Released on this day (12 March) in 1967, The Velvet Underground & Nico has been described by Rolling Stone magazine as “the most prophetic rock album ever made”.
But nobody put it better than Richard Goldstein, writing in the New York World Journal-Tribune: “The sound is a savage series of atonal thrusts and electronic feedback. The lyrics combine sadomasochistic frenzy with free-association imagery. The whole sound seems to be a product of a secret marriage between Bob Dylan the Marquis de Sade.”
The pop artist Andy Warhol served as manager and mentor to the band, co-producer of this album and designer of its iconic cover art.
Article continues belowFor Warhol, The Velvet Underground was not simply a rock ’n’ roll band but also an opportunity and an experiment. “A chance,” he said, “to combine music and art.”
It was also Warhol’s idea to supplement the New York group with German singer Nico for this album. Nico had previously studied acting. “Marilyn Monroe was in my class,” she said. “Very exciting.” She also claimed it was Bob Dylan who first introduced her to Warhol.
The Velvet Underground formed in New York City in 1964. The group’s founding members were guitarist and vocalist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale and second guitarist Sterling Morrison. Completing the classic line-up was drummer Maureen ‘Moe’ Tucker.
The Velvet Underground & Nico was recorded in April, May and November 1966 at a rehearsal studio in New York. Dylan’s producer Tom Wilson co-produced the album with Warhol, and according to John Cale it was Wilson who did most of the work.
Lou Reed was the sole writer of nine of the album’s 11 tracks. Reed and Cale co-wrote The Black Angel’s Death Song, while the closing track, European Son, was credited to all four band members.
Three tracks featured Nico on lead vocals – Femme Fatale, I’ll Be Your Mirror and All Tomorrow’s Parties. Her contribution was significant, even though she ended her involvement with the band before the album was released.
In an interview for British arts programme The South Bank Show in the 1980s, Reed said of his songwriting on The Velvet Underground & Nico: “They were all real simple ideas. Three chords, turn it up and make the lyrics be about something. It had to be about everyday reality as we knew it then. I was trying to give you a shot of some of the street.”
The controversial subject matter for these songs included drugs (Heroin, I’m Waiting For The Man) and kinky sex (Venus In Furs).
In praise of Reed, American rock critic Robert Christgau told The South Bank Show: “In an era when the whole notion of rock poetry was a very important one, and Dylan was the real exemplar, no one ever thought about Lou Reed as a rock poet, but in retrospect it seems to me he had one of the most authentic and original voices of anyone writing lyrics in the ’60s. Perhaps the most authentic and original voice.”
John Cale said of The Velvet Underground’s avant-garde art rock approach: “We rehearsed every day for a year and a half. I ended up filing down the bridge of my viola and calling it a three-string drone. I put guitar strings on it and used the bass bow on it and it would make a noise very similar to a B-52. When we really started performing with some power it would definitely have a daunting effect on the audience.”
He added: “Distortion was definitely one of the things were interested in forcing down people’s throats.”
Maureen Tucker recalled: “I had no drum training whatsoever. I was just bashing away. It made a huge difference. Sterling with his nice quiet little ideas of guitar playing and his real solid rhythm playing and John with his manic viola – we would go off on a tangent and if someone wasn’t holding it all down it would just be this mess of confusion. So I would concentrate on just playing the same beat we started at, and just keep it so when everybody came back there was somewhere to come back to.”
The Velvet Underground & Nico was a commercial flop on its release, but its influence would echo down the years – not least in the work of David Bowie and countless punk rock bands.
As musician and producer Brian Eno famously stated: “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.”
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