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The Velvet Underground and Nico

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The Velvet Underground and Nico
Album cover
Album by The Velvet Underground and Nico
Released March 1967
Recorded Tracks 3, 5, 6, 8-11
April 25 1966 Scepter Studios, New York City
Tracks 2, 4, 7
May 1966 T.T.G. Studios, Hollywood, California
Track 1
November 1966 Mayfair Studios, New York City
Genre Avant-garde rock and roll
Length 48 min 51 s
Label M·G·M Records
'''Producer Andy Warhol (tks. 2-11), Tom Wilson (tk. 1)
Professional reviews
  • Q 
    [link]
    • The Velvet Underground chronology
    The Velvet Underground and Nico
    (1967)     		White Light/White Heat
    (1968)
    Nico chronology
    The Velvet Underground and Nico
    (1967)     		Chelsea Girl
    (1967)

    The Velvet Underground and Nico was The Velvet Underground's influential 1967 debut album. The album was released in March 1967 by Verve Records.

    Contents

    About the album

    As well as the band (which at this time consisted of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen "Moe" Tucker), the record features Nico on three tracks ("Femme Fatale", "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'll Be Your Mirror"). She was added on the instigation of their mentor, Andy Warhol.

    The bulk of the songs that would become The Velvet Underground and Nico were recorded in a two-day stint in a decrepit New York City recording studio, Scepter Studios, in April of 1966. The recording session was financed by Warhol and Columbia Records sales executive Norman Dolph, with the intention of selling the finished product to a willing record company. Columbia, Atlantic Records and Elektra Records declined, but Verve Records, which had just expanded its scope to include alternative rock, accepted the recordings.

    Three of the songs, "I'm Waiting for the Man", "Venus in Furs" and "Heroin", were re-recorded during a stay in Hollywood later in 1966. Verve staff producer Tom Wilson then edited and mixed the tapes to polish some of the rough edges, somewhat against the wishes of the band. As the record's release date was bumped back time after time because of production problems, Wilson also took them into a New York studio in November 1966 to add a final song to the track listing, the prospective single "Sunday Morning". The production on that song is far more professional and lush, aimed as it was at radio playtime.

    The Velvet Underground and Nico is often acclaimed as one of the greatest ever albums. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted it the 71st greatest album of all time; in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 19. Rolling Stone placed it at number 13 on their list of the "500 Greatest Albums".

    On its release, the album only reached #171 on the charts, and was a financial failure. Most stores banned it and radio stations would not play it due to its controversial content (songs with overt references to drugs, transvestites, prostitution, and S&M), which further prevented the album from being widely recognized.

    The early LP edition with the banana sticker peeled off.
    Enlarge
    The early LP edition with the banana sticker peeled off.

    Cover

    The Velvet Underground and Nico is sometimes referred to as the "banana album" as it features a Warhol print of a banana on the cover. Early copies of the album invited the owner to "Peel slowly and see"; peeling back the skin revealed a flesh-colored banana underneath. Persistent rumours that the sticker was impregnated with LSD were untrue [link]. The 2002 Deluxe 2CD re-issue of the album once again features a peelable banana. The banana was on the cover to represent heroin addiction (a monkey eats bananas, and having a "monkey on your back" is generally a metaphor for heroin addiction.)

    Track listing

    All songs written by Lou Reed unless indicated otherwise.

    LP

    1. "Sunday Morning" (Reed, Cale) (2:56)
    2. "I'm Waiting for the Man" (4:39)
    3. "Femme Fatale" (2:38)
    4. "Venus in Furs" (5:12)
    5. "Run Run Run" (4:22)
    6. "All Tomorrow's Parties" (6:00)
    7. "Heroin" (7:12)
    8. "There She Goes Again" (2:41)
    9. "I'll Be Your Mirror" (2:14)
    10. "The Black Angel's Death Song" (Reed, Cale) (3:11)
    11. "European Son" (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker) (7:46)

    Compact disc

    Single-disc edition

    Same as LP. The first CD edition of the album featured an alternative, single-vocal mix of "All Tomorrow's Parties" instead of the original double-tracked vocal version; all other CD editions feature the original.

    Deluxe two-disc edition

    Disc 1
    Stereo mix of the album plus bonus tracks off Nico's debut solo album, Chelsea Girl.

    1. "Sunday Morning" (Reed, Cale)
    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"
    9. "I'll Be Your Mirror"
    10. "The Black Angel's Death Song" (Reed, Cale)
    11. "European Son" (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker)
    12. "Little Sister" (Cale, Reed)
    13. "Winter Song" (Cale)
    14. "Chelsea Girls" (Reed, Morrison)
    15. "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams"
    Disc 2
    Mono mix of the album plus single versions.

    1. "Sunday Morning" (Reed, Cale)
    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"
    9. "I'll Be Your Mirror"
    10. "The Black Angel's Death Song" (Reed, Cale)
    11. "European Son" (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker)
    12. "All Tomorrow's Parties" (single version)
    13. "I'll Be Your Mirror" (single version)
    14. "Sunday Morning" (single version) (Reed, Cale)
    15. "Femme Fatale" (single version)

    Personnel

    The band

    and

    Technical staff

    The Velvet Underground
    John Cale | Sterling Morrison | Lou Reed | Maureen Tucker | Doug Yule
    Willie Alexander | Angus MacLise | Walter Powers
    Discography
    Studio albums: The Velvet Underground and Nico | White Light/White Heat | The Velvet Underground | Loaded | Squeeze
    Live albums: Live at Max's Kansas City | ' | Live MCMXCIII | Final V.U. | '
    Box sets and outtake compilations: VU | Another View | What Goes On | Peel Slowly and See
    Selected best-of compilations: | The Very Best of The Velvet Underground | Gold
    See also
    Chelsea Girl | Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable. | Nico | Steve Sesnick | Songs for Drella | Andy Warhol | Billy Yule

     

    From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
    All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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