the velvet underground _

it's said that the chances of the human race evolving from the primal soup are equivalent to those of a hurricane tearing through a scrapyard and creating a perfect jumbo jet in its wake. the moral of the tale, presumably, is that chaos can serve us a few surprises now and again. in musical terms, the greatest example of this is undoubtedly the velvet underground.

the VU story is both life-affirming and tragic - despite bitter rivalries and lou reed's wild egotism, they managed to create some of the most intense, provocative and willfully contradictory music of the last century. they were the living embodiment of punk values ten years before the scene exploded. yet to brand them in this way is an insult - even the so-called 'legends' of the punk scene fail dismally to match the VU in terms of their scope and their beauty.

their second public appearance at cafe bizarre, greenwich village in 1965 led to their 'discovery' by andy warhol. he had decided that he needed to 'get into' the music industry and the VU were the perfect match for him. he booked them onto his multimedia extravaganza, the exploding plastic inevitable, which blew minds across the US (in various incarnations) for many years. the all-round sensory experience of the EPI was, allegedly, the inspiration for much of what we know today as the 'rock show' - audiences were freaked and enlightened in equal measures. when the VU took to the stage, their sound was often described as a 'roar'. four figures dressed in black, usually with their backs to the crowd, creating an unholy noise with a calculated mixture of control and abandon. according to the band themselves, their recorded output rarely matched the brilliance of their live shows.

the first album, the velet underground and nico ("produced" by Warhol), contains some of the greatest songs ever written. venus in furs, heroin, sunday morning, femme fatale, all tomorrow's parties - all formed part of their opening salvo, and were rarely bettered. however, the subject matter, and indeed length, of their songs ensured a tepid response from the record company + distributors and led to their music being banned from radio.

in the book, up-tight, ronnie cutrone is quoted as saying: "in 1967, the beatles were singing about broken relationships and 'all you need is love'. sympathy For the devil was the heaviest the rolling stones ever got. and then you get a group coming out and saying 'when i'm rushing on my run / i feel just like jesus' son', you're not going to get any radio play - it's as simple as that."

sadly, their debut calling card also appeared to be the time when the group functioned at their best. lou reed, john cale, sterling morrison and mo tucker - all gifted musicians in their own right, creating something far greater than the sum of its parts. however when reed began to assert control, the unit naturally resisted and, as a result, the disintegration began. warhol and nico were the first to depart. cale was "sacked" shortly after their 'studio live' second album, white light / white heat.

increased tensions within the band, and a combined assault from both their management and their record company to be more blatantly commercial, prompted reed to walk off stage at max's kansas city in august 1970, essentially marking the end of the road. they reformed for a world tour in 1993 (described by reed as a "continuum" rather than a reunion), however increased acrimony between reed and the other members ensured that they never made it past the european leg.

the wire magazine recently described reed's career as being one of perpetually shifting imbalances - never has such imbalance been more pronounced than during his years with the VU, plucking a mesmeric semblance of order out of chaos. and so it goes - four independent forces coming together as one for a seemingly momentary breach of established rock trajectories. it's to their eternal testament that their albums still piss all over most contemporary music from a great height - and will continue to do so for decades to come.

selected discography_

there are scores of VU compilations and live / bootleg albums out there, however the 'core' albums released during their career were as follows _

_ the velet underground and nico (verve 1967)

_ white light / white heat (verve 1967)

_ the velvet underground (MGM 1969)

_ loaded (cotillion 1970)

_ live at max's kansas city recorded 1970 (cotillion 1972)


bibliography_

up-tight : the velvet underground story
by victor bockris & gerard malanga
(omnibus press, 0-7119-9170-7)
_ you'd be hard pushed to beat this semi-official book, co-written by malanga, a member of warhol's factory and 'interpretive dancer' for the VU during the EPI

links_

the velvet underground web page
excellent unofficial resource - a near-complete archive of the band with international discography, photos, bootleg audio, articles etc

lou reed
official site with info on his new project, the raven

moe tucker's taj moe hal
drummer moe edits her own site where you can buy her hard-to-find solo material

a tribute to sterling morrison
fan tribute site to morrison who died in 1995

the john cale home page
unofficial fan site

nico
good fan resource with discog + info on her post-VU career

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