The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground & Nico
Studio album by The Velvet Underground
Publication (s)	March 12, 1967
admission	April 1966 - November 1966
Label (s)	Verve Records
Format (s)	LP , CD , MC , SACD , BD
Genre (s)	Art rock , experimental , protopunk
Title (number)	11
running time	48:51
occupation	Lou Reed - vocals , guitar Nico - vocals John Cale - viola , piano , celesta , bass , vocals Sterling Morrison - guitar , bass , vocals Maureen Tucker - drums
production	Andy Warhol , Tom Wilson
Studio (s)	Scepter Studios, New York TTG Studios , Hollywood Mayfair Studios, New York
chronology - The Velvet Underground & Nico White Light / White Heat (1968)

The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground with the German singer Nico . It was produced by Andy Warhol and released by Verve Records in March 1967 . The Velvet Underground & Nico is one of the most important albums in music history.

Track list

With the exception of the marked exceptions, all songs were written by Lou Reed .

page 1

1. Sunday Morning (Reed, Cale) - 2:56
2. I'm Waiting for the Man - 4:39
3. Femme Fatale - 2:38
4. Venus at Furs - 5:12
5. Run Run Run - 4:22
6. All Tomorrow's Parties - 6:00

Page 2

1. Heroin - 7:12
2. There She Goes Again - 2:41
3. I'll Be Your Mirror - 2:14
4. The Black Angel's Death Song (Reed, Cale) - 3:11
5. European Son (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker) - 7:46

Style and meaning

The so-called “banana album” was completely produced, designed and marketed by Warhol. In an interview with Rolling Stone journalist David Fricke in 1989, Lou Reed stated that Warhol's contribution was to use his name to prevent record company employees from interfering with production. The album was produced by the band itself, only on Sunday Morning had Tom Wilson produced, "but he couldn't undo what we had already done". In addition to The Velvet Underground , the singer Nico , who had a brief love affair with Lou Reed , also took part. It was to be Nico's last collaboration with the band for the time being. The limited original edition consisted of a screen print with a peelable banana and the note “peel slowly and see”.

Characteristic of the music are, among other things, the so-called drones (extremely long, constant tones that overlay the harmony , i.e. the chord changes of the songs), such as those used in Heroin or Venus in Furs . These drones were created by John Cale on his electronically amplified viola . He drew from his experiences with John Cage , La Monte Young and minimal music . Such an avant-garde symbiosis of E, light and F music was a radical innovation for the pop and rock music of that time . Another characteristic of the sound of Velvet Underground is the unconventional, monotonous drumming by Maureen Tucker, which largely dispenses with the use of cymbals and is noticeable due to deliberate agogic fluctuations that are otherwise only known from classical music (particularly evident in heroin ) , the frequent repetition of minimalist improvisation motifs and a sound that is electronically heavily alienated with distortion.

In the texts, Reed illuminates the so-called "dark sides" of modern consumer society in a non-judgmental and realistic manner - such as sadomasochism in the song Venus in Furs , which clearly refers to the text of the novel Venus in Pelz by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch . Femme Fatale, on the other hand, pays homage to Edie Sedgwick , a style icon of the 60s, who appeared in some of the Velvets' live performances and was temporarily the muse of Andy Warhol. In addition, drug addiction is addressed in the songs I'm Waiting for the Man and Heroin , with which Lou Reed reflected on himself among other things (as in his later solo albums). The haunting lyrics form a symbiosis with the gloomy, experimental music, which probably contributed to Velvet Underground being one of the most often copied rock groups in music history. Nico also contributed to the uniqueness of the album with the dark timbre of her voice (in the titles Femme Fatale , All Tomorrow's Parties and I'll Be Your Mirror ).

The fact that the album only reached number 171 on the US charts was a financial disaster. The album was taken out of the program by record stores and radio stations because the lyrics deal with explosive topics such as drug abuse, prostitution and sadomasochism. The result was that the album was hardly noticed at the time.

In its lyrics, the original recording paints an authentic reflection of the New York underground scene and sketches, among other things, the life of the factory scene around Andy Warhol and his protagonists, the pieces on the album also served as background music for Warhol's project Exploding Plastic Inevitable .

reception

source	rating
Allmusic
Rolling Stone
The Guardian
Pitchfork Media
Laut.de

From his manager Kenneth Pitt, who is said to have considered managing The Velvet Underground at short notice, the then little-known David Bowie received a test pressing of the as yet unreleased album in 1966, which was to have an enormous influence on him. He wrote in 2002: “Everything I really needed to know about rock music suddenly came to me through a single unreleased record. […] The fun was obviously over now. This was of a coolness that I had never thought possible, it was overwhelming. "

The renowned music magazine Rolling Stone lists The Velvet Underground & Nico at number 13 of the 500 best albums of all time and at number 5 of the 100 best debut albums. The New Musical Express voted the album number 5 of the 500 best albums of all time. It ranks 8th in the Guardian's selection of 100 best albums . Mojo ranked it 9th of the 100 best albums. The magazine Time took The Velvet Underground & Nico on in the selection of the top 100 albums. Pitchfork Media voted it # 1 in the top 200 albums of the 1960s. The debut is also one of the 1001 albums You Must Hear Before You Die .

The Observer picked the debut album number one on the list of albums that changed music.

The album was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2006 and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

Cover

In addition to Warhol, "his factory assistant Billy Linich [...], Paul Morris and Nat Finkelstein as well as Acy R. Lehman from the design department [...] of the Art Apartments at MGM" were involved in the cover design of the opening record case (single, album, cover) involved. "The illustration 'Banana' - the image of a banana peel on a sticker and an illustration of fruit pulp printed on the front of the cover - was designed by Warhol and appeared as a panel painting as early as 1966, which can be viewed as a serigraphic prototype for the cover illustration."

On the front of the cover you can see the image of a diagonally upright banana on a white background. The word "Andy Warhol" is on the lower edge of the album cover. This and the information "Peel Slowly and See" on the top right of the banana stick are the only textual information. So there is no information about the title of the album or the artist.

“The text 'Peel slowly and see' prompts you to use the paper banana stick that acts as a tab to peel off the slightly sticky 'Banana' illustration”. When peeling off, the flesh of the banana appears as a further illustration and, in contrast to the natural pulp color, is kept ambiguous in color values ​​between dark red and pink.

Warhol's name as a credit on the front of the record sleeve was used to serve a purposeful function, namely to promote association or "conveying information about Warhol and the album".

The text element “Peel Slowly and See”, on the other hand, mainly referred to the illustration of the banana. In order to draw any conclusions about the Velvet Underground album and its content, the recipient's reference to "Andy Warhol" had to be sufficient as initial information. “Warhol marketed his product with his name. Because the album, including the cover, was designed and produced by him in the immediate context of his media projects with the collaboration of his Factory members. In this respect, he aligns the credit note 'Andy Warhol' precisely with his author and producer position of the album ”.

The back was designed strictly symmetrically in terms of images and text. The upper quarter is designed as a text area. Analogous to a conventional front cover, the album title appears there, which in this case is identical to the group name, and Warhol's name in contrasting color and also in large letters with the indication of his producer status 1. The principle, the Positioning primary credits on the back is otherwise only found in the case of a “Credit Free Cover.” The back also shows a series of portraits of the group members as a photograph in a live setting. These are related to Warhol's films, which belong to his multimedia performance EPI, which can be recognized by the light, shape and color effects.

Publications

First published in 1967

The album was first released on record in March 1967 on the Verve Records label .

First releases on CD

A CD version was released in 1986 by Verve and remastered in 1996 by Polydor Records . Both editions have the same track list as the first release on LP.

45th Anniversary Edition

To mark the 45th anniversary of the album, several remastered editions of the album were released in October 2012. It was released through Polydor Records and the Universal Music Group .

The Velvet Underground and Nico (45th Anniversary)

The list of pieces is identical to the first publication.

The Velvet Underground and Nico (45th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

The double CD contains the stereo version of the original album as well as five alternative mixes of individual pieces.

1. Sunday Morning (2:55)
2. I'm Waiting For The Man (4:39)
3. Femme Fatale (Album Version (Stereo)) (2:39)
4. Venus In Furs (Album Version (Stereo)) (5:12)
5. Run Run Run (Album Version (Stereo)) (4:22)
6. All Tomorrow's Parties (Album Version (Stereo)) (5:59)
7. Heroin (Album Version (Stereo)) (7:13)
8. There She Goes Again (Album Version (Stereo)) (2:41)
9. I'll Be Your Mirror (Album Version (Stereo)) (2:14)
10. Black Angel's Death Song (Album Version (Stereo)) (3:12)
11. European Son (Album Version (Stereo)) (7:47)
12. All Tomorrow's Parties (Alternate Single Voice Version) (5:57)
13. European Son (Alternate Version) (9:06)
14. Heroin (Alternate Version) (6:17)
15. All Tomorrow's Parties (Alternate Instrumental Mix) (5:52)
16. I'll Be Your Mirror (Alternate Mix) (2:20)

The Velvet Underground and Nico (45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition)

On a total of six CDs, this version contains the original album in stereo and mono version as well as Nico's debut album “Chelsea Girl” and rare recordings from 1966.

High resolution audio

In 2010 Universal released The Velvet Underground & Nico on SACD in Japan. In 2013 Verve and Universal released the album in high-resolution sound quality ("High Fidelity Pure Audio") on Blu-ray Disc . The album is also available as a download in lossless FLAC format .

Individual evidence

Literature:

1. ↑ Klaus Gier: Andy Warhol's Record and Cover Design: Studies on the graphic and formal design of records and record packaging by Andy Warhol using the example of “The Velvet Underground & Nico” and “Sticky Fingers” . P. Lang, Frankfurt am Main, New York 2001, ISBN 978-3-631-37418-4 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ibid. Page 88
3. ↑ ^{a b c} ibid. Page 108
4. ↑ ^{a b} Ibid., Page 129

1. ↑ Marc Spitz: David Bowie. The Biography , 2010, ISBN 978-3-941378-87-2 , pp. 110-111

Web sources:

1. ↑ Lou Reed: The Last Interview and other Conversations. Melville House, Brooklyn / London 2015, p. 33.
2. ↑ Stephen Shore , Lynne Tillman: The Velvet Years. Warhol's Factory 1965-67
3. ↑ Review by Mark Deming on Allmusic.com (accessed August 2, 2017)
4. ↑ Review by David Fricke ( Memento from September 7, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) on RollingStone.com (accessed March 9, 2018)
5. ↑ Review by Alexis Petridis on TheGuardian.com (accessed August 2, 2017)
6. ↑ Review by Miles Raymer on Pitchfork.com (accessed August 2, 2017)
7. ↑ Ulf Kubanke: The mother of all indie albums on laut.de (accessed on August 2, 2017)
8. ^ The 500 greatest albums of all time (2012) on rollingstone.com, accessed August 2, 2017
9. ↑ The 100 greatest debut albums of all time (2013) on rollingstone.com, accessed August 2, 2017
10. ↑ The 500 greatest albums of all time on nme.com, accessed August 2, 2017
11. ↑ The Guardian 100 Best Albums Ever on discogs.com, accessed August 2, 2017
12. ↑ 100 Greatest Albums of All Time by Mojo (1995) on besteveralbums.com, accessed on August 2, 2017
13. ↑ All-TIME 100 albums on time.com
14. ↑ The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s on pitchfork.com, accessed September 12, 2017
15. ↑ The 50 albums that changed music (The Observer)
16. ↑ List of items included: Olivier Landemaine: The Velvet Underground - CD Box Sets: The Velvet Underground & Nico - 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition. Retrieved February 13, 2013 .