I had this record back in 1967. I consider the Velvet Underground as being the sound of NYC in the 60s. I also consider them as one of the "Big Four". The other 3 are the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. They all had an enormous influence on the bands that followed them. We went to the Electric Circus back in 1968 in the East Village. It was formerly Andy Warhol's Factory.
hot take! The album is perfect. I’ve never thought of it as abrasive at all personally. Never thought of it as challenging. Just truly great songwriting and groundbreaking innovation. I’ve just always thought of it as perfect.
Yeah, same, I've never thought of it as especially difficult. BADS is obviously a bit out there, but by the time you get that far into the album, I feel like they've earned that and it's almost the logical place to go. At the very least it's no Metal Machine Music! 😄
maybe I'm a pervert, but for me the abrasiveness of the album wasn't so much a barrier to the songs as it was actually the thing that made them compelling, drawing me in to try and understand. The songs aren't always comfortable, but they also aren't about being comfortable. I like when the performance and production of a song matches it's subject matter, and, whatever else you can say about the velvets, this album definitely succeeds there.
I remember buying this a few months back and I told the guy selling it that I really liked Sunday Morning (the only song I'd heard from it before). He described that song as "settling you in for the horror to come", so I nervously laughed and listened to it at home. Only the Velvet Underground can start an album with Sunday Morning and end it with the train-crash, glass-breaking, lion-roaring European Son.
Black Angel is such a cool song to me! It conjures up the weird wild images I for some reason find comfort in. In fact the more abrasive songs are what I am most compelled by. As much as waiting for the man and heroin are rightfully praised for their groundbreaking nature especially at that time they are the songs that fall short for me. Point is this is one of the most important albums ever made. As important as anything the Beatles ever made in it's own subversive way!
Absolutely. Completely contrary to Abby's assertion about the strings here being the worst part of (presumably) the worst song, I consider them the best part of the BEST song on VU & N, imho.
A high school teacher a million years ago (45 actually...) turned me onto Velvet Underground. I knew of Lou Reed, but wasn't old enough to know VU. He also gave me some sage advice that would get him fired and possibly imprisoned today. He told me that the trick to really appreciating such music is to be on the same drugs that the band was using when creating it to get into their head space. After I graduated high school and was 18 years old, I used to go to a local club/concert venue where you needed to be 21 or older to get in. The staff never carded and I saw a good few bands there when I was 18 and 19, Capt. Beefheart among them. In 1979, when I was 19, Lou Reed was booked into that club. I looked up my former teacher in the phone book (remember those, kiddies?) and called him, asking if he'd like to go with me to see Lou Reed. He agreed. I bought two tickets in advance and he met me in front of the club that evening. On that night, the door man was carding EVERYBODY. People who looked to be in their 40s. I guess they were recently caught allowing underaged people in. Before we even got to the door, tickets in hand, I looked at my teacher and said, "I'm sorry. I won't be able to get in. I wouldn't have even tried if I hadn't gotten in so many times before without a snag." He certainly could've gone in but, being a gentleman and a scholar, he didn't leave me hanging. I tried to sell the tickets there. They probably cost $8.00 ech and I would've been happy to get back $5. each. No dice. We got into his Volvo or Renault (I forget, but it was a hip foreign car) and drove to his home, five or seven miles away. After getting on the road, he rolled down his hand-cranked window (remember those, kiddies?) and tossed his ticket out the window, flapping in the air until resting on the asphalt. I felt shitty but, as I said earlier, I wouldn't have tried if I was successful every time before then. We got to his home and he introduced me to his wife. Lovely lady. We all got back in his car and went to a drive-in theater and watched Richard Pryor: Live in Concert.
The VU's box set "Peel Slowly And See" does have the pink banana under the peel. It also has all 4 legitimate albums as well a a CD of early demos and loads of outtakes. Around 10 songs Lou recorded on his own started as VU tracks. I love his music, his sardonic sense of humor, his views on life around him.
I have that box set, it have a long box book with the whole story, lots of unseen before photos, songs credits, and 25 unreleased songs. Unfortunetly the box set misses all songs lyrics and the original albums artwork but it does have the banana sticker.
hello Abby! excellent video. one of the albums that without any kind of pretense changed music forever and how the rock format could be rethought both musically and poetically. Velvet's discography is pure inspiration. A separate paragraph for the wonderful Nico, her solo discography is full of gems. great way to start the year with this video! thank you and have a great 2023! PS: i read an Edie Sedgwick biography....RAW
edie had a rough life, i think of her all the time. she would've been so much happier as a flower child in san fransisco, NYC was too rough for her gentle soul
I'm sorry you felt like you "had" to listen to this album because you were "supposed" to. I found this album as a young teenager and it opened the floodgates of my mind.
You should cover the album Pink Moon by Nick Drake, also Nice Review! I absolutely love nico! She's gorgeous, and Lou Reed is at it's it peak of creativity in this album, Trippy asf
If you're ever in Pittsburgh one day, at the Andy Warhol Museum, there is a section of the permanent expo dedicated to the Velvet Underground ... and a little nod to "Sticky Fingers" as well.
Great stuff, love love love Vinyl Monday. If it’s a flop on release it usually winds up a classic. I’m currently re indexing all my vinyl moving from A-Z to a series of collections. This record is has a spot reserved on my 20 greatest LP’s shelf. Finally yes ma’am, I’m now going to chase me down some GTO’s platters, thank you
This may be a ling one...sorry. I have the Velvets 5 CD boxed set with the original art work replicated: I listened to it somewhat obsessively afterwards. While I liked the following 3 albums, I could not get enough of this one: a true masterpiece and a seismic shift for modern music. I agree that Lou Reed is an acquired taste, however, his observational writing style was so far ahead of its time. No one in 1967 wanted to hear songs with this subject matter. Additionally, the merging of primitive rock and roll with avant-garde Stockhausen-esque classical motifs was beyond radical.This sonic assault perfectly compliments the dark lyrical imagery. If you want a more refined take on one of these songs, seek out Bryan Ferry-s version of All Tomorrow's Parties off his Taxi album from 1993. If I had to pick one song that is my all-time favorite, it would be Venus in Furs: the grating and yet hypnotic viola perfectly compliments the S & M lyrics.
This was one of those records I heard in college too mostly because my friends were into it too. I didn't care for it much at the time, thought it was overrated, but it definitely has grown on me. I like Loaded much more at first. It's more accessible. Black Angel Death Song was one that just kind of would go by without too much notice when playing the record. Then one time years later it came out of my subconscious. It was stuck in my head and I couldn't recall what the song was exactly, I thought it was Velvet Underground and could hear it in my head so distinctly. Anyways, I did figure it out and it is probably my favorite on the album. I wish it was longer. It has this great hypnotic thing going on. I don't know that is one of my favorite albums but it is very influential and influences me and I do like most all of it now.
when i first listened to this album, i was left feeling a bit mortified. i was still new to psych/experimental rock at the time and had no idea what i was in for, as i had not heard anything about how this album would sound. your description of it as "holding up a mirror to humanity" is very accurate, which i think is why i was so shocked by it. but though it was hard to experience at first, i believe there should be more albums like this
The viola is awesome on this album, esp on Venus in Furs. Also: real art IS difficult. Also: surprised she doesn't blast Mo Tucker for playing only one drum per song throughout.
because what mo does works, she just gives so much energy & power to the songs, nothing complex she just beats the hell out of her really simple drum kit and it adds to the songs as a whole
In the Uk, Bowie's reference to "VU white light"" on the back cover of Hunky Dory played a significant role in publicising them to a wider audience. Also - in an entirely unrelated matter - Moe Tucker once sent me a letter. It was when I was sixteen and still at school. It was in answer to me writing to her record company, in the straightforward naive way that a child would do. There was a signed picture postcard included in the envelope as well. I've still got it.
Happy New Year Abigail. Welcome Back! I love this album review, such an amazing album, such an influence on every band that ever existed to this day. P.S. Those earrings are amazing.
When I was growing up on Long Island; my big brother was going to the city to see the Velvet Underground. Lou Reed, and The Doors were his favorite bands. I read a book recently about them. If I had to get rid of; or decided to get rid of all my rock music; Lou Reed, and John Cale would remain. They stand apart from the rest. Lou Reed wrote the best Rock Lyrics. Young rock bands shouldn't try to copy them. Instead they should just listen to them, and enjoy. Learn about the Velvet Underground; realize that they were like no other band at that time. They were the band that best represented New York at that time. To me; They are very much New York history, as us Walt Whitman. I think that Andy Warhol had a fun sence of humor. His ideas are art for every man. That's what made him great in my view. The first album that I listened to on 01/01/ 22, was Songs For Drella. Had to set my parameters for the near future; with that album.
Great video lived up to all expectations the velvet underground are one of my favorite bands ever and Lou Reed is my favorite rock lyrist of all time and Andy warhall is a strange artist but entertaining great video
just a thought about i'm waiting for the man. lou reeds vocals sort of move along steadily while the music is insistent,driving,much more on edge.. like if i'm waiting for my man, i'm trying to hold it together, but i'm grinding my teeth.
In the UK it was played by John Peel on the BBC when it came out, which gave it some real exposure here, and as Eno says, it was very influential in the UK from the beginning, first with The Soft Machine (who then influenced the sound of Sister Ray) then with Kevin Ayers, Bowie, and then Eno and Roxy Music and everything that followed. It had more of an art school following than in the US, in fact, probably every one of the many art school UK bands was influenced by VU & Nico.
He played the whole first side throughout his final Pirate Show on 14th of August 1967. This album and witnessing the riot celebrated in"For what it's worth' was why he returned to London; and became house DJ for Pink Floyd in Grafton St, etc!
Happy new year Abigail. On the song Heroin Maureen the drummer got ticked off and stopped playing for a few seconds. The group got its name from a book by Michael Leigh.
Other than Little Richard(who was just weird), Lou Reed was the original 'gender bender'. Bowie took all his commercial cues from him. And later, much effort on Bowie's part to 'save' Reed from himself and the society that persecuted him. "Loaded" is the album to find.......
Happy new year and welcome back. Important record for me. At high school in the '70s this was like samizdat literature in the Soviet era, passed around and copied rather than bought. You had to know someone with an elder sibling who had a copy (see also The Stooges debut and a few others). That said, you didn't hear it at all on radio or even at the university parties I used to go to which were dominated by exit-level prog or punk/new wave). I didn't get a sit-down listen to this until the early '80s and it was a revelation. Reed's voice was familiar as his solo career was pretty knowable but the songs weren't. By that stage as post punk was getting more psychedelic it was easy to attribute the concrete elements, intentional dissonance and dark lyrics of a lot of the acts of the early '80s to this influence but what I wasn't prepared for was how much melody was in this. All Tomorrow's Parties is my favourite and is almost indestructible (although I've borne witness to earnest attempts), Heroin is devastating and Venus in Furs is scary but the melody that allows for the smoothest cover version is part of the alien beauty of the record. It's an essential component in the variety and innovation of 1967 in rock music and deserves its place. Couldn't agree more on the audio, though: this is one of the worst produced records of its era. While you wouldn't expect George Martin levels you'd want better than this. It comes across as a chain of inexperience rather than anything deliberate and must be lived with rather than admired (compare any other Velvets album). That said, I can almost always put it on and leave it on. As usual, fine insights and a good celebration of a durable influence on anyone who uses rock's possibilities for genuine expression. Many thanks.
I love this album, although it has truly terrified me at times. And that’s why I love it. It affects me like Robert Johnson’s songs. In certain states of mind, it’ll have me spiraling to a place that can be hard to climb out of. For me, it’s not just the realism, but the detachment with which it’s conveyed. Kind of like a war correspondent’s delivery. Lou’s voice is so matter-of-fact on ‘Waiting for the Man,” “Heroin” and “Venus and Furs” (until he cracks up on the line, “…now bleeeed for me.”), which might be the most “human” moment on the record. Seriously, though. The realism. “Sunday Morning” feels pleasant, but also curiously disarming. The viola is one element of that, but I didn’t get it until I read that Lou Reed was going for an ‘impending doom’ vibe. I think he really captured it. Lines like “it’s just the wasted years so close behind” accentuate that, of course. The realism! The only world I don’t know on this album is that of “Venus in Furs,” but I’ll be damned if I don’t fully experience it. Incredibly literate stuff, as well. Sometimes I wonder what this would have sounded like if it were produced by Paul Rothchild. I wonder if cleaner separation would have helped or harmed it. You hit it on the head when you called it grotesque. Another great Vinyl Monday. Happy new year.
This album became my view of what New York City must be like and to this day I've been a bit scared of ever going to NYC. This plus the TV and movie depictions of the City from the 60's and 70's. I grew up in western Kansas, so this was pretty much outside of any experience that I was likely to encounter. I thought it sounded cool, though!
fantastic connection to what it feels like to listen to robert johnson! both his work and VU are harrowing. lou reed was a war correspondent of NYC in the 60s
@@abigaildevoe I’d say that some of my favorite music is harrowing. It’s an experience I very much need to have - and yet I am not a “downer” person. Harrowing very much informs the other side of the coin, which is….I dunno….release?
I believe that both VU and Nico, as well as Nico’s “Chelsea Girl” album were in cut-out bins at drug and department stores for YEARS. And in the late 60s, those bins got as low as 3 for a dollar.
I knew BILLY NAME here in POUGHKEEPSIE ( He was Andy's lover & best friend ) He also did the lighting for the Velvet Underground's shows in New York and probably took the photo on the back cover!
Don't do drugs, kids, espesh heroin. This album was a landmark "heroin rock" album, later utilized by folk like Thom York - lots of dreary atmosphere, trance platform, long falsetto notes...
You could do a whole episode on Tom Wilson. Amazing career, kind of the missing link between V.U, Bob Dylan, the Mothers of Invention, Simon & Garfunkel, Sun Ra, Eric Burdon and the Animals, etc.
Fantastic album 👌 Really dig the love ❤ songs on the album especially like I'll be your mirror 🪞 🎶 and Sunday morning 🌄 🎶 Run Run Run is proper fast, urgent and groovy 😎 All tomorrow's parties is proper gorgeous goth. Waiting for the man is the best urban street song with being toe to toe with Dylan's Subterranean homesick blues 😢 💙 I think Dylan and Reed can sing like angels 😇 with Reed's Satellite of love and Andy's chest. Bob Dylan's I can't leave 💔 😢 her behind 💔 and Dylan's cover of Pretty Saro are both perfect and as close to angelic as a normally rough and rowdy singer gets. Joan Baez's Woodstock Joe Hill is a masterpiece demonstration of singing like an angel 😇. Jim Morrison could write ✍ and sing like an angel 😇 take The Door's Love Street for example. John Head from Shack can sing like an angel 😇 too. Overall one of my favourite albums 👌 Love ❤ Andy Warhol's artistry and vision. Love the quote from Lou Reed about Andy Warhol's producer advice...leave in the swear 🤬 words 👏 Your choice of words sometimes are superb and crack me up. Wonderful presenter and superb fashion style you have Abigail 👌 Like my love of Edie Sedgwick in her prime I feel the same about Nico in her prime😎 Both were babes ❤ and I'd have loved to have had a romantic liason with both but not at the same time lol..I don't think I could have handled both lol.
This album is just so 60's and ofc that cover is iconic by Warhol himself🍌 The Velvets in Velvet Underground and Nico & White Light-White Heat channel the darkest parts of Rock:Dr*gs and S*x through the lyrics from Lou Reed with Avant Garde/Classical instrumentation & sounds from John Cale which was brought out by only on VU and Nico by the haunting and monotone voice of Nico herself
Anti peace and love. And I love that! Lots of influence. Even Cheap Trick covered the V.U. onstage. Didn't Nico say "I can no longer make love to Jews" to piss off Lou? Was that the anti Semitism you referenced? And John Cale is still going strong at 80. And in the 70's there was Big Star.
I think it may have been early 80's when I read an interview with Warhol. The interviewer asked Warhol to describe Nico's voice. Warhol replied " She sounds like an IBM computer with a Greta Garbo accent ".
I like "Heroin"... but, I like the other ones t👀 ! Try to find any significant band that aren't influenced by Velvet Underground for me is a hard push. Even The Stooges, and especially The Jesus And Mary Chain, etc, etc. Good call on either Great Songwriter and Great Singing Voice. Generally, singers with a great pristine vocal range bore me (C.S.&N. and Thom York are an exception). But, the songwriting storytelling abilities of the likes of Nick Cave, Shane MacGowan, Ian Brown, Leonard Cohen, Ian Curtis, Iggy Pop, Tricky, Johnny Lydon, Joe Strummer, Jello Biafra, etc. far outweigh their vocal range. and A Happy New Year .
i totally forgot to mention radiohead, you can definitely hear traces of lou reed in what thom yorke does. if there's anyone who's an equally powerful vocalist, writer, and composer it's him. jello biafra is underrated as hell. he discovered zen guerrilla and for that alone i adore him!!
So Abby Warhol, we just call it the banana album. Simple. It's an album about produce. I'm a fan. It was nice that after decades of bad feeling, Reed inducted Zappa into the hall of fame. Edie Factory Girl was pretty slender. The banana album flopped because it's a really shitty album. It sounds terrible and 13 year old girls called Debbie can't tap their foot to it. It was brilliant. Just brilliant. Warhol said, "I like their sound. They have a style that grates." I think that was the idea they were united on. Mo was not a normal drummer. Bowie said it sold 500 copies but everyone who bought it formed a band. Loaded is my favorite velvets album. I like The Black Angels. I also ADORE the delightfully sexist 'Melody Fair'. Yes, so, nice Circle Sky connecting bits. Outta sight.
Music as art: on this album the art is pushed to the front! That is what I love about this album! I believe this is what Lou Reed set out to achieve in his career.
One of the (many) reasons the album ended up not selling well was because production problems with the vinyl banana sticker kept pushing back the release date, which diminished some of the hype that Andy Warhol’s presence gave to the album
Correct, but also the fact that Verve Records held it back, because they wanted Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention Freak Out lp to be released before the banana album, as representative for the Avantgarde/Experimental Rock Genre.
i've given 1919 a try, i was SHOCKED to learn it was the same john cale! he was the most interesting member of VU imo, his breadth of musicianship is kind of incredible
@@abigaildevoeJohn Cale is without doubt one of the, if not the most versatile musician(s) there has ever been. And then there is also the producer John Cale: the debuts by The Stooges, Patti Smith's Horses and The Modern Lovers, Nico's lp trilogy The Marble Index, Desertshore and The End, all of which he also arranged, setting the foundations for Postpunk and Goth. imo from a musical perspective the most influential character in the shaping of the early Punk/Alternative sound. Furthermore he would go on to produce records by Nick Drake, Siouxsie, Happy Mondays, Squeeze, Sham 69, The Jesus Lizard, Medievil Babes.... In my book not only the most underrated musician of our times, but also one of the greatest musical genius' Rock music has ever produced!
A rite of passage album for a lot of people it was for me as a 17 year old. There's the interesting choice of song content, the different approach musically and then there's the great tunes that show that this band was about more than just playing loud or controversial lyrics they were among the best performers and songwriters of their era.
Not only did it influence bands, but whole genres within the rock canon: Glam, Punk, Navel Gaze, Heavy Metal. It should be emphasized that this the most influential rock ALBUM EVER MADE.
Seminal record. Anti-Beatles, Anti-flower power, Anti-singer/songwriting. It was a true original. And though the John Cale stuff is a bit grating, it's experimental and part of the record's attitude. So many standouts - Heroin, All Tomorrow's Parties, Venus In Furs, Femme Fatale, Sunday Morning. Personally I prefer 1969 album but there's no doubting the quality and the influence of this.
Happy New Year Big Eyes. I've been completely consumed by music my whole life. Kinda like your last 6 years spread over 60. That said, I remember buying this record back in the early 70's and thinking to myself, the most artistic part of this record was the jacket. Musically this album had a couple of good songs but basically is was shit, only my opinion. Lots of people have shelled out the couple of dollars to see what its about. Over the next 10 years I tried a few more times to see what the appeal was...and I never could. For me, it was a bunch of poorly recorded junked up songs packaged by Warhol and distributed by MGM Verve. Verve was a label I loved and appreciated, mostly for the Jazz but also for the early Mothers sides. My nearly un-played copy sat in my collection, (at the time about 2000 pieces), until I was working in a used record store in Seattle in 1980 and some goofball junkie post punker I knew, traded me the first 3 Big Star albums for it. I grew up in Rockford Il and and those sides appealed to my power pop rockin side much much more than the Velvets w/ Nicos' painful art rock. Around this same time I bought a copy of Loaded and got into Lou and the Velvets. Sure that perfect, unpeeled mono, post lawsuit stickered copy of VU and Nico is worth ridiculous money but I've never regretted that trade.
happy new year to you too! art is meant to get a reaction out of people, positive or negative, that's why the art crowd has loved VU & nico for over 50 years. it's polarizing as hell! sometimes i "get" this album and sometimes i don't, it honestly depends on the day. funny you mention big star, i've tried several times to get into them and just never could. take that 6-year time and divide it by 2, that's about how long this music loving nonsense has ran my life. it's been the best 3 years too.
@@abigaildevoe You are absolutely correct, Art is meant to evoke some reaction and that's why I enjoy your content. The records you review and the people that made them, speak to you.... and you feel compelled to create wonderfully entertaining and informative videos.( the research you conduct, the scripts you write and shoot, the fashions you create/ makeup, hair...video production, editing , etc) are terrific. You are an artist too. I hope your parents appreciate what that liberal arts degree did for you. Likewise this "music loving nonsense" has ran my life. It's influenced how I live, how I've supported myself and my family. Abigail, please continue to pursue what you love...and thank you for finding a way to share with others. It's contagious! Thank you.
As Vinyl Monday goes ➡️ I go 🔙 ( a documentary The Art of the Album Cover on tv now Diltz CSN but no Abby in the window whaaat !) This album ic onic as iconic gets. I'll Be Your Mirror isn't troubled by the darkness it's lovely. It's one of those albums where I might skip tracks, not really the done thing vinylwise I know but I don't mind the pretension that's just stretching out. The muddiness is the problem sometimes? Will the album always feel radical that's interesting. Hey c'mon transition without cueing it in that's not technically possible, getting up off the floor what's goin on.
The catchiness of the songs make up for the caveman style recording. That's why people cover them so much. Warhol was a man of his times, so I forgive him. John Cale does some awesome stuff, he did a great collaboration with Brian Eno. This album is pure gold... except for that Death March song.
what's that story about Nico being fired cause she was a Nazi??? I looked it up and I even read the book that comes with the box set and every account says she got fired cause she was late at gigs. Also Lou Reed helped her record her solo album so how does it make any sense? Only thing I read about that is from years later when she allegedly would make jew jokes with her jewish friends. Woke propagenda?
Whenever I hear "Run Run Run" off this album, I hear "Parachute Woman" by the Rolling Stones. Also, the intro to "Heroin" was lifted for "Stray Cat Blues." That's some heavy influence right there.
20:00 Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Cale is the worst part of Heroin to me. The viola seizure at the end of the song is terrible, terrible noise. Not a big shock I prefer the versions off Rock n Roll Animal and the live 1969 album.
hey abbey with alotta records..cutie bear🐻 happy new year..good job with the video..I'm not a fan of the album..but I like Andy Warhol..& been 2 his museum in Pittsburg..Go Vermont..hope things r good with u..🌠
That album should be heard by everyone. It was a masterpiece and changed my life, in many ways. In my book, it was up there with Sgt. Pepper, in relation to influence! Andy Warhol and VU had such big balls to put out that record in 1967. If not only for the subject matter, alone!
When I first heard this album, I found it impossible to take seriously. Now after years of getting familiar with its deep eccentricity and understanding its context and influence, I still find it impossible to take seriously.
Yay! Abby is back! LOL. I look forward Vinyl Mondays now. I'm an absolute VU & Lou Reed fanatic. I think it was Sterling Morrison who was into experimenting with dissonance. Sister Ray can be grating on the ears. I think that influenced Lou Reed to make Metal Machine Music years later. I recently took the time to digest Lulu with Lou teaming up with Metallica. People are quick to dis it, but it's super experimental. Lou was all about taking risks & VU & Nico is a showcase for that.
can't believe i missed that in this video, the work on dissonance was just as pioneering as the dark themes and crunchy sound. justice for lulu. i am the table!!!
Do yourself a solid, and give the *mono* mix a listen. Then go on to *White* *Light* / *White* *Heat* (also *mono* ). BTW, *FM* stations played "underground" tracks and albums ... until the commercialised mindset came along.
I have a repress with the sticker, and maybe they stopped because the banana peels off when storing and moving the album. Collectors probably don't wanna lose the sticker, but leaving it a picture sort of defeats the purpose of a Collectors item?? Just my personal idea as to why they stopped making the sticker.
Venus in Furs is one of the all time great alt rock tracks…still sounds contemporary…lyrics like these in 1966…wow.All tomorrows parties is epic…apparently Lou played guitar in “Ostrich tuning” as he called it…all strings tuned to a D
I love your channel Your funny!!! Yes I got a re issue of that VU album as well but mine is mono & no peal banana as well! Is yours mono or Stereo? ...Question how many records do you have? I have close to 5,000 Enjoy Happy Spinning
I had this record back in 1967. I consider the Velvet Underground as being the sound of NYC in the 60s. I also consider them as one of the "Big Four". The other 3 are the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. They all had an enormous influence on the bands that followed them. We went to the Electric Circus back in 1968 in the East Village. It was formerly Andy Warhol's Factory.
Hello! Yes! There's hope!
Dangg I can't imagine playing Heroin for the first time.
Those were definitely the four most influential artists of all time! Nobody could ever top them!!
I agree, but i’d stick The Doors in there too.
stick the beach boys in surely
hot take! The album is perfect. I’ve never thought of it as abrasive at all personally. Never thought of it as challenging. Just truly great songwriting and groundbreaking innovation. I’ve just always thought of it as perfect.
Yeah, same, I've never thought of it as especially difficult. BADS is obviously a bit out there, but by the time you get that far into the album, I feel like they've earned that and it's almost the logical place to go.
At the very least it's no Metal Machine Music! 😄
Not a hotz take at all. The Velvet Undergound and Nico is a perfect album 100%.
I love Black Angel's Death Song. I used to freak out my coworkers by singing it or trying to
maybe I'm a pervert, but for me the abrasiveness of the album wasn't so much a barrier to the songs as it was actually the thing that made them compelling, drawing me in to try and understand.
The songs aren't always comfortable, but they also aren't about being comfortable. I like when the performance and production of a song matches it's subject matter, and, whatever else you can say about the velvets, this album definitely succeeds there.
This is my favorite album of all time. It's a real shame it wasn't appreciated in its time. Great review and happy new year!!!
It was definitely appreciated by those who heard it. As Brian Eno said, everyone who heard it formed a band.
@@leamanc it was quite a small minority of people who first heard it.
I remember buying this a few months back and I told the guy selling it that I really liked Sunday Morning (the only song I'd heard from it before). He described that song as "settling you in for the horror to come", so I nervously laughed and listened to it at home. Only the Velvet Underground can start an album with Sunday Morning and end it with the train-crash, glass-breaking, lion-roaring European Son.
Black Angel is such a cool song to me! It conjures up the weird wild images I for some reason find comfort in. In fact the more abrasive songs are what I am most compelled by. As much as waiting for the man and heroin are rightfully praised for their groundbreaking nature especially at that time they are the songs that fall short for me. Point is this is one of the most important albums ever made. As important as anything the Beatles ever made in it's own subversive way!
Absolutely. Completely contrary to Abby's assertion about the strings here being the worst part of (presumably) the worst song, I consider them the best part of the BEST song on VU & N, imho.
The Velvets and The Doors are so cool and timeless
Velvet better than Door
The Doors, Velvet Underground and Jefferson Airplane
Come on, are You kidding?
Velvet just had one good album, while The Doors had 7 great albums... don't Say silly things.
A high school teacher a million years ago (45 actually...) turned me onto Velvet Underground. I knew of Lou Reed, but wasn't old enough to know VU.
He also gave me some sage advice that would get him fired and possibly imprisoned today.
He told me that the trick to really appreciating such music is to be on the same drugs that the band was using when creating it to get into their head space.
After I graduated high school and was 18 years old, I used to go to a local club/concert venue where you needed to be 21 or older to get in. The staff never carded and I saw a good few bands there when I was 18 and 19, Capt. Beefheart among them.
In 1979, when I was 19, Lou Reed was booked into that club. I looked up my former teacher in the phone book (remember those, kiddies?) and called him, asking if he'd like to go with me to see Lou Reed. He agreed. I bought two tickets in advance and he met me in front of the club that evening.
On that night, the door man was carding EVERYBODY. People who looked to be in their 40s. I guess they were recently caught allowing underaged people in.
Before we even got to the door, tickets in hand, I looked at my teacher and said, "I'm sorry. I won't be able to get in. I wouldn't have even tried if I hadn't gotten in so many times before without a snag." He certainly could've gone in but, being a gentleman and a scholar, he didn't leave me hanging. I tried to sell the tickets there. They probably cost $8.00 ech and I would've been happy to get back $5. each. No dice.
We got into his Volvo or Renault (I forget, but it was a hip foreign car) and drove to his home, five or seven miles away. After getting on the road, he rolled down his hand-cranked window (remember those, kiddies?) and tossed his ticket out the window, flapping in the air until resting on the asphalt. I felt shitty but, as I said earlier, I wouldn't have tried if I was successful every time before then.
We got to his home and he introduced me to his wife. Lovely lady.
We all got back in his car and went to a drive-in theater and watched Richard Pryor: Live in Concert.
Sterling Morrison was an underrated guitar player RIP
He was the ultimate example of a true 60s guitarist!
This is the album you play when you need to experience a melancholy tantrum. Don't break stuff.
lmao. Best comment I've ever seen on youtube. Low bar I know, but I legit mean it as a compliment.
@@MrMegaHarpman - thank you. Low bar? Really? YOU TUBE? Say it ain't so!
The VU's box set "Peel Slowly And See" does have the pink banana under the peel. It also has all 4 legitimate albums as well a a CD of early demos and loads of outtakes. Around 10 songs Lou recorded on his own started as VU tracks. I love his music, his sardonic sense of humor, his views on life around him.
I have that box set, it have a long box book with the whole story, lots of unseen before photos, songs credits, and 25 unreleased songs. Unfortunetly the box set misses all songs lyrics and the original albums artwork but it does have the banana sticker.
The entirety of alternative rock is on this record. Dream Pop, Jangle Rock, Noise Rock, etc etc etc.
It definitely set the template for all that followed.
Love it. One of the most influential albums of all time from one of the most influential bands. Every track is unique and beautiful.
hello Abby! excellent video. one of the albums that without any kind of pretense changed music forever and how the rock format could be rethought both musically and poetically. Velvet's discography is pure inspiration. A separate paragraph for the wonderful Nico, her solo discography is full of gems. great way to start the year with this video! thank you and have a great 2023!
PS: i read an Edie Sedgwick biography....RAW
edie had a rough life, i think of her all the time. she would've been so much happier as a flower child in san fransisco, NYC was too rough for her gentle soul
🎉You're whole 1960s look is everything 🎉
I'm sorry you felt like you "had" to listen to this album because you were "supposed" to. I found this album as a young teenager and it opened the floodgates of my mind.
Lou Reed's "Coney Island Baby" LP is a great chaser to this LP......
noted, thanks!
i love you for this. great start
From Velvet Underground..to velvet album cover..Odessa..Bee Gees,can't wait !
Very Happy to see you talking about my Favorite Band of all time!
You should cover the album Pink Moon by Nick Drake, also Nice Review! I absolutely love nico! She's gorgeous, and Lou Reed is at it's it peak of creativity in this album, Trippy asf
If you're ever in Pittsburgh one day, at the Andy Warhol Museum, there is a section of the permanent expo dedicated to the Velvet Underground ... and a little nod to "Sticky Fingers" as well.
Great stuff, love love love Vinyl Monday. If it’s a flop on release it usually winds up a classic. I’m currently re indexing all my vinyl moving from A-Z to a series of collections. This record is has a spot reserved on my 20 greatest LP’s shelf. Finally yes ma’am, I’m now going to chase me down some GTO’s platters, thank you
My favourite album of all times...!! Definitely IT IS!!!🍌🍌🍌
Love the vid!! And I’m actually home to watch it as soon as it comes out now!
This may be a ling one...sorry.
I have the Velvets 5 CD boxed set with the original art work replicated: I listened to it somewhat obsessively afterwards. While I liked the following 3 albums, I could not get enough of this one: a true masterpiece and a seismic shift for modern music. I agree that Lou Reed is an acquired taste, however, his observational writing style was so far ahead of its time. No one in 1967 wanted to hear songs with this subject matter. Additionally, the merging of primitive rock and roll with avant-garde Stockhausen-esque classical motifs was beyond radical.This sonic assault perfectly compliments the dark lyrical imagery.
If you want a more refined take on one of these songs, seek out Bryan Ferry-s version of All Tomorrow's Parties off his Taxi album from 1993.
If I had to pick one song that is my all-time favorite, it would be Venus in Furs: the grating and yet hypnotic viola perfectly compliments the S & M lyrics.
This was one of those records I heard in college too mostly because my friends were into it too. I didn't care for it much at the time, thought it was overrated, but it definitely has grown on me. I like Loaded much more at first. It's more accessible. Black Angel Death Song was one that just kind of would go by without too much notice when playing the record. Then one time years later it came out of my subconscious. It was stuck in my head and I couldn't recall what the song was exactly, I thought it was Velvet Underground and could hear it in my head so distinctly. Anyways, I did figure it out and it is probably my favorite on the album. I wish it was longer. It has this great hypnotic thing going on.
I don't know that is one of my favorite albums but it is very influential and influences me and I do like most all of it now.
when i first listened to this album, i was left feeling a bit mortified. i was still new to psych/experimental rock at the time and had no idea what i was in for, as i had not heard anything about how this album would sound. your description of it as "holding up a mirror to humanity" is very accurate, which i think is why i was so shocked by it. but though it was hard to experience at first, i believe there should be more albums like this
One of my personal favorite albums of all time
Mine too
Great review! Humorous, informative, and entertaining! Two thumbs up 👍👍!
The viola is awesome on this album, esp on Venus in Furs.
Also: real art IS difficult.
Also: surprised she doesn't blast Mo Tucker for playing only one drum per song throughout.
because what mo does works, she just gives so much energy & power to the songs, nothing complex she just beats the hell out of her really simple drum kit and it adds to the songs as a whole
Mo is an incredible drummer
In the Uk, Bowie's reference to "VU white light"" on the back cover of Hunky Dory played a significant role in publicising them to a wider audience.
Also - in an entirely unrelated matter - Moe Tucker once sent me a letter. It was when I was sixteen and still at school. It was in answer to me writing to her record company, in the straightforward naive way that a child would do. There was a signed picture postcard included in the envelope as well. I've still got it.
that's so cool!! what'd she say in her response?
My favourite VU album is White Light/White Heat.
Happy New Year Abigail. Welcome Back! I love this album review, such an amazing album, such an influence on every band that ever existed to this day. P.S. Those earrings are amazing.
thank you! they're reproductions of earrings edie sedgwick wore. figured they'd fit the subject matter this week
I can honestly say I’ve never listened to this album🤷🏻♂️🤦♂️😉! Those earrings 🙃! Glad to have you back🤪!
When I was growing up on Long Island; my big brother was going to the city to see the Velvet Underground. Lou Reed, and The Doors were his favorite bands. I read a book recently about them. If I had to get rid of; or decided to get rid of all my rock music; Lou Reed, and John Cale would remain. They stand apart from the rest. Lou Reed wrote the best Rock Lyrics. Young rock bands shouldn't try to copy them. Instead they should just listen to them, and enjoy. Learn about the Velvet Underground; realize that they were like no other band at that time. They were the band that best represented New York at that time. To me; They are very much New York history, as us Walt Whitman. I think that Andy Warhol had a fun sence of humor. His ideas are art for every man. That's what made him great in my view. The first album that I listened to on 01/01/ 22, was Songs For Drella. Had to set my parameters for the near future; with that album.
Great video lived up to all expectations the velvet underground are one of my favorite bands ever and Lou Reed is my favorite rock lyrist of all time and Andy warhall is a strange artist but entertaining great video
just a thought about i'm waiting for the man. lou reeds vocals sort of move along steadily while the music is insistent,driving,much more on edge.. like if i'm waiting for my man, i'm trying to hold it together, but i'm grinding my teeth.
If it wasn't for that band; we wouldn't had all the great stuff from John Cale. He was originally here in the US as a chello player; I think.
In the UK it was played by John Peel on the BBC when it came out, which gave it some real exposure here, and as Eno says, it was very influential in the UK from the beginning, first with The Soft Machine (who then influenced the sound of Sister Ray) then with Kevin Ayers, Bowie, and then Eno and Roxy Music and everything that followed. It had more of an art school following than in the US, in fact, probably every one of the many art school UK bands was influenced by VU & Nico.
He played the whole first side throughout his final Pirate Show on 14th of August 1967. This album and witnessing the riot celebrated in"For what it's worth' was why he returned to London; and became house DJ for Pink Floyd in Grafton St, etc!
One of my top 10 albums of all time
Happy new year Abigail. On the song Heroin Maureen the drummer got ticked off and stopped playing for a few seconds. The group got its name from a book by Michael Leigh.
Squeeze got their name from the V U album. Apparently John Cale's own suggestion (as producer) of "Five Gay Guys" was rejected - I can't think why 🤔
Other than Little Richard(who was just weird), Lou Reed was the original 'gender bender'. Bowie took all his commercial cues from him. And later, much effort on Bowie's part to 'save' Reed from himself and the society that persecuted him. "Loaded" is the album to find.......
Happy new year and welcome back. Important record for me. At high school in the '70s this was like samizdat literature in the Soviet era, passed around and copied rather than bought. You had to know someone with an elder sibling who had a copy (see also The Stooges debut and a few others). That said, you didn't hear it at all on radio or even at the university parties I used to go to which were dominated by exit-level prog or punk/new wave). I didn't get a sit-down listen to this until the early '80s and it was a revelation. Reed's voice was familiar as his solo career was pretty knowable but the songs weren't. By that stage as post punk was getting more psychedelic it was easy to attribute the concrete elements, intentional dissonance and dark lyrics of a lot of the acts of the early '80s to this influence but what I wasn't prepared for was how much melody was in this. All Tomorrow's Parties is my favourite and is almost indestructible (although I've borne witness to earnest attempts), Heroin is devastating and Venus in Furs is scary but the melody that allows for the smoothest cover version is part of the alien beauty of the record. It's an essential component in the variety and innovation of 1967 in rock music and deserves its place. Couldn't agree more on the audio, though: this is one of the worst produced records of its era. While you wouldn't expect George Martin levels you'd want better than this. It comes across as a chain of inexperience rather than anything deliberate and must be lived with rather than admired (compare any other Velvets album). That said, I can almost always put it on and leave it on. As usual, fine insights and a good celebration of a durable influence on anyone who uses rock's possibilities for genuine expression. Many thanks.
My old bands first live song was “Run run run”.
I love this album, although it has truly terrified me at times. And that’s why I love it. It affects me like Robert Johnson’s songs. In certain states of mind, it’ll have me spiraling to a place that can be hard to climb out of. For me, it’s not just the realism, but the detachment with which it’s conveyed. Kind of like a war correspondent’s delivery. Lou’s voice is so matter-of-fact on ‘Waiting for the Man,” “Heroin” and “Venus and Furs” (until he cracks up on the line, “…now bleeeed for me.”), which might be the most “human” moment on the record. Seriously, though. The realism. “Sunday Morning” feels pleasant, but also curiously disarming. The viola is one element of that, but I didn’t get it until I read that Lou Reed was going for an ‘impending doom’ vibe. I think he really captured it. Lines like “it’s just the wasted years so close behind” accentuate that, of course. The realism! The only world I don’t know on this album is that of “Venus in Furs,” but I’ll be damned if I don’t fully experience it. Incredibly literate stuff, as well. Sometimes I wonder what this would have sounded like if it were produced by Paul Rothchild. I wonder if cleaner separation would have helped or harmed it. You hit it on the head when you called it grotesque. Another great Vinyl Monday. Happy new year.
This album became my view of what New York City must be like and to this day I've been a bit scared of ever going to NYC. This plus the TV and movie depictions of the City from the 60's and 70's. I grew up in western Kansas, so this was pretty much outside of any experience that I was likely to encounter. I thought it sounded cool, though!
fantastic connection to what it feels like to listen to robert johnson! both his work and VU are harrowing. lou reed was a war correspondent of NYC in the 60s
@@abigaildevoe I’d say that some of my favorite music is harrowing. It’s an experience I very much need to have - and yet I am not a “downer” person. Harrowing very much informs the other side of the coin, which is….I dunno….release?
Believe or not, crateraider as I am. Never! have i seen the vinyl in any form or situation only cd's.. This is big!! 🎂
Great look 👍
I believe that both VU and Nico, as well as Nico’s “Chelsea Girl” album were in cut-out bins at drug and department stores for YEARS. And in the late 60s, those bins got as low as 3 for a dollar.
I knew BILLY NAME here in POUGHKEEPSIE ( He was Andy's lover & best friend ) He also did the lighting for the Velvet Underground's shows in New York and probably took the photo on the back cover!
Surprised that you didn't like Black Angel Death Song. One of the sickest songs on album and violin is actually what makes it great
Don't do drugs, kids, espesh heroin. This album was a landmark "heroin rock" album, later utilized by folk like Thom York - lots of dreary atmosphere, trance platform, long falsetto notes...
nothing intravenous, EVER. you're totally right about all that. and i completely forgot to mention radiohead
I got to know Joe Dellasandro a bit in the eighties. Nice guy, quite introverted. Joe was "Lttle Joe" on Walk on the Wild Side. Life imitates art.
I like your shirt.....optical illusion....."Shiny Shiny...Boots of Leather.....droning yang yang yang yang yang 😵💫
I've heard that name before through a friend who said that the young Thom Yorke looked like Andy W.
You could do a whole episode on Tom Wilson. Amazing career, kind of the missing link between V.U, Bob Dylan, the Mothers of Invention, Simon & Garfunkel, Sun Ra, Eric Burdon and the Animals, etc.
you say sun ra, i'm interested!
I peeled the banana off-I thought my older brother was going to kill me.
Fantastic album 👌 Really dig the love ❤ songs on the album especially like I'll be your mirror 🪞 🎶 and Sunday morning 🌄 🎶 Run Run Run is proper fast, urgent and groovy 😎 All tomorrow's parties is proper gorgeous goth. Waiting for the man is the best urban street song with being toe to toe with Dylan's Subterranean homesick blues 😢 💙 I think Dylan and Reed can sing like angels 😇 with Reed's Satellite of love and Andy's chest. Bob Dylan's I can't leave 💔 😢 her behind 💔 and Dylan's cover of Pretty Saro are both perfect and as close to angelic as a normally rough and rowdy singer gets. Joan Baez's Woodstock Joe Hill is a masterpiece demonstration of singing like an angel 😇. Jim Morrison could write ✍ and sing like an angel 😇 take The Door's Love Street for example. John Head from Shack can sing like an angel 😇 too. Overall one of my favourite albums 👌 Love ❤ Andy Warhol's artistry and vision. Love the quote from Lou Reed about Andy Warhol's producer advice...leave in the swear 🤬 words 👏 Your choice of words sometimes are superb and crack me up. Wonderful presenter and superb fashion style you have Abigail 👌 Like my love of Edie Sedgwick in her prime I feel the same about Nico in her prime😎 Both were babes ❤ and I'd have loved to have had a romantic liason with both but not at the same time lol..I don't think I could have handled both lol.
This album is just so 60's and ofc that cover is iconic by Warhol himself🍌
The Velvets in Velvet Underground and Nico & White Light-White Heat channel the darkest parts of Rock:Dr*gs and S*x through the lyrics from Lou Reed with Avant Garde/Classical instrumentation & sounds from John Cale which was brought out by only on VU and Nico by the haunting and monotone voice of Nico herself
Anti peace and love. And I love that! Lots of influence. Even Cheap Trick covered the V.U. onstage. Didn't Nico say "I can no longer make love to Jews" to piss off Lou? Was that the anti Semitism you referenced? And John Cale is still going strong at 80. And in the 70's there was Big Star.
Great entry, Abigail. 100 years from now this album will be studied as much as Sargent Peppers. Great music isn't always necessarily pleasant.
Great job Abby, as usual. I don't get why Mo's drums were so often buried in the mix either...
Anyway great l.p., and (of course!) great look.
Happy New Year Abby!!
happy new year to you too!
I think it may have been early 80's when I read an interview with Warhol. The interviewer asked Warhol to describe Nico's voice. Warhol replied " She sounds like an IBM computer with a Greta Garbo accent ".
I like "Heroin"... but, I like the other ones t👀 !
Try to find any significant band that aren't influenced by Velvet Underground for me is a hard push. Even The Stooges, and especially The Jesus And Mary Chain, etc, etc.
Good call on either Great Songwriter and Great Singing Voice. Generally, singers with a great pristine vocal range bore me (C.S.&N. and Thom York are an exception). But, the songwriting storytelling abilities of the likes of Nick Cave, Shane MacGowan, Ian Brown, Leonard Cohen, Ian Curtis, Iggy Pop, Tricky, Johnny Lydon, Joe Strummer, Jello Biafra, etc. far outweigh their vocal range.
and A Happy New Year
.
i totally forgot to mention radiohead, you can definitely hear traces of lou reed in what thom yorke does. if there's anyone who's an equally powerful vocalist, writer, and composer it's him.
jello biafra is underrated as hell. he discovered zen guerrilla and for that alone i adore him!!
So Abby Warhol, we just call it the banana album. Simple. It's an album about produce. I'm a fan.
It was nice that after decades of bad feeling, Reed inducted Zappa into the hall of fame.
Edie Factory Girl was pretty slender.
The banana album flopped because it's a really shitty album. It sounds terrible and 13 year old girls called Debbie can't tap their foot to it. It was brilliant. Just brilliant.
Warhol said, "I like their sound. They have a style that grates." I think that was the idea they were united on.
Mo was not a normal drummer.
Bowie said it sold 500 copies but everyone who bought it formed a band.
Loaded is my favorite velvets album.
I like The Black Angels. I also ADORE the delightfully sexist 'Melody Fair'.
Yes, so, nice Circle Sky connecting bits.
Outta sight.
Music as art: on this album the art is pushed to the front! That is what I love about this album! I believe this is what Lou Reed set out to achieve in his career.
Great album, it changed the way I hear music.
This is my first viewing of Vinyl Mondays. Love it. You’re great.
One of the (many) reasons the album ended up not selling well was because production problems with the vinyl banana sticker kept pushing back the release date, which diminished some of the hype that Andy Warhol’s presence gave to the album
Correct, but also the fact that Verve Records held it back, because they wanted Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention Freak Out lp to be released before the banana album, as representative for the Avantgarde/Experimental Rock Genre.
Abigail, my dear,.I hope you are a fan of John Cale's albums 'Vintage Violence ', 'Paris 1919' and ''Fear'. All wonderful albums. Love ya x
i've given 1919 a try, i was SHOCKED to learn it was the same john cale! he was the most interesting member of VU imo, his breadth of musicianship is kind of incredible
@@abigaildevoeJohn Cale is without doubt one of the, if not the most versatile musician(s) there has ever been. And then there is also the producer John Cale: the debuts by The Stooges, Patti Smith's Horses and The Modern Lovers, Nico's lp trilogy The Marble Index, Desertshore and The End, all of which he also arranged, setting the foundations for Postpunk and Goth. imo from a musical perspective the most influential character in the shaping of the early Punk/Alternative sound. Furthermore he would go on to produce records by Nick Drake, Siouxsie, Happy Mondays, Squeeze, Sham 69, The Jesus Lizard, Medievil Babes....
In my book not only the most underrated musician of our times, but also one of the greatest musical genius' Rock music has ever produced!
A rite of passage album for a lot of people it was for me as a 17 year old. There's the interesting choice of song content, the different approach musically and then there's the great tunes that show that this band was about more than just playing loud or controversial lyrics they were among the best performers and songwriters of their era.
The original anti-hippies.
Not only did it influence bands, but whole genres within the rock canon: Glam, Punk, Navel Gaze, Heavy Metal. It should be emphasized that this the most influential rock ALBUM EVER MADE.
Both Joni Mitchel and Joan Baez have voices like finger nails on a chalk board. If that's how angels sound, heaven would be hell.
Seminal record. Anti-Beatles, Anti-flower power, Anti-singer/songwriting. It was a true original. And though the John Cale stuff is a bit grating, it's experimental and part of the record's attitude. So many standouts - Heroin, All Tomorrow's Parties, Venus In Furs, Femme Fatale, Sunday Morning. Personally I prefer 1969 album but there's no doubting the quality and the influence of this.
Happy New Year Big Eyes. I've been completely consumed by music my whole life. Kinda like your last 6 years spread over 60. That said, I remember buying this record back in the early 70's and thinking to myself, the most artistic part of this record was the jacket. Musically this album had a couple of good songs but basically is was shit, only my opinion. Lots of people have shelled out the couple of dollars to see what its about. Over the next 10 years I tried a few more times to see what the appeal was...and I never could. For me, it was a bunch of poorly recorded junked up songs packaged by Warhol and distributed by MGM Verve. Verve was a label I loved and appreciated, mostly for the Jazz but also for the early Mothers sides. My nearly un-played copy sat in my collection, (at the time about 2000 pieces), until I was working in a used record store in Seattle in 1980 and some goofball junkie post punker I knew, traded me the first 3 Big Star albums for it. I grew up in Rockford Il and and those sides appealed to my power pop rockin side much much more than the Velvets w/ Nicos' painful art rock. Around this same time I bought a copy of Loaded and got into Lou and the Velvets. Sure that perfect, unpeeled mono, post lawsuit stickered copy of VU and Nico is worth ridiculous money but I've never regretted that trade.
happy new year to you too! art is meant to get a reaction out of people, positive or negative, that's why the art crowd has loved VU & nico for over 50 years. it's polarizing as hell! sometimes i "get" this album and sometimes i don't, it honestly depends on the day. funny you mention big star, i've tried several times to get into them and just never could.
take that 6-year time and divide it by 2, that's about how long this music loving nonsense has ran my life. it's been the best 3 years too.
@@abigaildevoe You are absolutely correct, Art is meant to evoke some reaction and that's why I enjoy your content. The records you review and the people that made them, speak to you.... and you feel compelled to create wonderfully entertaining and informative videos.( the research you conduct, the scripts you write and shoot, the fashions you create/ makeup, hair...video production, editing , etc) are terrific. You are an artist too. I hope your parents appreciate what that liberal arts degree did for you. Likewise this "music loving nonsense" has ran my life. It's influenced how I live, how I've supported myself and my family. Abigail, please continue to pursue what you love...and thank you for finding a way to share with others. It's contagious! Thank you.
As Vinyl Monday goes ➡️ I go 🔙 ( a documentary The Art of the Album Cover on tv now Diltz CSN but no Abby in the window whaaat !) This album ic
onic as iconic gets. I'll Be Your Mirror isn't troubled by the darkness it's lovely. It's one of those albums where I might skip tracks, not really the done thing vinylwise I know but I don't mind the pretension that's just stretching out. The muddiness is the problem sometimes? Will the album always feel radical that's interesting.
Hey c'mon transition without cueing it in that's not technically possible, getting up off the floor what's goin on.
The catchiness of the songs make up for the caveman style recording. That's why people cover them so much. Warhol was a man of his times, so I forgive him. John Cale does some awesome stuff, he did a great collaboration with Brian Eno. This album is pure gold... except for that Death March song.
what's that story about Nico being fired cause she was a Nazi??? I looked it up and I even read the book that comes with the box set and every account says she got fired cause she was late at gigs. Also Lou Reed helped her record her solo album so how does it make any sense? Only thing I read about that is from years later when she allegedly would make jew jokes with her jewish friends. Woke propagenda?
Whenever I hear "Run Run Run" off this album, I hear "Parachute Woman" by the Rolling Stones. Also, the intro to "Heroin" was lifted for "Stray Cat Blues." That's some heavy influence right there.
And "Shattered" sounds like inspired by some songs from "White Light / White Heat", don't it?
I thought the two-chord intro to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" was an homage to "Heroin".
20:00 Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Cale is the worst part of Heroin to me. The viola seizure at the end of the song is terrible, terrible noise. Not a big shock I prefer the versions off Rock n Roll Animal and the live 1969 album.
Yeah, I don't like Warhol that much either. Great album though. Nico's Marble Index and Lou Reed's Transformer are also good ones.
I love thos album so much and I love the chaotic viola. Did you ever hear Beck cover the whole album?
hey abbey with alotta records..cutie bear🐻 happy new year..good job with the video..I'm not a fan of the album..but I like Andy Warhol..& been 2 his museum in Pittsburg..Go Vermont..hope things r good with u..🌠
That album should be heard by everyone. It was a masterpiece and changed my life, in many ways. In my book, it was up there with Sgt. Pepper, in relation to influence! Andy Warhol and VU had such big balls to put out that record in 1967. If not only for the subject matter, alone!
The debut has some definite highlights but I'm more about the self titled third.
I don t lik andy too, I love this album, but I love white light white heat even more, too much pop songs on this album
Love your content! You should do White Light White Heat someday!
Immmmmm waiting on my man, 26 dollars in my hand 🎶
Great album love the velvet underground but The Doors are my favourite 60s rock band.
When I first heard this album, I found it impossible to take seriously. Now after years of getting familiar with its deep eccentricity and understanding its context and influence, I still find it impossible to take seriously.
Yay! Abby is back! LOL. I look forward Vinyl Mondays now. I'm an absolute VU & Lou Reed fanatic. I think it was Sterling Morrison who was into experimenting with dissonance. Sister Ray can be grating on the ears. I think that influenced Lou Reed to make Metal Machine Music years later. I recently took the time to digest Lulu with Lou teaming up with Metallica. People are quick to dis it, but it's super experimental. Lou was all about taking risks & VU & Nico is a showcase for that.
can't believe i missed that in this video, the work on dissonance was just as pioneering as the dark themes and crunchy sound.
justice for lulu. i am the table!!!
My bad. I said Sterling Morrison. It was John Cale who was fascinated with a droning sound.
Do yourself a solid, and give the *mono* mix a listen. Then go on to *White* *Light* / *White* *Heat* (also *mono* ).
BTW, *FM* stations played "underground" tracks and albums ... until the commercialised mindset came along.
Patti Smith's Horses and VU and Nico are pure art. Brilliant!
Smith very much followed in the tradition of the Velvet Underground.
@@barrymoore4470 Horses, VU & Nico, and Marquee Moon are my all time 3 favorite albums.
Horses was produced by VU's musical genius John Cale
I have a repress with the sticker, and maybe they stopped because the banana peels off when storing and moving the album. Collectors probably don't wanna lose the sticker, but leaving it a picture sort of defeats the purpose of a Collectors item?? Just my personal idea as to why they stopped making the sticker.
Venus in Furs is one of the all time great alt rock tracks…still sounds contemporary…lyrics like these in 1966…wow.All tomorrows parties is epic…apparently Lou played guitar in “Ostrich tuning” as he called it…all strings tuned to a D
Sunday's k-lau -aan
I love your channel Your funny!!! Yes I got a re issue of that VU album as well but mine is mono & no peal banana as well! Is yours mono or Stereo? ...Question how many records do you have? I have close to 5,000 Enjoy Happy Spinning
In an hour, I’m going to win an unpeeled 1st pressing at auction