The Velvet Underground and Nico

The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) is the first album of the group of American Rock The Velvet Underground, accompanied by the singer Nico.

Production

Produced by Andy Warhol (the group frequently played within the Factory ), Velvet Underground carried out by Lou Reed and John Cale are seen associating the actress and mannequin of German origin Nico, another recruit of the Factory (she sings however only on three songs of the album, Femme fatale , I' L Be Your Mirror and All Tomorrow' S Parties ). Warhol also signed the cover of the album, representing a banana (symbolic system phallic still reinforced by the mention " peel slowly and see "), while Paul Morrissey was given the responsability to take in photograph the members of the group for the small pocket. The album, and in particular its song of opening ( Sunday Morning ) will be finalized by the producer Tom Wilson.

Songs

The album is characterized by the alternation of ballades pop and titles evoking the universe of the hard drugs and the sexual perversions, often marked by sound experiments avant-gardists. The melancholic person Sunday Morning (sung by Lou Reed him even), which opens the album, thus succeeds I' m Waiting for the Man , with the sound definitely rougher, which tells a transaction with a dealer. In a way more marked even, Femme fatale immediately is followed of Venus in Furs , to which the set of themes is close but this time treated openly under the angle to a sadomasochistic relation (the title of the song is besides a direct reference to a novel of Sacher Masoch), supported by an obsessing old story with the electric viola. Heroin , inspired by the author Hubert Selby, is probably the top of the album. A direct evocation of a drug-taking, at the same time raw and poetic in its words, while the music of “recreates” the physical feelings: the progressive acceleration of the battery appears the cardiac rhythm during the heroin puncture, the viola the surge of blood to the brain, etc However, the song is without illusion. The heroin consumption is paid with the full price, in the control of the drug addict to the substance (“it is my life, it is my wife”). Finally I' L Be Your Mirror where on a very beautiful melody, Nico sings the narcissistic promise made in love be it liked.

The commercial failure

Because in particular of its topics in opposition as well with public morals as with the sets of themes in vogue at the time, but also of its musical experiments and its innovations, the album will know a commercial failure at its exit but will reach later the statute of “work worship”, influencing several generations of musical groups until today. To believe a famous formula of it (sometimes allotted to Brian Eno), there were perhaps only thousand people to have bought the album at its exit, but they formed all a group. Today, this album is regarded as one of the major pillars of the rock'n'roll, and Velvet Underground was elected, in particular for this album, the most influential group of all times in front of the Beatles.

The continuation

Thereafter, Velvet Underground will separate from Nico and the supervision of Warhol, and will concentrate in its second album White Light/White Heat on the exploration of the tracks sets of themes and formal rather clean with titles like Heroin or Venus in Furs , it true is already mainly represented on this first album.

List titles

All are written and composed by Lou Reed, unless otherwise specified. The album is produced by Andy Warhol, except Sunday Morning , produced by Tom Wilson.

  1. Sunday Morning - 2 ' 54 (Lou Reed, John Fixes)

  2. I' m Waiting for the Man - 4 ' 37
  3. Femme fatale - 2 ' 37
  4. Venus in Furs - 5 ' 10
  5. Run Run Run - 4 ' 20
  6. All Tomorrow' S Parties - 5 ' 58
  7. Heroin - 7 ' 10
  8. There She Goes Again - 2 ' 38
  9. I' L Be Your Mirror - 2' 12
  10. The Black Angel' S Death Song - 3 ' 12 (Lou Reed, John Fixes)
  11. European Its - 7 ' 46 (Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker)

Musicians

  • Lou Reed - song, guitar
  • John Fixes - viola electric, piano, low
  • Sterling Morrison - guitar, low
  • Maureen “Moe” Tucker - percussion
  • Nico - song

External bond

  • Video '' Sunday Morning '' by The Velvet Underground & Nico

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