Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground and Nico

Praise for the series:

All six books revel in the distinct shapes and benefits of an album, its ability to go places film, prose or sculpture can’t reach, while capable of being as awe-inspiring as the best of those mediums—
Philadelphia City Paper

Each volume has a distinct, almost militantly personal take on a beloved long-player… the books that have resulted are like the albums themselves—filled with moments of shimmering beauty, forgivable flaws, and stubborn eccentricity—
Tracks Magazine

At their best, these books make rich, thought-provoking arguments for the song collections at hand—
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Praise for individual books in the series:

Dusty in Memphis

Warren Zanes … is so in love with Dusty Springfield’s great 1969 adventure in tortured Dixie soul that he’s willing to jump off the deep end in writing about it—
Rolling Stone

Zanes uses
Dusty in Memphis
as a springboard to ruminate eloquently on the history of Atlantic Records and the myth of the American South—
Tracks Magazine

Forever Changes

Hultkrans obsesses brilliantly on the rock legends’ seminal disc—
Vanity Fair

The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

This is the sort of focus that may make you want to buy a copy, or dig out your old one—
The Guardian

This detailed tome leads the reader through the often fraught construction of what is now regarded as Davies’s masterpiece—and, like the best books of its ilk, it makes the reader want to either reinvestigate the album or hear it for the first time—
Blender Magazine

Miller makes a convincing case for the Kinks’ 1968 operetta of English village life as a heartbreaking work of staggering genius—Ray Davies’ greatest songwriting triumph and an unjust commercial dud—with deep research and song-by-song analysis—
Rolling Stone

Meat is Murder

Full of mordant wit and real heartache. A dead-on depiction of what it feels like when pop music articulates your pain with an elegance you could never hope to muster. ‘Meat is Murder’ does a brilliant job of capturing how, in a world that doesn’t care, listening to your favorite album can save your life—
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Pernice hits his mark. The well-developed sense of character, plot and pacing shows that he has serious promise as a novelist. His emotionally precise imagery can be bluntly, chillingly personal—
The Boston Weekly Dig

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

John Cavanagh combines interviews with early associates of Pink Floyd and recording-studio nitty-gritty to vividly capture the first and last flush of Syd Barrett’s psychedelic genius on the Floyd’s ’67 debut—
Rolling Stone

Packed with interviews and great stories … will certainly give you a new perspective on Pink Floyd—
Erasing Clouds

The Velvet Underground and Nico

Also available in this series

__________

The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
,

by Andy Miller

Dusty in Memphis,
by Warren Zanes

Meat is Murder,
by Joe Pernice

Harvest,
by Sam Inglis

Forever Changes,
by Andrew Hultkrans

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,
by John Cavanagh

Sign ‘O’ the Times,
by Michaelangelo Matos

Electric Ladyland,
by John Perry

Unknown Pleasures,
by Chris Ott

Abba Gold,
by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Loveless,
by David Keenan

Grace,
by Daphne Brooks

Live at the Apollo,
by Douglas Wolk

OK Computer,
by Dai Griffiths

Aqualung,
by Allan Moore

Let It Be,
by Colin Meloy

Let It Be,
by Steve Matteo

Joe Harvard

2010

The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc
80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038

The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd

The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX

www.continuumbooks.com

Copyright © 2004 by Joe Harvard

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harvard, Joe.

The Velvet Underground and Nico/Joe Harvard.

p. cm. — (33 1/3)

Includes bibliographical references.

eISBN-13: 978-1-4411-3615-2

1. Nico, 1938- 2. Velvet Underground (Musical group) 3. Rock musicians—United States—Biography. I. Title. II. Series.

ML421.V44H37 2004

782.42166’092’2—dc22

2003028100

Introduction

Part One: The Setting

Part Two: The Songs

Part Three: Aftermath

For Mae Mae … and for the
Angels over East Boston:

Bobby Trainor, Joe “Shoemaker,” and the twins
.

I’m not a critic. I’m a musician, and this is not an attempt to “explain” the Velvet Underground, or their first and definitive album. My aspiration in this book is to share some of what I find interesting about the group’s debut record, their music and their method of creating it. Sometimes the sources are confusing, even on basic issues like when and where the record was made and how long it took; when they are, I attempt to sift through the puzzle for a probable resolution. Otherwise, I’ve tried to avoid the speculation and gossip-column crap found in so many books on the Velvets. There’s a lot of material out there, and lots of fans, and if I sometimes come up short on picking through the facts of the former, I sincerely apologize to the latter.

The interviews used extensively in this book—besides the transcripts of those I conducted myself—come from a number of sources, including magazines,
books and websites. Many of these quotes are found throughout the literature on the Velvet Underground, but since most books on rock music avoid footnotes and even bibliographies, it’s difficult to trace many quotes back to their original source. When in doubt, I generally cite the earliest published source I could find. It might seem out of place for a book on rock, but I’ve tried to salute the accountability standard by footnoting sources.

In our conversations, Jonathan Richman encouraged healthy skepticism in order to combat the lack of accuracy and accountability in rock journalism, and warned me, in particular, to look out for rampant misquoting. While I haven’t lost faith in the integrity of music journalists, there’s an undeniable trend toward rumors being canonized as accepted facts once they’re repeated enough (and the juicy ones always are). Editorial license should not be tantamount to a license to kill, so I’ve done my best to avoid character assassination, and sought confirming sources for any information I present herein.

This book could not have been written without the editing assistance of the amazing Cathy Mars. Mae Mae “Shoemaker” deserves her own book—without you, mom, I wouldn’t be able to read, much less write … I love you both. I am grateful to: Maureen and Enio; Rosemary and Barbara; Carla and Marisa; Catherine Boone, Dave ‘Bone’ Pedersen, Richie ‘Cunningham’ Maddalo, Bob Salvi, and John Rosato.

Thanks to those whose work guided this book, especially Victor Bockris, David Fricke, M.C. Kostek, Sal Mercuri, Olivier Landemaine, Phil Milstein, Legs McNeil, and Gillian McCain. Buy their books, surf their sites. Two of the finest songwriters and best friends I know helped out: Jonathan Richman shared advice and memories, while Joe Pernice compensated for not hiring strippers for my bachelor party by turning me onto this series. This book was already finished when producer
Norman Dolph made himself available, and I had no second thoughts about returning to the computer; for his unique and thoughtful insights I owe him many thanks and a good cigar. Finally, many thanks to series editor David “dB” Barker, for having a pisser idea, and trusting an old dog with a new trick.

In the beginning Lou and I had an almost religious fervor about what we were doing … but after the first record we lost our patience and diligence. We couldn’t even remember what our precepts were.
¹

—John Cale

The first time I heard the Velvet Underground and Nico record … I just hated the sound. You know “HOW COULD ANYBODY MAKE A RECORD THAT SOUNDS LIKE SUCH A PIECE OF SHIT? THIS IS DISGUSTING! ALL THESE PEOPLE MAKE ME FUCKING SICK! FUCKING DISGUSTING HIPPIE VERMIN! FUCKING BEATNIKS, I WANNA KILL THEM ALL! THIS JUST SOUNDS LIKE TRASH!”

Then about six months later it hit me, “Oh my God! WOW! This is just a fucking great record!”
²

—Iggy Pop

These are times in which critics cite the Velvet Underground as one of the most influential rock groups of all time. Even those who admittedly dislike the group, or object to their preference for “parental advisory” content (the high visibility of drugs and so-called sexual deviance, for instance), are forced to concede their enormous effect on modern rock. Any survey that concerns itself with rock
as it is now played
tends to place them in the top two or three.
Spin
magazine’s April 2003 list of the “Fifteen Most Influential Albums of All Time (… not recorded by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis or the Rolling Stones)” is typical in placing
The Velvet Underground and Nico
first.
³
Yet on the Top 100 Album countdowns that Classic Hits radio stations frequently
conduct, the Velvet Underground are usually conspicuous by their absence or low position. A reflection of the almost total radio (and press) blackout the group faced for most of its life, the mainstream airwaves today remain nearly Velvet-free.