![]() In 2004, the Velvet Underground were ranked number 19 on Rolling Stone 's list of the " 100 Greatest Artists of All Time". 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.Īfter Morrison's death in 1995, the remaining members played a final performance at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1996. The members collaborated on each other's solo work throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and a retrospective "rarities" album, VU, was released in 1985. 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. In the early 1970s, all but Yule left the band. None performed to the expectations of record labels or Reed, the band's leader. They released three more albums, White Light/White Heat (1968), The Velvet Underground (1969), and Loaded (1970), with Doug Yule replacing Cale for the final two. Their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, featuring the German singer and model Nico, was released in 1967 to critical indifference and poor sales but later drew acclaim. 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. In 1966, the pop artist Andy Warhol became their manager. The group performed under several names before settling on the Velvet Underground in 1965, taken from the title of a book on sadomasochism. Their provocative subject matter, musical experiments, and nihilistic attitude was also influential in the development of punk rock and new wave music. Though their integration of rock and the avant-garde achieved little commercial success, they became one of the most influential bands in rock, underground, experimental, and alternative music. MacLise was replaced by Moe Tucker in 1965, who played on most of the band's recordings. It originally comprised singer and guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. Few rock albums are as important as The Velvet Underground & Nico, and fewer still have lost so little of their power to surprise and intrigue more 50 years after first hitting the racks.The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. While the significance of Nico's contributions have been debated over the years, she meshes with the band's outlook in that she hardly sounds like a typical rock vocalist, and if Andy Warhol's presence as producer was primarily a matter of signing the checks, his notoriety allowed The Velvet Underground to record their material without compromise, which would have been impossible under most other circumstances. The bracing discord of "European Son," the troubling beauty of "All Tomorrow's Parties," and the expressive dynamics of "Heroin" all remain as compelling as the day they were recorded. ![]() Lou Reed's lyrical exploration of drugs and kinky sex (then risky stuff in film and literature, let alone "teen music") always received the most press attention, but the music Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker played was as radical as the words they accompanied. Here, the Velvets dipped their toes into dreamy pop ("Sunday Morning"), tough garage rock ("Waiting for the Man"), stripped-down R&B ("There She Goes Again"), and understated love songs ("I'll Be Your Mirror") when they weren't busy creating sounds without pop precedent. While The Velvet Underground had as distinctive a sound as any band, what's most surprising about this album is its diversity. ![]() While it reportedly took over a decade for the album's sales to crack six figures, glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set. One would be hard-pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as The Velvet Underground & Nico. ![]()
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