learned this today and still can't get over the fact it's lou reed singing Sunday morning, did everybody knew this?, have i been this much of a retard?....)
- Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico, and Maureen Tucker have all recorded solo versions of I'm Waiting for the man
- In 2006, The Library of Congress added The Velvet Underground and nico into the National Recording Registry, in which every year, 25 sound recordings are selected, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."
- Another competing band was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The album The Velvet Underground and Nico was finished and waiting to be released by early 1966, but Verve Records held it back in favor of releasing Zappa and the Mother's Freak Out! This provoked guitarist Sterling Morrison into spending the rest of his life complaining about Zappa, sneeringly lumping him in with "that hippie music," along with other acts like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. This is ironic, considering that Zappa himself also hated the hippie scene, and in fact was mocking it the entire time the way he later would parody other musical genres.
- All tomorrows parties is reportedly Andy Warhol's favorite Velvet Underground song, though probably more for having Nico (born Christa Päffgen) sing the lead than Velvet Underground's part in it. It was about a 50/50 shot whether flyers and posters for Exploding Plastic Inevitable performances around this time would have Nico's name before Velvet Underground's - with Nico sometimes billed as "pop girl of '66." In the pages of the Village Voice, rock critic Richard Goldstein called Nico "half goddess, half icicle," and reviewed her, saying "She sings in perfect mellow ovals. It sounds something like a cello getting up in the morning."
Critical Reception[]
Piero Scaruffi - 9/10
Track Listing[]
- Sunday Morning - 2:54
- I'm Waiting For The Man - 4:39
- Femme Fatale - 2:38
- Venus In Furs - 5:12
- Run Run Run - 4:22
- All Tomorrows Parties - 6:00
- Heroin - 7:12
- There She Goes Again - 2:41
- I'll Be Your Mirror - 2:14
- The Black Angle's Death Song - 3:11
- European Son 7:46