174-661: The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut studio album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground and the German singer Nico . Released by Verve Records in March 1967, the album underperformed in sales and polarized critics upon release due to its abrasive, unconventional sound and controversial lyrical content. It later became regarded as one of the most influential albums in rock and pop music and one of
348-613: A Rolling Stone article from 1970, "it wasn't eighteen groups, [Curb] was misquoted. The cuts were made partly to do with the drug scene—like maybe a third of them had to do with drug reasons. The others were dropped because they weren't selling." Lou Reed would later remark in the 1987 issue of Creem that while he did not believe that MGM dropped the Velvets for drug associations, he did acknowledge, "We wanted to get out of there." Cotillion Records (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records that specialized in blues and Southern soul ) signed
522-488: A recording studio in Manhattan . This was financed by Warhol and Columbia Records ' sales executive Norman Dolph , who also acted as an engineer with John Licata. The cost of the project is unknown. Estimates vary from $ 1,500 (US$ 14,086 in 2023 dollars) to $ 3,000 (US$ 28,172 in 2023 dollars). Soon after, Dolph sent an acetate disc of the recordings to Columbia Records in an attempt to interest them in distributing
696-563: A "blatant" lift of the Rolling Stones rendition of " Hitch Hike " and called Reed's vocal performances on other songs "distressingly like early Dylan". However he ultimately wrote that "the Velvets are an important group and this album has some major work [within]", singling out "I'm Waiting for the Man", "Venus in Furs", "Femme Fatale", and "Heroin". Of the latter song, Goldstein wrote: [It]
870-545: A "left-fielder which could click in a big way." Vibrations , a small rock music magazine, gave the album a mostly positive review in their second issue, describing the music as "a full-fledged attack on the ears and on the brain" while noting the dark lyrics. Wayne Harada of the Honolulu Advertiser and Dave Donelly of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin both praised the album's banana-sticker cover;
1044-408: A band". Writers often use this quotation as a definitive figure for how many copies of The Velvet Underground & Nico were sold in the first several years. While it indeed sold less than Warhol and the band had hoped, according to a MGM royalty statement presented to Jeff Gold, a former Warner Bros. Records executive, 58,476 copies of the album sold through February 1969—a respectable figure for
1218-403: A choice of either no Cale or no band at all, the pair reluctantly sided with Reed. It has often been reported that before Cale's departure (following White Light/White Heat ) there was a struggle between his creative impulses and Reed's: Cale's experimentalist tendencies had contrasted with Reed's more conventional approach. According to Tim Mitchell, however, Morrison reported that while there
1392-453: A claim of $ 500,000 ($ 4,568,862 in 2023 dollars ) for use of his image. Instead of compensating Emerson for damages, MGM Records canceled all distribution of the album for nearly two months until the legal problems were settled (by which time the record had lost its modest commercial momentum), and the still was airbrushed out of the remaining copies of the album. By the time the record was re-distributed into stores, it faced stiff competition in
1566-442: A confidential agreement, and the partnership's suit was dismissed in late May 2013. Upon release, The Velvet Underground & Nico was a commercial flop. The album's controversial content led to its almost instantaneous ban from various record stores, many radio stations refused to play it, and magazines refused to carry advertisements for it. Its lack of success can also be attributed to Verve , who failed to promote or distribute
1740-535: A copy of the tape to Marianne Faithfull , hoping she would pass it on to Mick Jagger , lead singer of the Rolling Stones . Nothing ever came of this, but the demo was eventually released on the 1995 box set Peel Slowly and See . Manager and music journalist Al Aronowitz arranged for the group's first paying gig—$ 75 ($ 725 in 2023 dollars) to play at Summit High School , in Summit, New Jersey, opening for
1914-472: A few other session musicians in an unspecified London studio. While Yule intended to recruit Moe Tucker to play drums on Squeeze and the handful of promotional shows, Sesnick vetoed his decision and claimed she was "too expensive" to hire. Yule was also prevented by Sesnick to participate in the mixing of the album's tracks prior to the album's release the following year. Squeeze was released in February
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#17327905336302088-529: A few short-lived garage bands and had worked as a songwriter for Pickwick Records (Reed described his tenure there as being "a poor man's Carole King "). Reed met John Cale , a Welshman who had moved to the United States to study classical music upon securing a Leonard Bernstein scholarship. Cale had worked with experimental composers John Cage , Cornelius Cardew and La Monte Young , and had performed with Young's Theatre of Eternal Music , though
2262-410: A late-1960s LP. Grant McPhee, a filmmaker and music writer, later conducted a 2021 investigation into Eno's famous claim and concluded that it may have sold as many as 200,000 copies by 1971 alone. A capsule review from Billboard published ahead of the album's release praised the "haunting" vocals of Nico and the "powerful" lyrics of the band, calling it a collection of "sophisticated folk-rock" and
2436-455: A lot on Loaded . It sort of devolved down to the Lou and Doug recreational recording." While the third Velvets' LP was recorded mostly live in a collaborative atmosphere, the bulk of Loaded was crafted in the studio. In addition to handling all the bass and piano duties on Loaded , Yule also contributed several lead guitar parts and played drums on five of the album's ten tracks (most notably on
2610-616: A majority of Nico's albums. Reed started his solo career in 1972 after a brief sabbatical. Sterling Morrison was a professor for some time, teaching Medieval Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, then became a tugboat captain in Houston for several years. Moe Tucker raised a family before returning to small-scale gigging and recording in the 1980s; Morrison was in several touring bands, including Tucker's band. Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment )
2784-557: A now-legendary nine-week residency (from June 24 – August 28, 1970) at the New York nightclub Max's Kansas City , playing two lengthy sets per night, and showcasing altered arrangements of older songs from their previous albums, as well as showcasing the new material that would soon make up Loaded . Reed's last live performance with the band at Max's was informally recorded and was released two years later in 1972 as Live at Max's Kansas City , also on Atlantic Records. Disillusioned with
2958-756: A number of these songs for his solo records over the years: "Stephanie Says", "Ocean", "I Can't Stand It", "Lisa Says", and "Andy's Chest", as well as "She's My Best Friend", which had been originally sung by Doug Yule. By 1969 the MGM and Verve record labels had been losing money for several years. A new president, Mike Curb , was hired and he decided to cancel the recording contracts of 18 of their acts who supposedly glorified drugs in their lyrics, including their many controversial and unprofitable acts. The drug or hippie -related bands were released from MGM; nonetheless MGM insisted on retaining ownership of all master tapes of their recordings and according to an MGM representative in
3132-419: A recording solely of pulsating audio feedback culminating in a locked groove , was "a precursor to [Reed's] Metal Machine Music ", say Velvets archivists M.C. Kostek and Phil Milstein in the book The Velvet Underground Companion . "Loop" also predates much industrial music . At Warhol's insistence, Nico sang with the band on three songs of their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico . The album
3306-498: A section of the California Labor Code , that allows employees to be released from a personal services contract after seven years. By this time, Metallica had been with the label for more than a decade and had racked up sales over 40 million records, but they were still operating under the terms of their original 1984 contract, which provided a relatively low 14% royalty rate. The group also claimed that they were taking
3480-774: A song like "Heroin". A common misperception is that " All Tomorrow's Parties " was written by Reed at Warhol's request (as stated in Victor Bockris and Gerard Malanga 's Velvet Underground biography Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story ). While the song does seem to be another observation of Factory denizens, Reed wrote the song before meeting Warhol, having recorded a demo in July 1965 at Ludlow Street. It had folk music sounds, which were possibly inspired by Bob Dylan . The Velvet Underground & Nico has generally been described by writers as art rock , experimental rock , proto-punk , psychedelic rock , and avant-pop . Much of
3654-512: A stroboscopic-light show designed by Danny Williams. Because of the punishing lights, the band took to wearing sunglasses onstage. Early promo posters referred to the group as the "erupting plastic inevitable". This soon changed to "the exploding plastic inevitable". In 1966, MacLise temporarily rejoined the Velvet Underground for a few EPI shows when Reed was suffering from hepatitis and unable to perform. For these appearances, Cale sang and played organ, Tucker switched to bass guitar and MacLise
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#17327905336303828-699: A tent in Vietnam in April 1967 and sent the master tape to a company in California to have 45 RPM records pressed. Also in 1967 the Dutch band The Riats from The Hague released a single with "Run, Run, Run" as the A-side and "Sunday Morning" as B-side. The exact release date is unknown, so it remains open for debate whether Electric Banana or The Riats were the first to put a Velvet Underground cover on record. In 2009,
4002-563: A theater major, but left the program after one year to continue playing music. Yule had first seen the Velvets perform at a student event at Harvard University in Cambridge in early 1968, and when the band played at the Boston Tea Party later that year, the band stayed at Yule's apartment on River Street, which he happened to be renting from their road manager, Hans Onsager (who worked closely with their manager Steve Sesnick ). It
4176-466: A three-album deal. Also in 1967, Elektra launched its Nonesuch Explorer Series, one of the first collections of what is now referred to as world music . Excerpts from several Nonesuch Explorer recordings were later included on the two Voyager Golden Discs , which were sent into deep space in 1977 aboard the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes. Elektra, along with its Nonesuch Records subsidiary,
4350-510: A track-for-track cover of the record. They played a number of concerts in Buenos Aires to celebrate the release of the album, which was made available online for free. In 2021, Verve Records released the tribute album I'll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico , a track-by-track cover of the album with performances by St. Vincent , Sharon Van Etten , Bobby Gillespie , and Iggy Pop among others. Frustrated by
4524-524: A vast range of lyrical subjects on the first two Velvet Underground albums, the lyrical themes of the third album were more "intimate" in nature. Reed's songwriting also covered new emotional ground as well, as heard in the songs " Pale Blue Eyes ", "Jesus", "Beginning to See the Light", and "I'm Set Free". The personal tone of the album's subject matter resulted in Reed's desire to create a "closet" mix that boosted
4698-511: A year. Tom Wilson at Verve/MGM only bought the album from me because of Nico. He saw no talent in Lou [Reed]." In 1982, Brian Eno said that while the album sold only 30,000 copies in its early years, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band." Filmmaker and music writer, Grant McPhee conducted a 2021 investigation into Eno's famous claim into the popularity of the band's first album and concluded that it may have sold as many as 200,000 copies by 1971 alone. Nico moved on after
4872-406: Is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group , founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1950s and 1970s. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group . After five years of dormancy, the label was revived as an imprint of Atlantic in 2009. In October 2018, Elektra
5046-764: Is lost in the translation" in the absence of the visual accompaniments of Exploding Plastic Inevitable . A decade after its release, The Velvet Underground & Nico began to attract wide praise from rock critics. Christgau wrote in his 1977 retrospective review for the Village Voice that the record had been difficult to understand in 1967, "which is probably why people are still learning from it. It sounds intermittently crude, thin, and pretentious at first, but it never stops getting better." He later included it in his "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of
5220-451: Is more compressed, more restrained than live performances I have seen. But it's also more a realized work. The tempo fluctuates wildly and finally breaks into a series of utterly terrifying squeals, like the death rattle of a suffocating violin. "Heroin" is seven minutes of genuine 12-tone rock 'n' roll. The Tampa Tribune writer Vance Johnston dismissed it as a collection of "several confusing sounds ... most depressing and whatever
5394-577: Is on the inside of the jewel case , beneath the CD itself. The album was re-pressed onto heavyweight vinyl in 2008, featuring a banana sticker. When the album was first issued, the main back cover photo (taken at a performance of Warhol's event Exploding Plastic Inevitable ) contained an image of actor Eric Emerson projected upside-down on the wall behind the band. Having recently been arrested for drug possession and desperate for money, Emerson threatened to sue over this unauthorized use of his image, unless he
The Velvet Underground & Nico - Misplaced Pages Continue
5568-519: The Pensacola News Journal defined the album overall as "one big savage sound", with its lyrics "equally frenzied": "The result sounds like the merger of Dracula and some of the long-haired wailers of today". John F. Szwed of Jazz & Pop called the band's performance on the record "tedious despite their ventures into electric viola et al ", acknowledging the strength of their "loud whine" but ultimately writing that "something
5742-468: The ostrich guitar tuning for a song he wrote called "The Ostrich" for the short-lived band the Primitives. Ostrich guitar tuning consists of all strings being tuned to the same note. This method was utilized on the songs "Venus in Furs" and "All Tomorrow's Parties". Often, the guitars were also tuned down a whole step, which produced a lower, fuller sound that Cale considered "sexy". Cale performed on
5916-428: The "narcotic drone" not only sustains the sadomasochism -themed "Venus in Furs", but it also "identifies and unifies the [album] musically". Of the vocal performances, he believed "Nico's contained chantoozy sexuality" complemented "the dispassionate abandon of Reed's chant singing". In 1966, Richard Goldstein described Nico's vocal as "something like a cello getting up in the morning". Tucker's style of drumming on
6090-565: The "solid bite" of the letter 'K', citing its use in the Kodak name. The first Elektra LP, New Songs (EKLP 1 released March 1951), was a collection of Lieder and similar art songs, which sold few copies. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the label concentrated on folk music recordings, releasing a number of best-selling albums by Theodore Bikel , Ed McCurdy , Oscar Brand , and Judy Collins , and protest singers such as Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton . Holzman also recorded Josh White , who
6264-424: The 1970s and 1980s, and a retrospective "rarities" album, VU , was released in 1985. Reed, Cale, Tucker and Morrison reunited for a series of well-received shows in 1993, and released a live album from the tour, Live MCMXCIII , later that same year. After Morrison's death in 1995, the remaining members played a final performance at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1996. Reed died in 2013. In 2004,
6438-485: The 1990s drew to a close, Elektra began to see a slump in revenue, while noticeably underperforming on the charts. It also developed a bit of a sullen reputation in the industry for not properly promoting many of its releases, thus earning the nickname "Neglektra" from several signed artists, such as Marvelous 3 , Jason Falkner , and Greg Dulli , and was easily lagging behind its sister labels Warner Bros. Records and Atlantic Records. In February 2004, Warner Music Group
6612-466: The 2001 box set Final V.U. After the brief European tour in November 1971 was finished, the lineup of Yule, Tucker, Alexander and Powers disbanded. In May 1972, Atlantic released Live at Max's Kansas City , the recording of the Velvet Underground's final performance with Reed (also with Doug Yule, Morrison, and Billy Yule) made by a fan, Brigid Polk , on August 23, 1970. Due to publicity around
6786-460: The 20th century". In 2003, Rolling Stone placed it at number 13 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, calling it the "most prophetic rock album ever made". It re-ranked at number 23 in a 2020 reboot of the list. The album was selected as one of the 24 significant US albums of the 1960s in the book "The Perfect Collection" by Tom Hibbert (1982). In 1997, The Velvet Underground & Nico
6960-451: The American musician Beck recorded a track-for-track cover of The Velvet Underground & Nico and released it online in video form on his website, as part of a project called Record Club . Musicians involved in the recording include Beck plus Nigel Godrich , Joey Waronker , Brian LeBarton , Bram Inscore, Yo, Giovanni Ribisi , Chris Holmes, and Þórunn Magnúsdóttir . Also in 2009, various artists from Argentina collaborated to produce
7134-760: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York after the Foundation licensed the cover's banana design to Incase Designs for use on a line of iPhone and iPad cases. The complaint involved copyright infringement , trademark infringement and unfair competition . Alleging that the Foundation had earlier claimed it "may" own
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7308-578: The Family Dog venues in San Francisco; recordings of these shows were released in 2001, as a triple live album, Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes , which included the line up of Reed, Yule, Morrison and Tucker. During 1969 the band recorded on and off in the studio, creating a lot of promising material (both singles and one-offs) that were never officially released at the time due to disputes with their record label. What many consider to be
7482-428: The Foundation actually owned the design's copyright, a court decision would have no practical consequences for the partnership; it would be a purely academic (or " advisory ") opinion, which federal courts may not issue. The court therefore "dismissed without prejudice" the partnership's request that it resolve whether the Foundation owned the design's copyright. The remaining trademark claims were settled out of court with
7656-532: The Foundation's motion, Judge Alison J. Nathan severed and dismissed from the lawsuit the partnership's copyright claim. According to Judge Nathan, the Constitution allows federal courts to decide only "Cases" or "Controversies" , which means ongoing or imminent disputes over legal rights, involving concrete facts and specific acts, that require court intervention in order to shield the plaintiff from harm or interference with its rights. The judge held that
7830-415: The German singer and model Nico , was released in 1967 to critical indifference and poor sales but later drew widespread acclaim. They released three more albums: the abrasive White Light/White Heat (1968), and the more accessible albums The Velvet Underground (1969) and Loaded (1970), with Doug Yule replacing Cale for the latter two. None performed to the expectations of record labels or Reed,
8004-488: The LP, and a rare Moe Tucker lead vocal is used on "After Hours", which closes the album, because Reed felt her "innocent" voice was more believable for a sad song. The album contains the experimental track "The Murder Mystery", which utilized all four band members (Reed, Yule, Tucker and Morrison) reading different lyrics, sometimes simultaneously, as well as the ballad "Pale Blue Eyes". The Velvet Underground spent much of 1969 on
8178-456: The Man" and "All Tomorrow's Parties". In 2002, Universal released a two-disc "Deluxe Edition" set containing the stereo version of the album along with the five tracks from Nico's Chelsea Girl written by members of the band on disc one, and the mono version of the album along with the mono single mixes of "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "Sunday Morning" and their B-sides "I'll Be Your Mirror" and "Femme Fatale" on disc two. A studio demo of
8352-704: The Myddle Class . When they decided to take the gig, MacLise abruptly left the group, protesting what he considered a sellout ; he was also unwilling to be told when to start and stop playing. "Angus was in it for art", Morrison reported. MacLise was replaced by Maureen "Moe" Tucker , the younger sister of Morrison's friend Jim Tucker. Tucker's playing style was rather unusual: she generally played standing up rather than seated and had an abbreviated drum setup of tom-toms , snare and an upturned bass drum , using mallets as often as drumsticks, and rarely using cymbals (she admits that she always hated cymbals). When
8526-579: The Primitives. Reed and Morrison both played guitars, Cale played viola, keyboards and bass and Angus MacLise joined on percussion to complete the initial four-member unit. This quartet was first called the Warlocks, then the Falling Spikes. The Velvet Underground by Michael Leigh was a contemporary mass market paperback about the secret sexual subculture of the early 1960s; Cale's friend and Dream Syndicate associate Tony Conrad showed it to
8700-579: The Seventies (1981). In The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1998), Colin Larkin called it a "powerful collection" that "introduced Reed's decidedly urban infatuations, a fascination for street culture and amorality bordering on voyeurism." In April 2003, Spin led their "Top Fifteen Most Influential Albums of All Time" list with the album. On November 12, 2000, NPR included it in their "NPR 100" series of "the most important American musical works of
8874-406: The Velvet Underground for what would be its final studio album with Lou Reed: Loaded . The album's title refers to Atlantic's request that the band produce an album "loaded with hits". Though the record was not the smash hit the company had anticipated, it contains the most accessible pop the Velvet Underground had performed, and two of Reed's best-known songs, "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll". By
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#17327905336309048-513: The Velvet Underground in different directions. The differences showed in the last recording sessions the band had with John Cale in 1968: three pop -like songs in Reed's direction ("Temptation Inside Your Heart", "Stephanie Says" and "Beginning to See the Light") and a viola-driven drone in Cale's direction ("Hey Mr. Rain"). Further, some songs the band had performed with Cale in concert, or that he had co-written, were not recorded until after he had left
9222-463: The Velvet Underground in late 1972, a band with him, Billy Yule, George Kay and guitarist Don Silverman (later known as Noor Khan) was incorrectly billed as the Velvet Underground for two shows in Boston and Long Island. The band members objected to the billing (instigated by their tour manager); according to Yule, the promoter was not supposed to bill the band as the Velvet Underground. In late May 1973,
9396-399: The Velvet Underground were ranked number 19 on Rolling Stone ' s list of the " 100 Greatest Artists of All Time ". The New York Times wrote that the Velvet Underground was "arguably the most influential American rock band of our time". The foundations for what would become the Velvet Underground were laid in late 1964. Singer-songwriter and guitarist Lou Reed had performed with
9570-412: The Velvet Underground, producing their 1968 album White Light/White Heat and Nico's Chelsea Girl . All tracks are written by Lou Reed , except where noted. All lead vocals by Reed, except where noted According to the album’s liner notes and author Peter Hogan: Production The first CD edition of the album was released in 1986 and featured slight changes. The title of the album was featured on
9744-410: The Velvet Underground. Reed's first group with Cale was the Primitives, a short-lived group assembled to issue budget-priced recordings and support an anti-dance single written by Reed, "The Ostrich", to which Cale added a viola passage. Reed and Cale recruited Sterling Morrison —a college classmate of Reed's at Syracuse University —as a replacement for Walter De Maria , who had been a third member of
9918-414: The Velvets severed their relationship with Andy Warhol. Reed once commented on their leaving Warhol: "He sat down and had a talk with me. 'You gotta decide what you want to do. Do you want to keep just playing museums from now on and the art festivals? Or do you want to start moving into other areas? Lou, don't you think you should think about it?' So I thought about it, and I fired him. Because I thought that
10092-527: The Year". Nadel was officially named president of the label in 2017. In October 2017, Elektra Records partnered with MSG Networks for "Friday Night Knicks". Announced on June 18, 2018, Warner Music Group relaunched Elektra Music Group on October 1, as a stand-alone, staffed music company with the labels Black Cement, Elektra, Fueled by Ramen (FBR), Low Country Sound , and Roadrunner Records . A handful of major artists transferred from Atlantic. This returned
10266-469: The action because Robert Morgado had refused to honor a new deal they had worked out with Bob Krasnow shortly before he quit the label. Elektra responded by countersuing the group, but in December, New York magazine reported rumors that then Warner Music US chairman Doug Morris had offered the group a lucrative new deal in exchange for dropping the suit, which was reported to be even more generous than
10440-766: The airport that he was staying in Texas and quitting the band—the last founding member to quit. Morrison's replacement was singer/keyboard player Willie Alexander . This brief line-up of the band played several shows in the US and Canada in September 1971, and in October and November 1971 the band did several shows in England, Wales, and the Netherlands to support the 1971 European release of Loaded , some of which are collected on
10614-666: The album from November 1970 to August 1971, playing shows around the U.S. By this juncture, Sterling Morrison had received his degree from the City College of New York. Following a show in Houston, Texas , he left the group in August 1971 to pursue a Ph.D. in medieval literature at the University of Texas at Austin . He had packed an empty suitcase and when the time came for the band to return to New York City , he told them at
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#173279053363010788-525: The album involved her playing standing up rather than sitting down, playing bass drums and tambourines on their sides with a drumstick in her left hand and a mallet in her right hand, resulting in "a mix of African trance rhythms and Ringo -like arrangement genius" according to Adam Budofsky of Modern Drummer . The band's initial percussionist and ex-member, Angus MacLise , had informed Tucker's style and influenced her into playing "pounding" rhythms that fit with, in her words, "the ominous mood" of several of
10962-415: The album purely as a money ploy. "Sesnick dumped the second iteration of the band in England with no money and no equipment and just left us there to find our way back. He gave me six copies of Squeeze as pay. I never got any money. When you sign with ASCAP or BMI you get an advance. He not only made an arrangement with them but actually signed as me and took the money." Despite the negative reviews of
11136-402: The album upon its initial release, in recent years the album has been revisited by both critics and musicians with more sympathetic and favorable reviews. In 2011 music writer Steven Shehori included Squeeze in his "Criminally Overlooked Albums" series for The Huffington Post , and in a lengthy review of the album, offered the following positive assessment of Squeeze : "if you pluck it from
11310-625: The album was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time. In 2017, Pitchfork placed the album at number 1 on its list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s". It was voted number 13 in Colin Larkin 's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). In April 1967, one month after the album's release, a band called the Electrical Banana may have recorded the first cover version of "There She Goes Again". According to bandmember Dean Kohler , they recorded it in
11484-509: The album with anything but modest attention. However, Richie Unterberger of AllMusic also notes that: ... the music was simply too daring to fit onto commercial radio; "underground" rock radio was barely getting started at this point, and in any case may well have overlooked the record at a time when psychedelic music was approaching its peak. The album first entered the Billboard album charts on May 13, 1967, at number 199 and left
11658-445: The album's dark subject matter is today considered revolutionary, several of the album's songs are centered on themes more typical of popular music. Certain songs were written by Reed as observations of the members of Andy Warhol's " Factory superstars ". " Femme Fatale " in particular was written about Edie Sedgwick at Warhol's request. " I'll Be Your Mirror ", inspired by Nico , is a tender and affectionate song; in stark contrast to
11832-473: The album's songs. The album cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico is recognizable for featuring a Warhol print of a banana . Early copies of the album invited the owner to "Peel slowly and see", and peeling back the banana skin revealed a flesh-colored banana underneath. A special machine was needed to manufacture these covers (one of the causes of the album's delayed release), but MGM paid for costs figuring that any ties to Warhol would boost sales of
12006-448: The album's sound was conceived by John Cale , who stressed the experimental qualities of the band. He was influenced greatly by his work with minimalist composer La Monte Young , John Cage and the early Fluxus movement, and encouraged the use of alternative ways of producing sound in music. Cale thought his sensibilities meshed well with Lou Reed's, who was already experimenting with alternate tunings. For instance, Reed had "invented"
12180-476: The album's year-long delay and unsuccessful release, Lou Reed 's relationship with Andy Warhol grew tense. Reed fired Warhol as manager in favor of Steve Sesnick , who convinced the group to move towards a more commercial direction. Nico was forced out of the group, and began a career as a solo artist. Her debut solo album, Chelsea Girl , was released in October 1967, featuring some songs written by Velvet Underground members. Tom Wilson continued working with
12354-547: The album, but they declined, as did Atlantic Records and Elektra Records —according to Morrison, Atlantic objected to the references to drugs in Reed's songs, while Elektra disliked Cale's viola. Finally, the MGM Records -owned Verve Records accepted the recordings, with the help of Verve staff producer Tom Wilson who had recently moved from a job at Columbia. With the backing of a label, one month later in May 1966 three of
12528-400: The album. Most reissued vinyl editions of the album do not feature the peel-off sticker; original copies of the album with the peel-sticker feature are now rare collector's items. A Japanese re-issue LP in the early 1980s was the only re-issue version to include the banana sticker for many years. On the 1996 CD reissue, the banana image is on the front cover while the image of the peeled banana
12702-437: The back, Nico chanting. But he couldn't undo what had already been done." However Sterling Morrison and Lou Reed both cited Warhol's lack of manipulation as a legitimate method of production. Morrison described Warhol as the producer "in the sense of producing a film". Reed said: He just made it possible for us to be ourselves and go right ahead with it because he was Andy Warhol. In a sense, he really did produce it, because he
12876-404: The band and that Reed had been aware of most, if not all, of the edits. With manager Steve Sesnick looking to fill bookings (following the departure of Lou Reed), and with the pending release of Loaded in November 1970, the band, now with Sterling Morrison on guitar, Moe Tucker on drums, Walter Powers on bass, and Doug Yule taking over lead vocals and guitar, played periodic shows to promote
13050-565: The band and the tour manager parted ways, thus bringing the Velvet Underground to an end until the classic line-up of Reed, Tucker, Morrison and Cale reunited in the 1990s. Reed, Cale and Nico teamed up at the beginning of 1972 to play a concert in Paris at the Bataclan club . This concert was bootlegged, and finally received an official release as Le Bataclan '72 in 2003. Before that, Cale and Nico had developed solo careers, with Cale producing
13224-507: The band asked her to do something unusual, she turned her bass drum on its side and played standing up. After her drums were stolen from one club, she replaced them with garbage cans brought in from outside. Her rhythms, at once simple and exotic (influenced by the likes of Babatunde Olatunji and Bo Diddley as well as Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones), became a vital part of the group's music, despite Cale's initial objections to
13398-446: The band gain a higher profile. He helped the band secure a recording contract with MGM's Verve Records, with himself as nominal " producer ", and gave the Velvets free rein over the sound they created. During their stay with Andy Warhol, the band became part of his multimedia roadshow, Exploding Plastic Inevitable , which combined Warhol's films with the band's music, which made use of minimalist devices, such as drones. Warhol included
13572-415: The band to get an endorsement deal with Vox to enable them to use Vox equipment, including special effects pedals and an organ, for free. Sterling Morrison believed they were the first American band to get a Vox endorsement. Sterling Morrison offered the following input regarding the recording: There was fantastic leakage 'cause everyone was playing so loud and we had so much electronic junk with us in
13746-500: The band was scheduled to take the stage the following night before notifying him that Reed was not coming. "I was expecting [Lou] to show up, I thought he was late." Yule blamed Sesnick for Reed's departure. "Sesnick had engineered Lou's leaving the group. He and Lou had a relationship where Lou had depended on him for moral support, and he trusted him, and Sesnick basically said 'screw you.' ... It must have been hard for Lou to hear that because he depended on him, so he quit." While Loaded
13920-588: The band with his show in an effort to "use rock as a part of a larger, interdisciplinary-art work based around performance" (McDonald). They played shows for several months in New York City, then traveled throughout the United States and Canada until its last installment in May 1967. During a short period in September 1966, when Cale was ill, the avant-garde musician Henry Flynt and Reed's friend Richard Mishkin took turns to cover for him. The show included 16 mm film projections by Warhol, combined with
14094-541: The band with the necessary equipment and tour funds, they played the handful of dates to secure enough money for flights back to the US, and Yule left the band when the brief tour ended in December 1972. It was during this brief period in the UK that Yule recorded the Polydor album (ultimately titled Squeeze ) under the Velvet Underground name virtually by himself, with only the assistance of Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice and
14268-427: The band's leader. However, like the band's debut, all albums later achieved critical acclaim. In the early 1970s, all but Yule left the band. Yule led an abortive UK tour in 1973, and released a final album under the Velvet Underground name, Squeeze (1973), recorded mostly by Yule with session musicians, before the band dissolved shortly after. The former band members collaborated on each other's solo work throughout
14442-521: The band. The essay also clarifies that the absence of any DVD materials in the box set is due to the fact that none of the band's shows were filmed, in spite of their heavy reliance on multimedia visuals. Norman Dolph's original acetate recording of the Scepter Studios material contains several recordings that would make it onto the final album, though many are different mixes of those recordings and three are different takes entirely. The acetate
14616-425: The beginning of a new age" as sung by Yule) was repeated many more times. A brief interlude in "Rock and Roll" was also removed. (For the 1995 box set Peel Slowly and See , the album was presented as Reed intended; the "Fully Loaded" two-disc edition includes the full versions of "Sweet Jane" and "New Age".) On the other hand, Yule has pointed out that the album was for all intents and purposes finished when Reed left
14790-471: The biggest market share and gross revenues Elektra Asylum was to have, inherited the A&;R services of Chuck Plotkin , famed later for producing many of Bruce Springsteen's greatest records, followed up by George Daly , who is credited as bringing in seminal new wave band The Cars , setting Elektra, again, on another artist direction. Although the label was technically listed as "Elektra/Asylum Records" on
14964-572: The charts on June 10, 1967, at number 195. When Verve recalled the album in June due to Eric Emerson's lawsuit, it disappeared from the charts for five months. It then re-entered the charts on November 18, 1967, at number 182, peaked at number 171 on December 16, 1967, and finally left the charts on January 6, 1968, at number 193. The English musician Brian Eno said in 1982 that while the album only sold approximately 30,000 copies in its first five years, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started
15138-493: The club La Cave. Upon meeting Reed, Sesnick and Morrison at Max's, Yule was asked to handle bass and organ duties in the band, and he would soon contribute vocals as well. After several months of shows in the US, the band swiftly recorded their third album The Velvet Underground in late 1968 at TTG Studios in Hollywood, California . It was released in March 1969. The cover photograph was taken by Billy Name . The LP sleeve
15312-437: The collective reputation of the group. Unhappy with major structural changes enacted by then Warner Music Group chairman Robert Morgado, Bob Krasnow abruptly resigned in July 1994, and others soon followed; the highly respected Warner Bros CEO Mo Ostin decided not to renew his contract and left in December 1994, and Ostin's friend and protégé Lenny Waronker left early the next year. Krasnow was replaced by Sylvia Rhone , who at
15486-411: The content in their works could not translate well to rock and roll music. An English major who studied for a B.A. at Syracuse University , Reed said in an interview that he thought joining the two (gritty subject matter and music) was "obvious". "That's the kind of stuff you might read. Why wouldn't you listen to it? You have the fun of reading that, and you get the fun of rock on top of it." Though
15660-487: The court, the Foundation promised not to sue the partnership for any "potentially copyright-infringing uses of the Banana Design", the partnership could continue using the design and there would be no legal action that the Foundation could take (under copyright law) to stop it. And if, the court concluded, the partnership could continue with business as usual (as far as copyright was concerned) regardless of whether
15834-489: The cover, unlike the original LP release. In addition, the album contained an alternate mix of "All Tomorrow's Parties" which featured a single track of lead vocals as opposed to the double-tracked vocal version on the original LP. Apparently, the decision to use the double-tracked version on the original LP was made at the last minute. Bill Levenson, who was overseeing the initial CD issues of the VU's Verve/MGM catalog, wanted to keep
16008-427: The design's copyright, the partnership asked the court for a declaratory judgment that the Foundation did not have such rights. In response, the Foundation gave the partnership a "Covenant Not to Sue"—a written and binding promise that, even if the partnership and certain other parties continued to use the design commercially, the Foundation would never invoke its professed copyright ownership against them in court. On
16182-654: The development of punk rock , new wave and several other genres. The group performed under several names before settling on the Velvet Underground in 1965, taken from the title of a 1963 book on atypical sexual behavior . In 1966, the pop artist Andy Warhol became their manager. They served as the house band at Warhol's studio, the Factory , and his traveling multimedia show, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable , from 1966 to 1967. Their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico , featuring
16356-465: The double album. In his notes, Murphy described a scene 100 years in the future, with a student taking a class on "classical rock'n'roll" and listening to the Velvet Underground. He wondered what the student would make of the music and concluded, "I wish it was a hundred years from today (I can't stand the suspense)". During this period the band played a series of shows in November 1969 at the Matrix and
16530-479: The earlier Krasnow deal. In January, the group and Elektra jointly announced that they had settled the suit, and although a nondisclosure agreement kept the terms secret, media sources claimed, "a significant increase in royalty payments to the band as well as a renegotiation of the group's recording contract were key factors in Metallica and Elektra coming to terms." Despite having a large stable of noted acts, as
16704-503: The energy and the electronics, but we didn't know it couldn't be recorded...what we were trying to do was really fry the tracks. Cale has said that while the debut had some moments of fragility and beauty, White Light/White Heat was "consciously anti-beauty". The title track sets a harsh opening; bassist Cale overdubbing a piano that has been described as "a cross between Jerry Lee Lewis and Henry Cowell ". Along with brash songs like " Sister Ray " and " I Heard Her Call My Name ", there
16878-409: The engineer would say, "Oh yeah! Right! It is fantastic, isn't it?" The Velvet Underground & Nico was notable for its overt descriptions of topics such as drug abuse , prostitution , sadism and masochism and sexual deviancy . " I'm Waiting for the Man " describes a protagonist's efforts to obtain heroin , while " Venus in Furs " is a nearly literal interpretation of the 19th century novel of
17052-532: The following year, 1973, in Europe only, with minimal promotion by the label, and was held in low regard by fans and critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine notes that the album received "uniformly terrible reviews" upon initial release, and in the early 1970s, the NME Book of Rock counted it as "a Velvet Underground album in name only". When asked about Squeeze , Yule hinted that band manager Steve Sesnick orchestrated
17226-568: The former terming it "the wildest" front cover of any album yet and the latter calling it a conversation piece . Harada wrote: "Inside, the eating's good, too: 'Sunday Morning' has a definite psychedelic hit sound. 'Run Run Run' still is another Underground gem gaining ground." Donelly called the album "not Commercial with a capital 'C' but an experience in sound." An anonymous reviewer in the American Record Guide praised Reed's lyrics as "penetratingly contemporary", comparing them to
17400-559: The greatest albums of all time. The Velvet Underground & Nico was recorded in 1966 while the band were featured on Andy Warhol 's Exploding Plastic Inevitable tour. Warhol, who designed the album's record sleeve , co-produced with Tom Wilson . The album features elements of avant-garde music incorporated into brash, minimal and groove-driven rock music . The singer, Lou Reed , delivers explicit lyrics spanning themes of drug abuse , prostitution , sadomasochism and urban life. Characterized as "the original art-rock record", it
17574-592: The group (such as "Walk It and Talk It", "Ride into the Sun", and "Countess from Hong Kong"). Reed called Morrison and Tucker to a meeting at the Riviera Cafe in the West Village without Cale's knowledge, and informed them that Cale was out of the band; when Morrison objected, Reed said it was either Cale was sacked or the Velvets were dissolved. Neither Morrison nor Tucker was happy with the idea, but faced with
17748-697: The group to the Warner-Elektra-Atlantic triad that had for decades marked the original company organization. Staff from Elektra, FBR, and Roadrunner labels, plus some from Atlantic, staffed the new standalone group with co-presidents Mike Easterlin and Gregg Nadel coming from Fueled by Ramen and Roadrunner Records and Elektra, respectively, where they served as label presidents. Elektra co-presidents answered, though, to Atlantic Records Group Chairman and CEO Craig Kallman and Chairwoman and COO Julie Greenwald. On October 3, 2018, Elektra revealed its entire leadership team. The label group's first release
17922-672: The group, " All Tomorrow's Parties ". Kurt Loder would later describe "All Tomorrow's Parties" as a "mesmerizing gothic-rock masterpiece". Closing out the album was the avant-garde " The Black Angel's Death Song ", followed by the lengthy, feedback-laden " European Son ", which Reed dedicated to his Syracuse professor Delmore Schwartz . The overall sound was propelled by Reed and Nico's deadpan vocals, Cale's droning viola, bass and keyboards, Reed's experimental avant-garde guitar, Morrison's often R&B - or country -influenced guitar, and Tucker's simple but steady and tribal-sounding beat with sparse use of cymbals. A technique used on many songs
18096-545: The group, and MacLise made a suggestion to adopt the title as the band's name. According to Reed and Morrison, the group liked the name, considering it evocative of "underground cinema", and fitting, as Reed had already written " Venus in Furs ", a song inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch 's book of the same name , which dealt with masochism. The band immediately and unanimously adopted "The Velvet Underground" as its new name in November 1965. The newly named Velvet Underground rehearsed and performed in New York City. Their music
18270-474: The influence of the new equipment. Morrison's ringing guitar parts and Yule's melodic bass guitar and harmony vocals are used prominently on the album. Reed's songs and singing are subdued and confessional in nature, and he shared lead vocals with Yule, particularly when his own voice would fail under stress. Doug Yule sang the lead vocal on "Candy Says" (about the Warhol superstar Candy Darling ), which opens
18444-423: The label credits, as the years went on, the label began to unofficially call itself Elektra Records again (with Asylum operating as a subsidiary label). In 1982, Elektra launched a jazz subsidiary called Elektra/Musician . The following year, Bob Krasnow became president and CEO of Elektra; under his leadership, the label reached its commercial peak throughout the rest of the 1980s and early to mid-1990s. In 1989,
18618-495: The label in 2015. In September 2015, Castelaz stepped down from his role at Elektra, leaving Nadel to run the label. In 2016, Elektra's releases included A/B , the debut album by Icelandic rock band Kaleo , which included the number-one Alternative hit " Way Down We Go ", Fitz and the Tantrums ' self-titled third album and the critically acclaimed Southern Family , which garnered a 2016 CMA Nomination for "Musical Event of
18792-632: The label officially changed its name to Elektra Entertainment. During the Bob Krasnow era, the label became home to a wide range of artists, such as Metallica , Yngwie Malmsteen , Faster Pussycat , Mötley Crüe , Phish , Tracy Chapman , 10,000 Maniacs , They Might Be Giants , The Cure , The Sugarcubes , Stereolab , Luna , The Call , X , The Afghan Whigs , Anita Baker , Linda Ronstadt , Natalie Cole , Brand Nubian , KMD , Pete Rock & CL Smooth , and Ween . The label's A&R department included former music journalist Terry Tolkin , who
18966-512: The lack of progress the band was making, and facing pressure by manager Steve Sesnick , Reed decided to quit the band during the last week of the Max's Kansas City shows in August 1970. Although Reed had informed Tucker, who was attending the show but not playing with the band because of her pregnancy, that he planned to leave the group on his last evening, he did not tell Morrison or Yule. In a 2006 interview, Yule said Sesnick waited until one hour before
19140-493: The live shows the band played during this period would end up released as live albums many years later. The live album 1969: The Velvet Underground Live (with Reed, Yule, Morrison & Tucker) was recorded in October 1969 but not released until 1974, on Mercury Records, at the urging of rock critic Paul Nelson , who worked in A&;R for Mercury at the time. Nelson asked singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy to write liner notes for
19314-424: The marketplace. The album was re-distributed at nearly the same time as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in June 1967, which further hindered the release. Regarding MGM/Verve's delay in releasing the album, Warhol's business manager Paul Morrissey once offered the following: "Verve/MGM didn't know what to do with The Velvet Underground and Nico because it was so peculiar. They did not release it for almost
19488-474: The meantime, was appointed senior vice president and chief technologist for Warner — ushering the company into home video and the first interactive cable system. Holzman also went on to acquire Discovery Records . In 1975, Geffen stepped down when he was told that he had a terminal illness; He later was revealed to have been falsely diagnosed. He was replaced by Joe Smith, who later went on to become CEO of Capitol Records . Joe Smith, whose leadership resulted in
19662-400: The message I failed to get" but wrote that Warhol aficionados would declare it his best "at any rate". Don Lass of New Jersey's Asbury Park Evening Press was similarly dismissive, finding the music "as lifeless and inanimate as the discarded banana peel, touching every cliche in the rock 'n' roll spectrum while missing the genuine fun that good big-beat renderings can offer." A staff writer for
19836-502: The mid-1960s. In 1965, Elektra began a short-lived joint venture with Survey Music called Bounty Records, which was Elektra's first foray into pop music. The most notable signing for Bounty was the Paul Butterfield Band who was moved over to Elektra when Bounty folded. Elektra's entrance into pop gained the label considerable prestige within the music scene by being one of the first labels to sign up leading acts from
20010-402: The new company was called Atlantic Records Group , with Elektra breaking off into a subsidiary that became dormant until the label was revived in 2009 (though longtime time Elektra artists such as Tracy Chapman , Björk , and Yolanda Adams continued to have releases on the label, while newer signees such as Jason Mraz and Jet were transferred to Atlantic). Atlantic Records Group announced
20184-697: The new wave of American psychedelic rock of 1966–1967. The label's most important signings were the Chicago-based Paul Butterfield Blues Band (with Mike Bloomfield ), the Los Angeles bands Love and The Doors , and the Detroit bands The Stooges and MC5 . Included in Elektra's Los Angeles-based signings were Tim Buckley and Bread . In 1968, the label also signed pioneering rock guitar soloist Lonnie Mack to
20358-532: The next album with the amplifiers underwater, and [Lou] just couldn't have it. He was trying to make the band more accessible." Ultimately, Morrison was dispatched by Reed to tell Cale that he was out of the band. Before work on their third album started, Cale was replaced by musician Doug Yule of the Boston group the Grass Menagerie, who had been a close associate of the band. Yule, a native New Yorker, had moved to Boston to attend Boston University as
20532-412: The partnership's complaint fell short of that standard because even if the Foundation continued to claim ownership of the design's copyright—and even if its claim was invalid—that claim would not legally harm the partnership or prevent it from making its own lawful uses of the design. The partnership did not claim that it owned the design's copyright, only that the Foundation did not . Since, according to
20706-520: The presence of a female drummer. The group earned a regular paying gig at the Café Bizarre and gained an early reputation as a promising ensemble. In 1965, after being introduced to the Velvet Underground by filmmaker Barbara Rubin , Andy Warhol became the band's manager and suggested they use the German-born singer Nico (born Christa Päffgen) on several songs. Warhol's reputation helped
20880-402: The prime songs of these recording sessions were released years later, in 1985, in a compilation album called VU . The album VU marks the transitional sound between the whisper-soft third album and the band's movement to the later pop rock song-style of their final record, Loaded . Two of the songs the Velvets recorded during this period were later used on film soundtracks: "Stephanie Says"
21054-411: The recording of Loaded , Doug Yule played a more prominent role in the band, and with Reed's encouragement, sang the lead vocal on four songs: "Who Loves the Sun", which opened the album, "New Age", "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" and the final track, "Oh! Sweet Nuthin". Yule once commented on the recording of Loaded : "Lou leaned on me a lot in terms of musical support and for harmonies, vocal arrangements. I did
21228-443: The recording sessions. Several others who worked on the album are often mentioned as the technical producer. Norman Dolph and John Licata are sometimes attributed to producing the Scepter Studios sessions, as they were responsible for recording and engineering, though neither is credited. Dolph said Cale was the creative producer, as he handled the majority of the arrangements . However Cale recalled that Tom Wilson produced nearly all
21402-619: The release, and growing interest in the Velvet Underground in Europe, Sesnick was able to secure a single album deal with Polydor in the UK, and a handful of promotional shows were booked in the UK in November and December 1972. After Sesnick reached out to Yule, a new Velvet Underground lineup was quickly assembled by Yule to do the UK shows. This brief lineup of the Velvet Underground consisted of Yule, guitarist Rob Norris (later of The Bongos ), bassist George Kay (Krzyzewski), and drummer Mark Nauseef . After Sesnick failed to show up in London to meet
21576-466: The revival of Elektra Records as an independent entity within Warner Music on June 1, 2009. The revived label is headed up by two new co-Presidents: Mike Caren , Exec. VP of A&R for Atlantic Records, and John Janick , founder and President of prominent indie label Fueled by Ramen . The revived label uses a modified version of the circa -1970s Elektra logo. The first release of the new label
21750-548: The road both in the US and Canada, and not making much headway commercially. Despite these commercial setbacks, the band focused on performing live shows on the road, playing both re-worked songs from their past albums, and debuting new songs that would find their way onto the Loaded album, such as "New Age", "Rock and Roll", and "Sweet Jane". While the band continued to do extended improvisations in their live shows, by 1969 they were focusing on tight live performances, and several of
21924-479: The same bonus tracks as the prior deluxe version's second disc. Disc three is Nico's Chelsea Girl in its entirety and the Scepter Studios acetate (see below) in its entirety occupies disc 4. Discs 5 and 6 contain a previously unreleased live performance from 1966. According to the essay by music critic and historian Richie Unterberger contained within the set, the source for the show is the only audio tape of acceptable quality recording during singer Nico's tenure in
22098-442: The same name (which itself prominently features accounts of BDSM ). " Heroin " details an individual's use of the drug and the experience of feeling its effects. Lou Reed , who wrote the majority of the album's lyrics, never intended to write about such topics for shock value. Reed, a fan of poets and authors such as Raymond Chandler , Nelson Algren , William S. Burroughs , Allen Ginsberg , and Hubert Selby, Jr. , saw no reason
22272-463: The second disc of the "Deluxe Edition" as a single CD "Rarities Edition". On October 1, 2012, Universal released a 6-CD box set of the album. It features the previously available mono and stereo mixes as discs one and two respectively. Disc one contains as bonus tracks additional alternate versions of "All Tomorrow's Parties", "European Son", "Heroin", "All Tomorrow's Parties" (alternate instrumental version), and "I'll Be Your Mirror". Disc two contains
22446-523: The sessions, Sterling Morrison resumed his undergraduate studies at the City College of New York . Although he contributed guitar tracks to the album, he began to split his time between classes, the sessions and the gigs at Max's, thus leaving Reed and Yule to handle the bulk of the arrangements. It was during the Loaded recording sessions that the Velvets (with Billy Yule deputizing on drums) secured
22620-450: The shackles of its murky back-story, Squeeze is nothing short of a quintessential listening experience." The UK band Squeeze took their name from its title according to band member Chris Difford , who offered the following opinion of the album in a 2012 interview: "It's an odd record, but the name came from that, definitely. ... In a retrospective way I really enjoy it. It has kind of a naivety about it." Although Yule had put an end to
22794-399: The single-voice version a secret as a surprise to fans, but was dismayed to find out that the alternate version was revealed as such on the CD's back cover (and noted as "previously unreleased"). The subsequent 1996 remastered CD reissue removed these changes, keeping the original album art and double-tracked mix of "All Tomorrow's Parties" found on the LP. The Velvet Underground & Nico
22968-414: The songs "Rock and Roll" and "Sweet Jane") since Moe Tucker (who was erroneously credited as the album's drummer, despite not playing on it) was absent on maternity leave to have her first child, a daughter named Kerry. Other drum parts were performed by engineer Adrian Barber , session musician Tommy Castanaro, and Billy Yule (Doug Yule's younger brother), who was still in high school at the time. During
23142-459: The songs, " I'm Waiting for the Man ", " Venus in Furs " and " Heroin ", were re-recorded in two days at TTG Studios during a stay in Hollywood . When the record's release date was postponed, Wilson brought the band into Mayfair Recording Studios in Manhattan in November 1966, to add a final song to the album: the single " Sunday Morning ". Although Andy Warhol is the only formally credited producer , he had little influence beyond paying for
23316-412: The studio—all these fuzzers and compressors. Gary Kellgren , who is ultra-competent, told us repeatedly: "You can't do it—all the needles are on red." and we reacted as we always reacted: "Look, we don't know what goes on in there and we don't want to hear about it. Just do the best you can." And so the album is fuzzy, there's all that white noise...we wanted to do something electronic and energetic. We had
23490-632: The time was a senior vice president at Atlantic Records , and also the CEO of Atlantic's EastWest Records America imprint. Upon Rhone's arrival at Elektra, the label took over the operations of EastWest, as well as Sire Records (which had previously operated through its sister label Warner Bros. Records ) and was renamed Elektra Entertainment Group. In September 1994, another damaging controversy erupted when heavy metal band Metallica filed suit against Elektra to terminate their contract and gain ownership of their master recordings. The group based its claim on
23664-420: The tip. Those who did remove the banana skin found a pink, peeled banana beneath. Eleven songs showcased the Velvets' dynamic range, veering from the pounding attacks of " I'm Waiting for the Man " and " Run Run Run ", the droning "Venus in Furs" and " Heroin ", the chiming and celestial "Sunday Morning", to the quiet " Femme Fatale " and the tender " I'll Be Your Mirror ", as well as Warhol's own favorite song of
23838-459: The tracks, and said that Warhol "didn't do anything". Reed also said the "real producer" of the album was Wilson. Reed claimed it was MGM who decided to bring in Wilson, and credited him for producing songs such as "Sunday Morning": "Andy absorbed all the flak. Then MGM said they wanted to bring in a real producer, Tom Wilson. So that's how you got 'Sunday Morning', with all those overdubs—the viola in
24012-432: The unreleased track "Miss Joanie Lee" had been planned for inclusion on the set, but a dispute over royalties between the band and Universal canceled these plans. This contractual dispute apparently also led to the cancellation of further installments of the band's official Bootleg Series. However, this track was included in the subsequent re-release, 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition. In April 2010, Universal re-released
24186-441: The viola on several of the album's songs, notably "Venus in Furs" and "The Black Angel's Death Song". The viola used guitar and mandolin strings, and when played loudly, Cale would liken its brash sound to that of an airplane engine. Cale's technique usually involved minimalist drones , detuning for an eerie, surreal effect, and distortion to highlight harmonics and transform the instrument's sound. According to Robert Christgau ,
24360-550: The vocals to the forefront, while reducing the album's instrumentation. The second (and more widely distributed) mix is the stereo mix done by MGM/Verve staff recording engineer Val Valentin. Another factor in the change of sound was the band's Vox amplifiers and assorted fuzzboxes were rumored to have been stolen from an airport while they were on tour and they obtained replacements by signing a new endorsement deal with Sunn . In addition, Reed and Morrison had purchased matching Fender 12-string electric guitars , but Doug Yule plays down
24534-501: The work of Dylan while calling Reed on the basis of the record "an important new (to me) talent". The reviewer also praised the variety in sounds presented by "Sunday Morning", "European Son", and "Heroin" alongside from the more Dylan-esque songs. Meanwhile, Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice , published in Velvet Underground's hometown of New York City, was more reserved in his praise. Goldstein called "There She Goes Again"
24708-401: Was Trench by Twenty One Pilots on October 5, 2018, on Fueled by Ramen label. Despite that, Atlantic Records is still mentioned in liner notes of the album. In 2019, the label had huge success again with Tones and I 's hit single " Dance Monkey ". In December 2019, Elektra became the distributor for DTA Records , set up by Travis Barker . On June 22, 2022, Warner Music Group announced
24882-604: Was a major influence on many subgenres of rock and alternative music , including punk , garage rock , krautrock , post-punk , post-rock , noise rock , shoegaze , gothic rock , and indie rock . In 1982, the English musician Brian Eno said that while the album only sold approximately 30,000 copies in its first five years, "everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band". The Velvet Underground & Nico has been included on several all-time lists, including that of Apple Music and Rolling Stone . In 2006, it
25056-492: Was acquired by Kinney National Services in 1970, which changed its name to Warner Communications in 1972. Soon afterwards, Kinney consolidated their label holdings under the Warner-Elektra-Atlantic umbrella. Holzman remained in charge of Elektra until 1972, when it merged with Asylum Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records; Asylum's founder, David Geffen , headed the newly combined label. Holzman, in
25230-525: Was again placed for auction on eBay and was successfully sold on December 16, 2006, for $ 25,200. The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. It originally comprised the singer and guitarist Lou Reed , the Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale , the guitarist Sterling Morrison and the drummer Angus MacLise . In 1965, MacLise
25404-523: Was also featured; she had occasionally performed lead vocals for the band. She sang lead on three of the album's tracks—" Femme Fatale ", " All Tomorrow's Parties " and " I'll Be Your Mirror "—and back-up on " Sunday Morning ". In 1966, as the album was being recorded, this was also the line-up for their live performances as a part of Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable . The bulk of the songs that would become The Velvet Underground & Nico were recorded in four days in mid-April 1966 at Scepter Studios ,
25578-434: Was also interested in rock music. Young's use of extended drones would be a profound influence on the band's early sound. Cale was pleasantly surprised to discover that Reed's experimentalist tendencies were similar to his own: Reed sometimes used alternative guitar tunings to create a droning sound. The pair rehearsed and performed together; their partnership and shared interests built the path towards what would later become
25752-502: Was creative tension between Reed and Cale, its effects have been exaggerated over the years. Cale played his last show with the band at the Boston Tea Party in September 1968 and was fired shortly afterwards. According to Michael Carlucci, a friend of Robert Quine , "Lou told Quine that the reason why he had to get rid of Cale in the band was Cale's ideas were just too out there. Cale had some wacky ideas. He wanted to record
25926-640: Was credited with coining the term " alternative music " in the late 1970s. Also during this time, Elektra developed a relationship with the UK label 4AD . Elektra became the label for 4AD acts such as the Pixies , the Breeders , Frank Black , and The Amps in the United States. Like its sister labels, Elektra's fortunes began to wane in the mid-1990s, in part because of a series of bitter corporate battles between senior Warner label executives, which seriously damaged
26100-457: Was cut on April 25, 1966, shortly after the recording sessions. It resurfaced decades later when it was bought by collector Warren Hill of Montreal, Quebec , Canada in September 2002 at a flea market in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City for $ 0.75. Hill put the album up for auction on eBay in November. On December 8, 2006, a winning bid for $ 155,401 was placed, but not honored. The album
26274-418: Was designed by Dick Smith, then a staff artist at MGM/Verve. Released on March 12, 1969, the album failed to make Billboard' s Top 200 album chart. The harsh, abrasive tendencies on the first two records were almost entirely absent on their third album. This resulted in a gentler sound influenced by folk music , prescient of the songwriting style that would soon form Reed's solo career. While Reed had covered
26448-470: Was detached from the Atlantic Records umbrella and reorganized into Elektra Music Group, once again operating as an independently managed frontline label of Warner Music. In June 2022, Elektra Music Group was merged with 300 Entertainment to create the umbrella label 300 Elektra Entertainment (3EE), though both Elektra and 300 continued to maintain their separate identities as labels. Elektra
26622-468: Was during this period that Morrison heard Yule playing guitar in his apartment, and mentioned to Reed that Yule was practicing guitar and was improving quickly. It was following this discussion that led to a phone call from Steve Sesnick inviting Yule to meet with the band at Max's Kansas City in New York City in October 1968 to discuss joining the Velvets before two upcoming shows in Cleveland, Ohio, at
26796-442: Was finalized and mixed, it had yet to be mastered and was not set to be released by Atlantic until November of that year. Reed often said he was completely surprised when he saw Loaded in stores. He also said, "I left them to their album full of hits that I made". Reed was perturbed about a verse being edited from the Loaded version of " Sweet Jane ". " New Age " was changed as well: as originally recorded, its closing line ("It's
26970-614: Was formed in 1950, as the Elektra-Stratford Record Corporation , with a singles label called Stratford Records, by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt in Holzman's St. John's College dorm room. Each invested $ 300. The usual spelling of the Greek mythological Pleiad Electra was changed. Holzman famously explained, "I gave her the 'K' that I lacked". He found the 'C' in the original name "too soft", but liked
27144-477: Was generally much more relaxed than it would later become: Cale described this era as reminiscent of beat poetry, with MacLise playing gentle "pitter and patter rhythms behind the drone". In July 1965, Reed, Cale and Morrison recorded a demo tape at their Ludlow Street loft without MacLise, because he refused to be tied down to a schedule and would turn up to band practice sessions only when he wanted. When he briefly returned to Britain, Cale attempted to give
27318-667: Was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The Velvet Underground & Nico was recorded with the first professional line-up of the Velvet Underground: Lou Reed, John Cale , Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker . At the instigation of their mentor and manager Andy Warhol, and his collaborator Paul Morrissey , German singer Nico
27492-548: Was named the 22nd greatest album of all time in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group , Channel 4 , The Guardian and Classic FM . In 2006, Q magazine readers voted it into 42nd place in the "2006 Q Magazine Readers' 100 Greatest Albums Ever" poll, while The Observer placed it at number 1 in a list of "50 Albums That Changed Music" in July of that year. Also in 2006,
27666-454: Was on drums. Also at these appearances, the band often played an extended jam they had dubbed "Booker T", after musician Booker T. Jones . Some of these performances have been released as a bootleg ; they remain the only record of MacLise with the Velvet Underground. According to Morrison, MacLise is said to have regretted leaving the Velvet Underground and wanted to rejoin, but Reed specifically prohibited this and made it clear that this stint
27840-631: Was one of the things to do if we were going to move away from that…" Steve Sesnick was soon brought in as a replacement manager, much to the chagrin of Cale, who believes that Sesnick tried to push Reed as band leader at the expense of band harmony. Both Cale and Reed called Sesnick a "snake" in different interviews after leaving the band. In September 1967, the Velvet Underground began recording their second album, White Light/White Heat , with Tom Wilson as producer. The band performed live often, and their performances became louder and harsher and often included extended improvisations . Warhol arranged for
28014-468: Was only temporary. MacLise still behaved eccentrically with time and commerce and went by his own clock: for instance, he showed up half an hour late to one show and carried on with a half-hour of drumming to compensate for his late arrival, long after the set had finished. In December 1966, Warhol and David Dalton designed Issue 3 of the multimedia Aspen . Included in this issue of the "magazine", which retailed at $ 4 ($ 38 in 2023 dollars ) per copy and
28188-436: Was packaged in a hinged box designed to look like Fab laundry detergent, were various leaflets and booklets, one of which was a commentary on rock and roll by Lou Reed, another an EPI promotional newspaper. Also enclosed was a 2-sided flexi disk : side one produced by Peter Walker , a musical associate of Timothy Leary ; and side two titled "Loop", credited to the Velvet Underground but actually recorded by Cale alone. "Loop",
28362-406: Was paid. Rather than complying, MGM recalled copies of the album and halted its distribution until Emerson's image could be airbrushed from the photo on subsequent pressings. Copies that had already been printed were sold with a large black sticker covering the actor's image. In January 2012, the "Velvet Underground" business partnership (of which John Cale and Lou Reed were general partners ) sued
28536-567: Was recorded primarily in Scepter Studios in New York City during April 1966, but for reasons unclear, some songs were rerecorded at TTG Studios in Los Angeles , along with the new song " Sunday Morning ", later in the year with Tom Wilson producing. The album was released by Verve Records the following year in March 1967. The album cover is famous for its Warhol design: a yellow banana sticker with "Peel slowly and see" printed near
28710-499: Was released in its entirety on the five-year spanning box set , Peel Slowly and See , in 1995. The album was featured on the second disc of the set along with the single version of "All Tomorrow's Parties", two Nico tracks from Chelsea Girl and a ten-minute excerpt of the 45-minute "Melody Laughter" performance. Also included in the set (on the first disc) are the band's 1965 Ludlow Street loft demos. Among these demos are early versions of "Venus in Furs", "Heroin", "I'm Waiting for
28884-400: Was released on March 12, 1967 (after a lengthy delay by Verve), and reached No. 171 on Billboard magazine's Top 200 charts. The commercial growth of the album was hampered by a legal claim: as the album's back cover included a photo of the group on stage with an unauthorized image projected behind them of actor Eric Emerson from a Warhol motion picture, Chelsea Girls , Emerson made
29058-404: Was replaced by Moe Tucker , who played on most of the band's recordings. Though their integration of rock and the avant-garde earned them little commercial success, they are now widely regarded as one of the most influential bands in rock, underground , experimental , and alternative music. Their provocative subject matter, experimentation, and nihilistic attitude were also instrumental in
29232-411: Was sold by Time Warner to a group of private investors made up of Thomas Lee Partners , Bain & Company , and Edgar Bronfman Jr. (who assumed CEO duties). The new owners of WMG decided to merge Elektra and Atlantic Records. Because it was the lesser performing label of the two, 40% of Elektra's operations were put into the new venture, while a commanding 60% of Atlantic's went in. Subsequently,
29406-411: Was the "drone strum", an eighth-note rhythm guitar style used by Reed. Although Cale was the band's usual bassist, if he switched to viola or keyboards, Morrison would normally play bass. Despite his proficiency on the instrument, Morrison hated playing bass. Conversely, some songs had Reed and Morrison playing their usual guitars with Cale on viola or keyboards, but with nobody playing bass. The album
29580-536: Was the darkly comic " The Gift ", a short story written by Reed and narrated by Cale in his deadpan Welsh accent . The meditative "Here She Comes Now" was later covered by Galaxie 500 , Cabaret Voltaire , and Nirvana , among others. The album was released on January 30, 1968, entering the Billboard Top 200 chart for two weeks, at number 199. Tensions were growing: the group was tired of receiving little recognition for its work, and Reed and Cale were pulling
29754-546: Was the original soundtrack of the HBO show True Blood , and the first album released was Charlotte Gainsbourg 's IRM . The label is now home to artists such as Uffie , Little Boots , Justice , Bruno Mars , and CeeLo Green . On October 4, 2012, Warner Music announced that Jeff Castelaz , the co-founder of Los Angeles -based independent label Dangerbird Records , had been named president of Elektra Records. Gregg Nadel from Atlantic Records A&R became General Manager of
29928-399: Was this umbrella that absorbed all the attacks when we weren't large enough to be attacked ... and as a consequence of him being the producer, we'd just walk in and set up and do what we always did and no one would stop it because Andy was the producer. Of course he didn't know anything about record production—but he didn't have to. He just sat there and said "Oooh, that's fantastic," and
30102-403: Was used in the 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums ; "I'm Sticking With You" has a rare Moe Tucker–Lou Reed dual-lead vocal track, with Doug Yule accompanying on piano, and was included in the film Juno . The rest of the recordings, as well as some alternative takes and instrumental tracks were later bundled on Another View which was released in 1986. After Reed's departure, he later reworked
30276-453: Was without a record deal as a result of McCarthyite blacklisting . In 1964, Elektra launched Nonesuch Records . This classical budget label was the best-selling budget classical label of the era. Other labels followed suit by starting their own budget series, but Nonesuch remained the most popular and Jac Holzman states in his book that profits from the budget classical label made it possible for Elektra to experiment with their pop releases by
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