How The Velvet Underground became the most influential band in history
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- While they were a band, The Velvet Underground got almost no attention. But, since then, The Velvet Underground has become one of the most influential bands in the history of rock. This mini documentary tells their story.
#VelvetUnderground #loureed #nycmusic #nyc
“The first Velvet Underground album sold only 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.” Music is an extremely subjective medium, allowing room for a heap full of disagreements and criticisms to take place. With this in mind the most reliable measurement for artistic criticism is influence. love it or hate it, it is undeniable that the VU is one of - if not the most - influential bands of all time.
30,000 copies, according to the Brian Eno quote being paraphrased.
And Eno was quoting a conversation he had with Lou Reed 5 years after the album's release.
A very good, accessible, not too heady documentary of the band. Thanks for your effort producing it. Very much enjoyed.
Thank you!
Nico is an artist who has a special place in my soul. She truly had depth and he wants to her and I feel that the other members of the band were either shut off from it or just didn't comprehend what she was about. She got brushed off for being a beautiful girl when an actual fact her Iceberg was much deeper than theirs. It was cultural as well as superficial.
The marble index and Desert Shore are masterpieces in the highest regard
Those albums were produced by John Cale
@@nvm9040not only produced, but arranged, which means apart from Nico's harmonium, Cale composed and played all the other instruments, such as viola, piano, guitar, glockenspiel and other quite exotic instruments. The lp trilogy The Marble Index, Desertshore and The End are actually a collaboration between Nico and John Cale. Together they laid the musical foundations for postpunk and goth!
@@ForARide Nico and Cale were a good pair
Sometimes I forget Cale did arrangements too
that first album has gotten me through so many bad times
👍
Ditto!👍
🤝 agreed
David Bowie: 'To me, the sound of the band was John Cale. That was confirmed a few years later when I worked with Lou on Transformer. John was the subversive element of the band, one of the most underrated musicians in rock history. That guy is a danger, a true character.'
Thanks for an objective and balanced review of the Velvets, not falling for the usual superficial and badly researched ones, claiming Lou Reed was the only relevant force within the band. Warhol and Nico would get a little attention, but the rest would be diliginty overlooked, especially John Cale, who should have been co-credited for the music on those two seminal lps! But unfortunately Reed's enormous ego would stand in the way.
Yeah VV was a BAND not a 1 man band but yall love blaming lou and his "ego" for everything which is just a realization that yall know no more than the average
@@Godloveszaza Both Moe Tucker and Sterling Morrison have pointed out that John Cale, but also every band member had a lot more to do with the music and sound of the Velvets, than they have been credited for. In an Interview Sterl said they gave Reed all the credits, just to have peace within the band. Moe stated that the end product of the first albums had a lot more to do with John Cale than people ever thought of. I have almost every book about the Velvets and the general conclusion is that the Velvets was far more than just three accomplishing side musicians adding to Reed's "sole genius", as he wanted everybody else to believe. Reed tried to take all the laurels for himself, proving not for the first time, being one of the most obnoxious characters in Rock history. I can't stand people who don't give credit where credit is due, it's plain narcism and a lack of mature personality.
Maybe you ought to inform yourself to the point, that goes beyond the superficial narrative of the supposedly one man band VU and purchase and read some books about their history.
Here's the Moe interview: th-cam.com/video/GpJgwPqqs1A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=XJSBzkawM0vnoJoZ
Cale added to the band sound with his experimental and avant garde leanings that definitely made the Velvets unique but the other members definitely had their roles which definitely made them more of a band
Oh I'd love a video about Lou ❤ This was a great watch, thank you ❤❤
I'm 62, grew up in the far south of the South island of New Zealand. Middle of nowhere. Can't remember now where or when I first heard the Velvet's first album, but I know "my life was changed by rock and roll".
Cheers Lou.
Love that!
Excellent video! Very complete
Thank you!
Good video on a great band. One thing I thought. Lou got Hepatitis at college and that maybe played a part in his liver problems later in life (not just the liquor).
a great job of research! thank you!
thank you for this one🙏
Thanks for watching!
I've owned a copy of 'Andy Warhol' since the early 90's, back when I was at Uni. I got it at a used record store & when I first pulled the sleeve out, I was amazed to find a load of newspaper clippings about the 'Exploding Plastic Inevitable' & live reviews from US papers from the time. I've played that album so many times now that when the crackles start as it leads in to Sunday Morning, it's like welcoming an old friend. Personally, I think it's more ground breaking than Sgt Pepper.
awesome video, thank you! you should consider making a video over the strokes… which was heavily inspired by the vu :)
Definitely on the list - thank you!
Great video on a very influential band ✌️
excellent band history story telling with lots of interesting details
As a native Pittsburgher, the Warhol connection meant I always knew about this band - Lou and Nico of course - but never took the time to dig. Thanks for making this, awesome watch.
Thanks for watching!
YESSSSSS
28:34- Colombia hired Norman Dolph (in the caption is read he was born in Oklahoma, in 1939). Norman is the town I was born in, in the state of Oklahoma, 1978. What town was Norman Dolph born in?
He was born in Tulsa
Can we get a video on Deep Purple ane the early 1970s hard rock scene prior to the Punk/Metal movement. I think bands like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, and Black Sabbath all completely changed music forever because of the progressive rock movement. Thanks!
Love the velvets dearly, and Lou too, but man Reed hating on the Dead is a big L for him. Guess psychedelic music doesn’t work with speedballs
Reed was a jerk, belittled the other members huge involvement in the band. Made almost everybody believe he was the sole genius behind their groundbreaking albums and sound!
The VU were cool...but more influential than the Beatles???
Yeah same with Kraftwerk
I love the Velvet Underground but your title: " How The Velvet Underground became the most influential band in history" is too much! Not true at all!
Oh please…stop gushing. They were a good band, sure. As for subtleties and nuances, give us a break. It’s rock music and attempts to hipstfy and intellectualize it are pretty silly.
Sure, but they were still important.
Time for you to read a book.
Allowing people to perceive and interpret media how they want would be a much cooler thing for you to do.
I love this band! I didn’t know they where immigrants. Interesting how much immigrants can influence music, my favorite new genre ironically comes from Miami, and is a Cuban immigrant, hope you enjoy th-cam.com/video/ZBKIUi1eG1A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=MQvz9jXcVG5XsGCP CC is English, and thanks for putting this together, super informative! I had no idea about a lot of this!
I love how The Velvet Underground are shaping 2024 for me personally
☝🏻
☝🏻
Cale and Reed were a two great musicians in their own right which they complimented each other musically and sonically in some way while in the Velvets
But Cale give VU a unique sound with his viola and his drones that came from the viola which definitely paired well with the other member’s instruments or if it wasn’t viola then Cale playing Organ or Guitar always brought something to their sound
I'm totally novice at the Velvets, so this video is fantastic for me.
Side note: i have a friend that mispronounces words and even says "unthaw" instead of defrost, so you go ahead and say whatever you want. This is, after all, your channel
Great video and very thorough! Kudos to you you know your stuff! I think that Lou was always jealous of John but I read in John Cales biography that Lou made a pass at him and that's when the tensions started between them because John wasn't interested in that kind of relationship with Lou. And when John married Betsey Johnson and that's when the fireworks really started between them 👍
John Cale
In 2024 and I’m listening to the White Light album again for the first time in 25 years. The incredible creepiness of Lady Godiva, the absolutely bonkers production of the whole album, none of it makes any sense. White Light sounds like it was recorded with one microphone placed inside a mason jar. But it all adds up to an incredible unique listening experience. It makes me feel like I know them. And that’s a hard thing to do for any band. Unique, intimate, absolutely themselves.
love your videos, can you make one on The Smashing Pumpkins???? 🤩
I discovered the VU back in 1983 when a co-worker gave me a mix cassette with "All Tomorrow's Parties" on it
Remember reading somewhere that was Andy Warhol's favourite song as well.
Great show thank you! Don't worry about the pronunciation of Paffgen it's virtually unpronounceable in english due to the double accents or dots over the a, called Umlaut in German. It modifies the vowel sound. Some German users of an english keyboard add an e after the a and other vowels to get a near similar sound - try saying Paeffgen and you'll be close!!
Thank you!
I do love the Velvets. Over 40 years ago, I saw Lou, Nico and John live (seperately). Cale even three times. They were extremely influentual. Massively underrated, all true. Yet, to this day, they're only known to a small minority of the people in the western world (14% of the world population) and virtually unknown in the rest of the world. The Velvet Underground did not change the world. The Beatles, however, did. th-cam.com/video/z4ED8AU9XxQ/w-d-xo.html Your statement "The Velvet Underground became the most influential band in history" is more informative about the limitations of your perspective, than about any kind of reality. Duke Ellington's band was more influentual. Miles Davis LP Kind of Blue was more influentual. The Motown house band was more influentual. Franco from Zaire, his band was more influentual, all over sub-Saharan Africa, an area much larger than the combined western world, with about half a billion more people living there. Are any of these at all on your radar?
It’s a TH-cam title, it’s designed to get you to click
@@soundofhistory_ If you want to be trusted, be as truthful as you can.
@@AboubacarSiddikhinfluence isn't measured of how many people know them, but how many musicians and bands have tsken inspiration from them towards their own music. The Velvets had an influence on almost every subgenre within the whole Punk/Alternative universe and that's what counts!
@@ForARide Still less than any of the above I mentioned.
Sure Beatles and rolling Stones were so so bad
Very good, bother!. Learned some new things about the individual members of the VU.
No. The thing you fall in love with is the sound of the room it was recorded in.
great band, so underrated.
Great work! You summed up their career perfectly. Lou Reed was talented and influential, but I have a hard time getting passed his prickly attitude.
You're definitely not alone in that opinion
If he’s good enough for a goddess like Laurie Anderson*, then he’s good enough for me. Her “PSA”s are here somewhere in a playlist and need to be backed up for preservation!
(*There are at least 16 ways I can have misspelled her name, but still a way better shot than me ever getting Kristin Hirsch right)
I have no room to ever criticize anyone for misspelling or mispronouncing names, that's like the trademark of my videos
@natet5959 Reed betrayed the other VU bandmembers for copyright issues. Repeadedly the others claimed to have far more input (esp. John Cale), than they were ever credited for. Reed is mainly responsible for the superficial narrative, that the Velvets was entirely down to him and a little Warhol and Nico besides. As for musical influence, Cale became far more influential for things to come: produced and arranged Nico's lp trilogy The Marble Index, Desertshore and The End, which would have a massive influence on Postpunk and Goth. Furthermore he produced those milestone debut albums by The Stooges, Patti Smith and The Modern Lovers. His own solowork would forecast the likes of the Talking Heads or Nick Cave and his Birthday Party and so many other musicians.
From a musical perspective Cale was the main genius within the Velvets, transitioning Reed's original Dylan'eske compositions sonically into totally new horizons.
Rather bold statement
Excellent video! A lot of new info discovered here.
“Very few people bought their records at first but everyone who did started a band”. Idk who said that but I’ve heard it a million times. It’s true though
Brian Eno said this
@@nzstrawman Good look man, I'd heard it a lot but never knew who it came from. Good call(from you and Eno)
great video, this could be the best yet (although I still really like the Devo one!)
Thank you! I spent a long time on the research so that's nice to hear
Not trying to be argumentative but saying they are the MOST influential band in history is rather bold. It's just such a definitive statement. I won't disagree that they can be considered very influential but it can easily be argued that The Beatles or Kraftwerk deserve this designation.
Well, the main point of the title is to get you to click on the video. Most TH-cam titles are hyperbolic, it's just kinda the way it goes now
They are
@@TR-oj1bu they could be. but by what criteria do you make that judgement? Because like I said, it's a very definitive statement. Simply saying they are the MOST influential doesn't make it so.
Lou was right. Niko sucked. They sound way better with just Lou singing
The Velvets have long been one of my favourite band, took some getting used to initially but I have an affinity for TVU that will last my whole life
after decades of absorbing VU, i realize now that its absolutely about the experience , rather than the form...
I wish you would spend a few minutes showing us the lineup of songs on each of their albums. You’re assuming we’re more familiar with their music then we really are.
Man you’re doing really strong work and I appreciate it,
Thank you!
At time 14:58 that is Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY, not Massachusetts. Excellent overview of the Velvets overall!
Got it right with the 2nd pronunciation at 25:00 -- it's pronounced PEFF-gen, harg 'g' :) That said though; I've never heard anyone say "Phagen" :P :P :P :P
I'm pretty sure when I heard "phagen" was when I gave up on trying to do it right haha
"He didn't know Lou Reed from Doug Yule"
Do one of these on Mclusky. Or Billy Childish.
also, you mentioned how the musical sound of the group changed from time to time. I think it would be helpful if you played excerpts from some of those songs so we could see how the changes happened.
It would be. Unfortunately, TH-cam doesn't allow that with its Copyright system.
Loved your Minutemen episode, back for the velvets.
Thanks for coming back!
Well done, great
Pretty good documentary! Needs more footage of the band and less footage of the narrator 😉
Agreed. Unfortunately being not well loved at that time means there’s not a ton of footage of them
Pls, you can seek out the music clips yourself.
YES
yes
Don't get me wrong...I love Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground,but most influential band ever!? Like moreso than The Beatles!? A band that Lou Reed famously hated as it happens,though that's quite beside the point.
It's hyperbolic because it's a TH-cam video and the titles are there to get you to click
@@soundofhistory_ fair enough.
Nah, it's correct. VU smokes the Beatles as well imo, at least they brought up Yoko Ono. Love Plastic Ono Band and Fly
@@jackreeder215 that is a reply designed for the sole purpose of eliciting a reaction if I have ever read one. You'd be extremely hard pressed to convince me otherwise. Had you brought up The Claypool/Lennon Delirium,I may have been inclined to believe you.
"At least they brought up Yoko Ono"
🤣🤣🤣🧐
You missed one very important detail on why the first album flopped. It wasn't the lyrics or the loudness, what killed the sales momentum was a legal delay. The album came out in mid-March, but had to be pulled out of stores after a few days because some actor named Eric Emerson sued the band and label for using his image without permission. Apparently his face appeared projected on the lightshow on the back cover. The album was pulled from circulation, and they had to airbrush the image out of the back cover. This delayed the album by 3 months, and by then the hype of Sgt. Pepper & the summer of love totally overshadowed them, and the album bombed commercially. It still wouldn't have been a smash hit, but if its release hadn't been delayed because of the lawsuit, it may have at least made the top 100, maybe even scraped the top 40. Unfortunately the publicity had slowed down by the time V.U. & Nico returned to the stores. The lyrics didn't help by then, but 3 months earlier would've made a big difference, by June the whole scene had shifted to the west coast and San Francisco, and their commercial downward spiral began....
flopped well whatever i heared it in ´77 i was 7 but i remember i heared sounds coming from the attic i was intriged went up and sat myself on a cupboard and listened i only ask my brother ´what is this´ he said ´this is the velvet underground´
i was blown away it was in the same time i discovered hendrix
it was quite something for me i was 7 not a rookie but those two hehh
I believe that it was Edie Sedgwick who recorded "Live at Max's"--confirm, someone, if you would.
Every source I’ve ever seen says it was Brigid Polk with Danny Fields being the one to suggest turning them into an album. In the summer of 1970, Edie was in California and going in and out of psychiatric hospitalization
Janes Addiction and Perry Farrel even more so.