The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) (1 Viewer)

[taubstumm]

Originality and ownership belong to the idea of music as a commodity. The VU are part of a story that did not begin with them and is far from over. They were a seismic event though ... mind-blowingly large. My hype comment is that their influence and worth can't be overstated.

I first heard ‘heroin’ in 1991 as a 13-year-old because it was on the soundtrack to oliver stone’s doors movie. I remember that I assumed at the time that it was a track from a then-contemporary band. the idea that it was *also* from back in the crusty old 60s like the doors just did not even occur to me. it sounded so immediate and relevant and, well, mind-blowing, that I just automatically presumed that it was some of-the-moment weirdos. and, yet another three decades on, here I am still talking about it. so, yep, seismic.

 

[taubstumm]

Oh, and the *second* velvets song that I ever heard was ‘who loves the sun’

my early-teenage brain was so very, very, very confused trying to figure out how those two songs were by the same band

 

[magicbastarder]

i used to walk two miles to school when i was in sixth year; i'd get more than halfway there on 'sister ray' alone. the only song i found which was a better rhythm to walk to (albeit with the caveat that you'd cover less than half the distance) was 'blues for ceausescu'.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I first heard ‘heroin’ in 1991 as a 13-year-old because it was on the soundtrack to oliver stone’s doors movie. I remember that I assumed at the time that it was a track from a then-contemporary band. the idea that it was *also* from back in the crusty old 60s like the doors just did not even occur to me. it sounded so immediate and relevant and, well, mind-blowing, that I just automatically presumed that it was some of-the-moment weirdos. and, yet another three decades on, here I am still talking about it. so, yep, seismic.

What? I know you were 13 but I can't think of anything more 60s sounding than that song. Like, 1999 by Prince is a class song that holds up great in 2021 but it absolutely reeks of 1982, nothing contemporary sounding about it.

 

[nuke terrorist]

What? I know you were 13 but I can't think of anything more 60s sounding than that song. Like, 1999 by Prince is a class song that holds up great in 2021 but it absolutely reeks of 1982, nothing contemporary sounding about it.

1999 will probably always sound amazing. 'contemporary production' has sounded crap for decades. plus it will get dated but it never sounded good in the first place.
I never paid much attention to pop until 1986 but I am continually bitter on what I missed out from a few years earlier.

EDIT: from the first time I heard the VU I knew they were from the second half of the 60's without being told.
they are not completely different from other bands of the era. also there is the odd band like The Red Crayola that is further out there.
for the record I recognise the Velvets' importance but I am not much of fan. there was mountains of bands that copied them in from the mid 80's onwards and that didn't help.

 

[Lili Marlene]

It took this thread to actually get me listening to them and realize that everyone was right about them. I'm still not a massive fan or anything but I at least get it, which is probably the most you can ask for from pop music at this advanced age.

 

[magicbastarder]

if you want to hear a good live version of 'sweet jane';

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cocaine is a hell of a drug.

 

[Diumraid]

'The Velvet Underground Bootleg Series' (The Robert Quine tapes) was a real eye-opener for me as someone who had sort of written them off after Cale left. These tapes show them in action as a jam band in the Grateful Dead sense - extended improvisations that have this huge cumulative effect.

 

[egg_]

If this had been 20 years ago I might have enjoyed a good punchup to try and parse the DNA and heritage of the VU, and stick to my guns about their originality, maybe learn something on the way. The thought of doing it now though fills me with a nameless dread, both because I know less about music now, and I am small of brain. And, most importantly, because I am sick to my teeth of those kind of conversations.

Hahaha
Fucking snap.

I'll say this much: Synthesis through one's own unique creative process is inevitably to some degree original, even if you're trying really hard not to be original. There's lots of originality in the world.

Also +1 to this. Everyone is probably bored of me banging on about Keith Johnstone's book "Impro" (about theatrical improvisation) at this stage, but a central part of what he says is "do what's obvious". The more obvious it is to you, the truer to your self it is

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

'The Velvet Underground Bootleg Series' (The Robert Quine tapes) was a real eye-opener for me as someone who had sort of written them off after Cale left. These tapes show them in action as a jam band in the Grateful Dead sense - extended improvisations that have this huge cumulative effect.

That set is amazing. The performances are spot on but I also love the murkiness of the tape recordings. The cleaner Matrix recordings (some of the exact same performances) just aren’t as enjoyable.

 

[Unicron]

Originality and ownership belong to the idea of music as a commodity. The VU are part of a story that did not begin with them and is far from over. They were a seismic event though ... mind-blowingly large. My hype comment is that their influence and worth can't be overstated.

There's an argument to be made that entire genres sprang from individual songs on the VU + Nico.

 

[Unicron]

'The Velvet Underground Bootleg Series' (The Robert Quine tapes) was a real eye-opener for me as someone who had sort of written them off after Cale left. These tapes show them in action as a jam band in the Grateful Dead sense - extended improvisations that have this huge cumulative effect.

Moderate brush with Velvet's fame. I have played through Robert Quine's Memory Man.

 

[Diumraid]

There's an argument to be made that entire genres sprang from individual songs on the VU + Nico.

What would you point to particularly?

 

[Unicron]

What would you point to particularly?

Well, the whole slow core thing, some of it is proto-industrial, "space rock" or whatever you might call Spiritualized, you find it all on that record.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I'd say every raggedy indie band can be ultimately traced back to either I'm Waiting for the Man or You Really Got Me.

 

[taubstumm]

What? I know you were 13 but I can't think of anything more 60s sounding than that song. Like, 1999 by Prince is a class song that holds up great in 2021 but it absolutely reeks of 1982, nothing contemporary sounding about it.

what can I say, man. I was 13. I didn’t know anything.

I do very strongly remember the sense-impression that I had that this band had to be a contemporary one.

and so, in trying to reach back into the mind of my 13-year-old self, this is my theory of what I was thinking back then: ‘heroin’ sounds weird and dangerous and scary. I think that my 13-year-old self sort of assumed that anything that sounded so strange was somehow ‘not allowed’ to have been made in the 1960s. the 60s were all just flowers. weirdness was only permitted for then-current music.

it doesn’t make any sense, but then... it doesn’t really have to. I was a kid. anyway, point was, it changed things for me

 

[taubstumm]

Oh, and one more story about this album: I once was in a band that played a single gig, at a battle of the bands. all bands were given a ten-minute set, and all bands were given marks out of 100 by a panel of esteemed judges. any bands that went over time were deducted points for each minute they went over.

we played ‘waiting for the man’ and basically just kept on going until they unplugged us. our intention was to get a minus score from the judges. the pricks refused to give us a minus score. we got zero.

 

[chris d]

Good album in fairness.

 

[magicbastarder]

geek maggot bingo?

 

[taubstumm]

haha

were you there that night?