The Velvet Underground & Nico poll

^4 of the greatest songs ever

"Waiting for the Man" vs. "I'll Be Your Mirror" -- would have to flip a coin.

I think "Run Run Run" is maybe the most underrated, if anything on this album can be called underrated. Though it's also the most Dylanish -- you could sing the verses of "Highway 61 Revisited" over it.

femme fatale

Impossible poll...

^

One of the most consistently great all the way through records for sure

All Tomorrow's Parties has it all.

voted I'm Waiting For the Man. Something about the pulse of that song, the way it's just like ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE instead of 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4. I had never heard anything like that before I heard this record and it made a huge impression on me.

Something about the pulse of that song, the way it's just like ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE instead of 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4

Owes something to "Season of the Witch" perhaps? Actually I don't know when that was released, so maybe not.

It reminds me more of minimalism

I'll never forget the first time I heard the Velvet Underground, watching Oliver Stone's THE DOORS.
Venus in Furs

I abstain. I played "Run Run Run" alone yesterday cuz I wanted to hear it; but I don't think you can, if yer taking this srsly, vote for that or "FF" bcz if all the tracks were like either of those, it wd not be a landmark album.

... uh, not. "Season of the Witch" was released in September 1966. (xxxxp)

agreed morbius, but that's damn cool filler we're talking about

agreed about Run Run Run but not Femme Fatale. Maybe I just have a special place in my heart for that song because my wife and I have had a years-running thing of imitating Nico in that song to each other.

"WHAT A CLOWN"

VAT A CLOWN

clone

The line in "Venus in Furs" where Lou impersonates Nico "Bleeeeeeeeeeeeed for meeee" then audibly smirks...

it's VAT A CLON

lol fish bringin the mathematical realness

Her voice plus the fuzzy red-line production makes FF so weird. You don't know whether to laugh or run away.

VIF: is it bleed or plead?

no it's what a clown, just in a berlin accent

the songs here are basically divided to 1/3 arty twee 1/3 garage 1/3 psych/experimental/ proto everything

^^^ this (math be damned) and each third balances out the other two wonderfully. Hell of a journey between "Sunday Morning" and "European Son."

I guess I'm playing it this week cuz I don't remember how "European Son" goes

It goes drone/scrape/drone/squeak/drone...

This may be discussed on another thread, but has anyone read James Young's Nico book? Any good? I mean, is there value to it beyond just, "boy was Nico a wreck in the '80s"?

...and sound of breaking glass

"European Son" is my vote and tbh the one i always want to hear off this, the others blow in and out

This may be discussed on another thread, but has anyone read James Young's Nico book? Any good? I mean, is there value to it beyond just, "boy was Nico a wreck in the '80s"?

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Monday, November 4, 2013 4:39 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...and sound of breaking glass

― OutdoorFish, Monday, November 4, 2013 4:41 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bleak lol at this xpost

after listening to this alb, on and off, for the best part of 30 years, I finally got to stand at Lexington/125 earlier this year, so just had to vote for 'Waiting...'

Forget the lyrics. "Venus in Furs" is so sexy and odd and wondrous.

"Heroin," just barely over "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "Tomorrow's Parties." Least favourite: "Venus and Furs," "I'll Be Your Mirror."

One of the last two - probably "Black Angel..."

There's an amazing couple of minutes in Jonas Mekas's As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty that uses "Run Run Run" as Mekas's kid runs around frantically. Skimmed through the half of the film that's up on YouTube, but couldn't find it.

i read a book about nico but i don't remember which one it was. it definitely talked a lot about how much of a mess she was in the 80s.

can I vote for the banana?

nico icon wasn't exactly a flattering portrait, kinda flawed but compelling.

She was a despicable racist scumbag

also I would have to vote "Venus in furs", one of my favorite songs (and inexplicably the first song my kid ever said "yay!" about at the end)

"All Tomorrow's Parties" - mono album version. Scepter Studios forever.

xp James Young's book is one of my favourite rock memoirs ever. He's a fantastic writer and it's as much about life bumping along the bottom of the music industry as it is about Nico.

^^this

In the restaurant at the Chelsea Hotel sometime in the very early 1970s, Nico sat with a bunch of musicians, among them a beautiful mixed-race singer who'd worked with Jimi Hendrix. According to Fields, "Nico was, I dunno, feeling neglected, or drunk, but suddenly she said 'I hate black people,' and smashed a wineglass on the table and stuck it in the girl's eye. There was lots of blood and screaming. Fortunately she just twisted it around her eye socket, so the glass never reached [the eye] but it's not like she was being cautious." Fields claims the Warhol crowd spirited Nico on to a plane and out of the country the next morning, while somehow managing to placate the victim and hush up the affair.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/mar/16/popandrock3

voted I'm Waiting For the Man. Something about the pulse of that song, the way it's just like ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE ONE

Also see the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction".

Voted "Sunday Morning" cos GOD is that song too beautiful for words.

I never understood why mixed race people are more black than white. can anyone elucidate?

To a Nazi shithead like nico anything other than pure caucasian ancestry is to be abhorred obv

I always found something very scary about her eyes an facial expression

"[Hendrix] was the most sexual man I ever saw on stage", Nico confessed, "even Mick Jagger said so. It was not all the vulgar things he did with his guitar, though I enjoyed when he burned his guitar at the festival. It was his presence. He was like a cat. He moved elegantly for a man. He was suave. Did you know he was half Indian? Cherokee. I think these mixtures are very good. I am a mixture, part Turkish, part Russian. We would have made wonderful children together, such a mixture".

R.E.M. already covered two of the songs from this record.

Idk a lot about Gillespie but I think it's actually pretty smart for Thurston to focus on the guitars in "Heroin" and let someone more, uh, experienced handle the words. He wouldn't be a very convincing junkie.

HI DERE!

hey ward eat shit

the influence of the band is certainly wider than suggested by the tribute album lineup but if i were to take that at face value then it has not been a positive one at all afaic. moore/gillespie says it all really

I'm more interested in this:

What Goes On: Songs of Lou Reed
The latest in Ace Records’ Songwriters series takes the listener from a version of ‘Why Don’t You Smile Now’ from Lou Reed’s pre-Velvet Underground days through selections from the band’s albums to songs from 1972’s solo “Transformer”. Tracks: 1. I'm Waiting For The Man - Beck, 2. What Goes On - Bryan Ferry, 3. Vicious - Lloyd Cole, 4. Perfect Day - Kirsty MacColl & Evan Dando, 5. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams - Nico, 6. New Age - Rachel Sweet, 7. I'll Be Your Mirror - The Primitives, 8. Run, Run, Run - Echo & The Bunnymen, 9. Train 'round The Bend - The Soft Boys, 10. Pale Blue Eyes - Alejandro Escovedo, 11. All Tomorrow's Parties - June Tabor & Oysterband, 12. Why Don't You Smile Now - The Delmonas, 13. Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies, 14. Jesus - Swervedriver, 15. Femme Fatale - Tracey Thorn, 16. I'm Set Free - Yo La Tengo, 17. Sunday Morning - Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, 18. Rock 'n Roll - Detroit featuring Mitch Ryder, 19. Walk On The Wild Side - The Dynamics, 20. We Are The People - Iggy Pop

(Always craved more country takes----Elizabeth Cook did cover "Sunday Morning." and Lee Ann Womack/Willie Nelson (or Kelly Hogan/Mike Ireland) "Pale Blue Eyes"= mah ideeel)

surely these people can find black artists who cover these songs?

It is true that thanks to Lou Reed I took heroin and now the heroin and I are married.

i'm sure they could have done if they'd tried but also it's not at all surprising they didn't or couldn't xp

yep. looking at these tribute albums really puts the vu in the past in a way that feels like a misstep. also the songs are maybe less interesting if the people who are interested in covering them are like median age 50.

“The Black Angel’s Song of Death”

It would be funny if all the titles were like this

9. Walk On The Wild Side - The Dynamics. The Dynamics are Black. Black Rock Coalition members Eye & I covered "Venus In Furs," which was pretty good, I thought, but can't think of other Black covers of Reed. although his friend from pre-VU days Garland Jeffreys has some live versions of "I'm Waiting For My Man" on the 'Tube.
Most of those Ace comp versions were recorded when the cover artists were under 50 (a long time ago), and the ones I'm familiar with are really good, esp. Nico's "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" and Detroit/Mitch Ryder's "Rock & Roll."

unbelievably boring choices of cover artist imo

Reminds me: most of this (12 out of 17 tracks so far) is good---...Modern Love, a diverse compendium of specially commissioned cover versions of rarities and classics in tribute to David Bowie.
Featuring an array of artists such as Jeff Parker, We Are KING, Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, Nia and more, Modern Love seeks to champion Bowie’s lesser-known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel. The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album is an eclectic tribute featuring a group of artists who not only fit together creatively, but who, like Bowie, straddle different worlds musically, with soul and jazz at their core...https://bbemusic.bandcamp.com/album/modern-love

"European Son" would seem ripe for a jazz musician, but I love Iggy so I can't complain.

John Zorn would be too right but maybe too familiar given his collaborations with Lou. If Ornette Coleman were alive and well, I would have loved to hear him try it.

*right (not too right)

It is true that thanks to Lou Reed I took heroin and now the heroin and I are married.

If this was a response to me, I am more than fine with people writing or singing about things they haven't experienced firsthand. (I'm not even sure Reed had done heroin yet when he write the song.) I just don't think Thurston Moore would be convincing delivering those lyrics but do think he could sound great doing the music.

*wrote

Thurston Moore could interpolate the words to "Junkie's Promise" while Gillespie sings the original lyric, so everyone knows where he stands.

Cale did some 50th anniversary shows where every song on the LP was performed and nearly every one covered by someone else with Cale accompanying. If it was recorded, it would be nice to put this out somewhere like on Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc. The visual element was quite nice.

"wouldn't be a very convincing junkie" = "wouldn't do a convincing job as a vocalist of portraying a junkie", although it can get tricky to sort out what every mind-melting take is responding to

It's about three notes in all so Bobby should be able to handle it.

Halfway there OTM though

If this was a response to me, I am more than fine with people writing or singing about things they haven't experienced firsthand. (I'm not even sure Reed had done heroin yet when he write the song.) I just don't think Thurston Moore would be convincing delivering those lyrics but do think he could sound great doing the music.

― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Thursday, July 15, 2021 1:40 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

No. Left.

Thurston spent the early 80s selling Chipwich ice cream sandwiches out of a freezer-cart, those were nearly as addictive.

Ah, sorry, Alfred.

On my 90s show this week I had a 55th birthday celebration for this album:

FIRST HOUR:
Nina Hagen - Sonntagmorgen (1996)
Vanessa Paradis - I'm Waiting for the Man (1992)
Teenage Fanclub - Femme Fatale (1997)
The Ukrainians - Chekannya (Venus in Furs) (1993)
Bettie Serveert - Run Run Run (1998)
Bryan Ferry - All Tomorrow's Parties (1993)
Billy Idol - Heroin (1993)
John Doe - There She Goes Again (1995)
Richard Barone - I'll Be Your Mirror (1990)
Smile Kick - The Black Angel's Death Song (1999)
Ride - European Son (1990)
Mike Flowers Pops - The Velvet Underground Medley (1996)

SECOND HOUR:
Luminous Orange - Sunday Morning (1999)
Blackbird - I'm Waiting for the Man (1990)
Orly Zilbershatz-Banai - פאם פאטאל (Femme Fatale) (1991)
Psychopomps - Venus in Furs (1997)
Motorcycle Boy - Run Run Run (1990)
Iva Davies & Icehouse - All Tomorrow's Parties (1995)
Angry Samoans - Heroin (1996)
Cosmic Psychos - There She Goes Again (1992)
Los Nikis - Yo soy tu sombra (1987)
Clowns Smiling Backwards - The Black Angel's Death Song (1992)
Bettie Serveert - European Son (1998)

Three years ago, we had a string duo play Sunday Morning as our wedding processional. Best cover ever.

<3

I may be incredibly hungover but I struggle to hear European Son in that Ride track.

It's slowed down, but it's the same bassline and (such as it is) melody.

!

https://press.warhol.org/press/the-warhol-announces-the-discovery-and-digitalization-of-the-rare-master-tapes-of-the-velvet-undergrounds-debut-album-the-velvet-underground-nico/

The Andy Warhol Museum announces the discovery and digitization of the rare master tapes of the Velvet Underground’s debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967, Verve Records). Recently identified while processing Andy Warhol’s archive at The Warhol, the nine initial tracks recorded by the band were the bedrock of the album that became one of my most jarring and influential albums in rock music. The monophonic reel-to-reel ¼” tapes feature alternate versions and mixes of songs later issued on the 1967 release.

just in time for a 56th anniversary box!

assuming there's nothing unheard on here, but it'll be cool to hear the Scepter stuff minus the acetate crackles.