AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #391 : THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (2)

A guest posting by Swc

The second most influential band ever. A Velvet Underground ICA

As the long summer of 1991 faded to a rather limp end, the long lost Medway band, the Sexbirds clambered on to the small stage in the back room of Churchills Pub in Chatham. If they were disappointed by the small crowd they didn’t let it show, but as there was only three people there, they kind of had to have hoped for more. Still, they played a tight four song set full of post punk energy and displayed enough rock n roll attitude to impress the grumpy looking barman who literally served more pints than there were people. In that crowd, a devilishly good looking young chap stood alone from the other two people in the crowd, largely because he didn’t know them and standing with them in an empty room would have been weird.

But as the feedback influenced third song came to an end, the taller of the two other people wandered over to the devilishly good looking chap and said “Can you play guitar?” the good looking chap nodded even though he couldn’t play guitar, well not really. He’d had four lessons. “Good”, said the taller man, “let’s form a band, because if that lot can do it..” he hoisted a thumb at the stage, “anyone can…”.

Folks, only three people saw the Sexbirds live, but all three of them formed a band because of it and that in my eyes makes them most influential band in the history of rock music.

The distinct lack of available Sexbirds material makes an ICA on rocks most influential band impossible. So, here instead is an ICA on rocks second most influential band, The Velvet Underground (it will be debut album heavy, obviously)

The Velvet Underground are apparently one of those bands that you either get or you don’t. You either accept that they invented everything, literally everything, including the wheel, fire, glass, cigarettes and rock music, or you don’t. When I first heard the Velvet Underground, which was as a naïve seventeen-year-old in the bedroom of a much older woman* I didn’t get them. Then two years later as a student, I suddenly did.

Side One

Sunday Morning – The first Velvet Underground song I ever heard and it was this with its music box intro that confused me. In 1992, I thought this sounded dull but two years later that music box intro sounds beautiful and the way that Lou Reed’s guitar sounds all countrified (thanks to him loosening the strings) gives it a rather luminous glow of strangeness and uniqueness.

Pale Blue Eyes – ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ is rather confusingly a love song about a girl that Lou Reed used to date who had hazel coloured eyes. It is one of the most tender song that the band ever recorded and its rather wonderful because of it. It is taken from the third Velvet Underground record, which of all the Velvet Underground records it’s the one I play the least, but ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ is the stand-out track from it.

Venus In Furs – ‘Venus In Furs’ isn’t just a blend of hypnotic drone rock, sound textures and atmospheric brilliance. It’s a blend of hypnotic drone rock, sound textures and atmospheric brilliance that is also about sado masochism that was written in about 1965. That, folks, is why the Velvet Underground matter.

Rock N Roll (Full Length Version) – By the time the band reached album four, John Cale had of course departed to make some introrespective and abstract noises with his electric viola. Mo Tucker had also momentarily left as well so that she could have a baby. This left Lou Reed to stretch out and pretty much do what he wanted, and Lou Reed wanted to make a pop record. Albeit a pop record laced with the odd voyage into proto punk rock.

Run, Run, Run – According to legend, Lou Reed wrote this song on the back of an envelope whilst he and the rest of the band were on their way to a gig. If true, ‘Run, Run, Run’ is the greatest thing ever to be written on the back of an envelope and until -someone comes up with the secret of immortality and pops it down on the back of a gas bill – it always will be.

Side Two

What Goes On – ‘What Goes On’ was the only track to be released as a single from the band’s third album. Twelve years or so later, Talking Heads would borrow the organ riff and use it as the backdrop for ‘Once In A Lifetime’. That, folks, is another reason why the Velvet Underground matter, their influence and sound and organ riffs shaped so much of the music that we all loved as we grew up.

Sweet Jane (Full Length Version) – There are two tracks on ‘Loaded’ that sound like they could have featured on the debut Velvet Underground record. ‘Rock N Roll’ was one, ‘Sweet Jane’ is the other, and it fizzes with pure energy.

The Black Angel’s Death Song – ‘The Black Angel’s Death Song’ is extraordinarily good. The way that John Cale’s electric viola squeaks and scraps like someone dragging their fingernails over a chalkboard, the way Lou Reed’s vocals are kind of all over the place, its unsettling and ace at the same time.

White Light/White Heat – Just realised that I’ve almost reached the end and not once mentioned drugs. Well, let’s sort that now shall we. ‘White Light/White Heat’ is the greatest song ever written about the sensation that you get by injecting methamphetamine, and I’ll add for good measure it has the greatest ending to a track ever as John Cale’s distorted single chord bass goes batshit crazy.

Heroin – I’ll end with my favourite Velvets song. It needs little introduction but it’s insanely good. It’s insanely good because of the way that it all speeds up, and because of the way that Mo Tucker is drumming so fast that she has to stop drumming because she can’t keep up the rhythm that she started and it’s insanely good because literally no one notices, and she just joins back in amongst the squall of guitars and the screech of, well everything. Incredible.

* There were seven other people in that room at the time, and we’d just finished playing Monopoly, but it doesn’t sound as cool if I tell you that.

Thanks for reading, folks.

 

Swc