The Velvet Underground and Nico

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The Velvet Underground and Nico
The Velvet Underground and Nico cover
Studio album by The Velvet Underground & Nico
Released March, 1967
Recorded Tracks 3, 5, 6, 8-11
April 25, 1966 Scepter Studios, New York City
Tracks 2, 4, 7
May 1966 T.T.G. Studios, Hollywood, California
Track 1
November 1966 Mayfair Studios, New York City
Genre Rock
Length 48:51
Label Verve Records
Producer(s) Andy Warhol (tks. 2-11), Tom Wilson (tk. 1)
The Velvet Underground chronology
The Velvet Underground & Nico
(1967)		 White Light/White Heat
(1968)
Nico chronology
The Velvet Underground & Nico
(1967)		 Chelsea Girl
(1967)

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

Contents

[edit] Recording

The musicians on the album consisted of the first professional line up of the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen "Moe" Tucker, plus Nico singing lead on three tracks ("Femme Fatale", "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'll Be Your Mirror") and back up on "Sunday Morning". Nico was added on the instigation of their mentor, Andy Warhol.

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

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

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

[edit] Cover

The Velvet Underground and Nico is sometimes referred to as the "banana album" as it features a Warhol print of a banana on the cover. Early copies of the album invited the owner to "Peel slowly and see"; peeling back the skin on the regular releases (numbered SVLP9184) revealed a flesh-colored banana underneath. A limited number of covers were released which either had a male torso under the banana (issues numbered V5008), or a picture of the band (issues numbered V65008).[1]

[edit] Original LP

[edit] Critical reception

The Velvet Underground and Nico is one of the albums that have been considered the greatest ever. In 2006 Q magazine readers voted it into 42nd place in the "2006 Q Magazine Readers' 100 Greatest Albums Ever" poll[citation needed]; Rolling Stone placed it at number 13 on their list of the "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" [2] in November 2003, while The Observer placed it at number 1 in a list of "50 Albums That Changed Music" [3]in July, 2006. On its release, the album only reached #171 on the US charts, and was a financial failure. Most stores banned it and radio stations would not play it due to its controversial content (songs with overt references to drugs, transvestites, prostitution, and S&M), which further prevented the album from being widely recognized.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Lou Reed unless indicated otherwise.

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

[edit] Reissues

[edit] Single-disc edition

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

[edit] Deluxe two-disc edition

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

  1. "Sunday Morning" (Reed, Cale)
  2. "I'm Waiting for the Man"
  3. "Femme Fatale"
  4. "Venus in Furs"
  5. "Run Run Run"
  6. "All Tomorrow's Parties"
  7. "Heroin"
  8. "There She Goes Again"
  9. "I'll Be Your Mirror"
  10. "The Black Angel's Death Song" (Reed, Cale)
  11. "European Son" (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker)
  12. "Little Sister" (Cale, Reed)
  13. "Winter Song" (Cale)
  14. "Chelsea Girls" (Reed, Morrison)
  15. "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams"

- Disc 2 Mono mix of the album plus single versions.

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

[edit] Personnel

[edit] The band

and

  • Nico – lead vocals on "Femme Fatale", "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'll Be Your Mirror"; backing vocals on "Sunday Morning"

[edit] Technical staff

[edit] References

  1. ^ Nick Hamlyn. "The Penguin Price Guide for Record and CD Collectors", Penguin Reference Books, 2006.
  2. ^ The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone (Nov 2003).
  3. ^ The 50. The Observer, Guardian Arts (July 2006).
The Velvet Underground
John Cale | Sterling Morrison | Lou Reed | Maureen Tucker | Doug Yule
Willie Alexander | Angus MacLise | Walter Powers
Discography
Studio albums: The Velvet Underground and Nico | White Light/White Heat | The Velvet Underground | Loaded | Squeeze
Live albums: Live at Max's Kansas City | 1969 | Live MCMXCIII | Final V.U. | The Quine Tapes
Box sets and outtake compilations: VU | Another View | What Goes On | Peel Slowly and See
Selected best-of compilations: Rock and Roll | The Very Best of The Velvet Underground | Gold
See also
Chelsea Girl | Exploding Plastic Inevitable | Lou Reed | Nico | Steve Sesnick | Songs for Drella | Andy Warhol | Billy Yule


Albums by Nico

Studio albums: The Velvet Underground and Nico | Chelsea Girl | The Marble Index | Desertshore | The End | Drama of Exile | Camera Obscura

Live albums: June 1, 1974 | Do or Die: Nico in Europe | Live Heroes | Behind the Iron Curtain | Fata Morgana (Nico's Last Concert) | Hanging Gardens

Compilation albums: Reich der Träume | Innocent and Vain: an Introduction to Nico | Walpurgis-Nacht
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