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The Velvet Underground & Nico
Reissued, Remastered
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Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges
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Return this item for free
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Price | New from | Used from |
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Original recording remastered
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| — | $19.69 |
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From the brand
Track Listings
1 | Sunday Morning |
2 | I'm Waiting For The Man |
3 | Femme Fatale |
4 | Venus in Furs |
5 | Run Run Run |
6 | All Tomorrow's Parties |
7 | Heroin |
8 | There She Goes Again - The Velvet Underground |
9 | I'll Be Your Mirror |
10 | The Black Angel's Death Song |
11 | European Sun |
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
The Velvet Underground & Nico album, also referred to as "The Banana Album" designed by Andy Warhol (who also produced it) was released in March 1967. Most of the songs were recorded the previous year in a run-down studio before the band even had a record contract. Verve had decided to add alternative music to their label and picked up the group's recordings. It features the classic tracks "Heroin," "I'm Waiting For The Man," and "Sunday Morning."
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When the Velvets recorded this debut, they were best known as the protégés of Andy Warhol (who designed the sleeve), and as a grating, combustive live band. Fueled by drummer Moe Tucker's no-nonsense wham and John Cale's howling viola, some of the straight-up rock & roll and arty noise extravaganzas here bear that out. But before Lou Reed was singing about sadomasochism and drug deals and writing lyrics inspired by his favorite poets, he was a pop songwriter, and this album has some of his prettiest tunes, mostly sung by Nico, the German dark angel who left the band after this disc. Even the sordid rockers are underscored by graceful pop tricks, like the two-chord flutter at the center of the classic "Heroin." --Douglas Wolk
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Language : English
- Product Dimensions : 4.88 x 5.59 x 0.47 inches; 3.32 ounces
- Manufacturer : Polydor
- Item model number : 2138954
- Original Release Date : 1996
- SPARS Code : DDD
- Date First Available : February 9, 2007
- Label : Polydor
- ASIN : B000002G7C
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #8,983 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #191 in Progressive Rock
- #237 in Folk Rock (CDs & Vinyl)
- #849 in Alternative Rock (CDs & Vinyl)
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The influence of The Velvet Underground is at least two-fold. On one hand, they inspired bands who wanted to sound like them, from The Stooges to Sonic Youth to The Strokes. On the other hand, they made musicians who didn't necessarily want to sound like them realize that rock music didn't have to be popular music. It could sound however the artist wanted it to. Thanks to The Velvet Underground, there is such a thing as alternative music, and was over two decades before the term for it existed. "The Velvet Underground and Nico" was a permission slip for all of those who heard it to do as they please with music.
David Bowie. The Stooges. The MC5. The New York Dolls. Roxy Music. The Modern Lovers. Talking Heads. Television. Blondie. Patti Smith. Pere Ubu. Joy Division. The Feelies. R.E.M. Sonic Youth. Husker Du. The Jesus and Mary Chain. The Pixies. My Bloody Valentine. Spiritualized. The Strokes. Interpol.
Included in this list are some of the most influential rock 'n roll artists ever. Would any of them have existed - or been as great as they were - without The Velvet Underground? It seems highly improbable. Simply put, Lou, John, Sterling, and Maureen (and Nico) are to alternative music what John, Paul, George (Harrison and Martin), and Ringo are to popular music. They are the source of almost every sub-genre of music to arise from the ashes of The Beatles.
"The Velvet Underground and Nico" is obviously one of the most influential records ever recorded. It demonstrated that rock music could - through dissonance, feedback, and a street-smart vocabulary - be rough on the ears (at least the ones of unsuspecting flower children) and still sound great. It introduced an element that was previously unheard of in popular music, but has since become indespensable in alternative rock: noise. And the presence of Nico on the disc gives her songs the cold, cerebral, detached sound that was so essential to the band. (Nico was included on the record at the insistence of titular producer Andy Warhol, and much to the dismay of the rest of the band. I think that Andy knew what he was doing after all.)
Interestingly, this CD starts off in the least threatening manner possible. "Sunday Morning" - with its gentle bells and warm, hazy vocals - could easily have been the type of song that ended up on Rhino's "Nuggets" box set. Taken out of the context of the rest of the album, it could almost qualify as an A.M. (as in the time of day, not the radio format) version of The Kinks' "Sunny Afternoon". However, for the denizens of The Velvet Underground's neighborhood, Sunday morning brings with it the weight of the Saturday night that came before it, which still may not have ended for many of them. Hence, this was a very different Sunday morning than the one had by the inhabitants of The Kinks' cozy village.
The remainder of the album describes in grizzly detail the lives of the aforemention denizens. From the drug scores of "I'm Waiting For the Man", to the heartbreaks of "Femme Fatale", to the sado-masochism of "Venus In Furs", the further morning-after exploration of "All Tomorrow's Parties", and the self-explanatory "Heroin", this album opened the basement door to the party going on downstairs from peace and love. Sure, The Velvets sang about sex and drugs like many late 60s bands. However, their view of sex involved leather, belts, whips, and chains. And drugs, instead of providing a blissful high, caused one to be unaware, to just not care, and to be as good as dead. No punches were pulled on this record.
But "The Velvet Underground and Nico" is not all gloom. In addition to "Sunday Morning", there is "I'll Be Your Mirror", a heartfelt valentine from the icy voice of Nico. The shared company of these two more tuneful songs with the shrieking feedback and guitar avalances of "Run, Run, Run", "Heroin", and "European Son" makes this CD the most obvious precedent of the loud-quiet-loud dynamic to be heard on albums by - to name just their most influential and biggest-selling offspring - The Pixies and Nirvana. It was the example that allowed The Pixies to put "Tame" and "Here Comes Your Man" on the same record.
Lester Bangs, the most influential rock critic of all time, considered The Velvet Underground to be the greatest band that ever existed. To quote Bangs, "Modern music begins with The Velvets, and the implications of what they did seem to go on forever". The interesting thing about this quote is that Bangs died in 1982. He didn't live long enough to realize how right he was. With their debut record, The Velvet Underground began sowing the seeds of a musical empire the geopolitical like of which the British could have only dreamt. The influence of "The Velvet Underground and Nico" is arguably as far-reaching and enduring as that of "Sgt. Pepper". However, there is a crucial difference between the two records. "Sgt. Pepper" sounds dated, no matter how innovative it was in terms of production when it was released. "The Velvet Underground and Nico", which was released two-and-a-half months prior to "Sgt. Pepper" - and even beat "Are You Experienced?" to the stores by a couple of weeks - could have easily been released in 2005 and still have sounded fresh.
"The Velvet Underground and Nico" is an unmoved mover. There are no perfectly obvious signs of which artists influenced the album short of the Dylan-esque narration of "The Black Angel's Death Song", which also features a deliciously dissonant viola, rattlesnake-like hisses, and crashes of breaking glass, for which there is no previous example that I know of in popular music. Perhaps my ignorance is doing some of the talking there, but like many of the bands they were to influence, The Velvet Underground was more interested in what could be done than in what already had been. By moving music in directions that it had never gone before, The Velvets took it to places it had never been. (Oh yeah, the riff to "There She Goes Again" was clearly lifted from Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike". Forgot about that.)
Like philosophy after Ludwig Wittgenstein, and stand-up comedy after Lenny Bruce, music was never the same after "The Velet Underground and Nico". Take a moment now to re-read the list of artists above. These folks are among the few who bought this record. We all know what they did next, and we can all be grateful. And for those of you who still aren't convinced, this record is not simply an influential critics' favorite. It is one of the best collections of songs released in the 1960s.
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2023