The Velvet Underground & Nico

Velvet Underground & Nico was the debut album from the band Velvet Underground.  This band was the forefathers of the punk era that is still going today.  Mixing poetry and meaningful lyrics with music that was all over the place, Velvet Underground made it work.  At first, they were not very well looked upon.  They used dark subject matter such as drug abuse and behavior in their lyrics.  Many engineers refusing to record the band because of what they thought was garbage.  Having Lou Reed and John Cale were the root and key writers for the band.  Coming from two different background influences, they combined their ability to create their own sound.  John Cale is a classically trained musician, and that is what he wanted to play.  He came from the United Kingdom and he went to school to be apart of the Bernstein Scholarship and worked with La Monte Young (composer).  Lou Reed had his own ideas and style.  He always wanted to rock out, but he also wanted more out of lyrics.  Looking at Raymond Chandler (writer) as an icon, and wanting to put his words to music and that is what he did.  Writing in the same style and meaning, and with the help of John Cale, this is when Velvet Underground’s sound came about.  Lou Reed even had a song called, “The Ostrich” where all the strings in the guitar were tuned to an A sharp.  Velvet Underground got help from Andy Warhol before they started to get some spotlight.  Andy Warhol was an artist and saw what Velvet Underground stood for.  He became the manager and sat in all the recording sessions.  Andy Warhol had little influence on the album, but paid for the recording sessions.  Without collecting a dime, Velvet Underground eventually became to big for an inexperienced manager and Andy Warhol was then let go.  John Cale and Tom Wilson are the ones that contributed to producing this album.  Nico became apart of this group when Andy introduced her to Lou Reed and John Cale.  Nico came from Andy’s Chelsea Girls, and became the icing on the cake for Velvet Underground.

I am not a huge fan of the punk music that is played now adays.  I think I would have been one of those engineers that questioned to record them.  I am a person that hears something out of key and I stop to fix it.  Creating this sound and style is cool though, because they opened many doors and brought inspiration to people I do like (David Bowie).


References:
(n.d.). The Southbank Show - The Velvet Underground | Free Music Videos - Watch Music Videos Online | Veoh. Free Videos Online - Watch TV Online - Free Video Clips | Veoh. Retrieved March 13, 2011, from http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/music/watch/v18444087ZF6xZy9c

Feeny, J. (n.d.). Jack Feeny reviews: The Velvet Underground. Jack Feeny Reviews. Retrieved March 13, 2011, from http://www.jackfeenyreviews.com/velvet.htm

Harvard, Joe. The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground and Nico. Internet Based: Audible, Inc., 2008. Print.

Olsen, E. (n.d.). The Velvet Underground - It Began Here - Blogcritics Music . Blogcritics - News Reviews and Opinion . Retrieved March 13, 2011, from http://blogcritics.org/music/article/the-velvet-underground-it-began-here/

The Velvet Underground - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 13, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Underground