A very influential album is The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico. It opened the doors to the future of glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and many other genres. Made up of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker, this dynamic group was ahead of their time, and original in sound (Deming). Reed scraped at his distorted guitar, Cale played on a droning viola, and Tucker's unconventional and raw drumming are a part of what makes this band's sound so unique (Jones 2002).
The band started with John Cale and Lou Reed, who are the primary songwriters in the group. Cale was a member of the Welsh National Youth Orchestra, and later joined Goldsmith College in London with his viola. From there, he gained a scholarship to play with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts. He met composer John Cage, who convinced the young musician to head to New York (The Independent). It was in New York Cale met Reed, who was born and raised in New York. Reed's love of music started at a young age. Between practicing on his guitar and his moody behavior, his parent sent him to a mental institution, where he received shock therapy. He attended Syracuse University and worked as a songwriter when he met Cale. (Glickman 1996). The two shared many things: an apartment, dirty needles, and the hepatitis virus. They also began The Velvet Underground. (The Independent)
Andy Warhol discovered the group, and decided to produce them. They became the house band at Warhol's Factory collective, and began touring. Warhol's love for integrating art, music, and film came alive in The Velvet Underground. Warhol taught them that "the tools of art are anything you can put your hands on." (The Independent). Warhol also introduced German singer Nico to the band, in which they created this legendary album.
The band didn't gain immediate success with this album. Due to their unique instrumental sound and Nico's untypical rock vocals, many people had trouble taking them seriously. If it weren't for Andy Warhol writing the checks and funding the album's existence, this album would have been one that disappeared before it even finished. (Deming) The group broke lyrical and instrumental taboos with their experimental rock. (Unterberger). Reed was well known to explore lyrically about drugs, kinky sex, and other risky topics otherwise unsung about at the time. (Deming)
Despite everything put into this album, the band soon started falling apart. Nico slept with and rejected both Cale and Reed, pitting them against each other. The album had a year long delay in which Warhol and Reed started losing interest in the band. (Jones 2002) Warhol and Nico were fired by Reed, and Reed left the band a while later (Unterberger). However, over the years The Velvet Underground became more and more popular. The boundary between pop and avant garde had been broken, opening the doors for bands such as The Stooges and David Bowie to erupt (Jones 2002).
As a listener, I love The Velvet Underground and Nico. I love hearing the strange uses of the viola, in which I also specialize in. I also find the drums to be raw, strange, and fascinating at the same time. I appreciate the production quality behind an album with little promise at the time, and love Andy Warhol for allowing this masterpiece to exist today. This album is so important in how it broadened the spectrum of many interesting musical genres to develop.
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ReplyDeleteNice writing skills Angela. I was just wrapped up into learning more about the Velvet Underground to really understand the true meaning of the band. This study really had me wanting to know more but my work prevented much research due to no Internet in a big truck. But I liked the way you used many different resources in your writing. You explained the group from many different views, and even adding you own views. I do not know of anything you left out or that I would need to add. This was a fantastic blog post, and Good luck for the rest of the month.
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