The velvet underground

Beginning of the story (1964-1965)

The beginning of the group, hereinafter known as The Velvet Undergound, dates back to 1964 . At the time, Lou Reed played in minor garage groups, and also worked as a songwriter for the label Pickwick Records . At the end of the year, he met with John Cale , a Welshman who moved to America to learn classical music . At that time, Cale was already beginning to collaborate with avant-garde composers like John Cage and La Monty Young , whose influence of music is felt on the early recordings of The Velvet Underground. Cale was pleasantly amazed that his experimental ideas coincide with those of Reed, who, for example, tried to use unconventional tuning of guitars in order to achieve a more sombre sound. As a result, Reed and Cale began to play and perform together.

Their first joint band was The Primitives - a short-lived band assembled to record the song “The Ostrich” written by Reed. Later, Keil and Reed called in to Stirling Morrison , Reed's boyfriend from college, as guitarist and Angus Maclis as percussionist. The first name of the group was The Warlocks, they later changed it to The Falling Spikes. The name “The Velvet Underground” was a book about sadomasochism by Michael Leith; she was left in a New York apartment where Reed moved, a previous resident, Tony Conrad . The band liked this name; its advantage was also a definite connection with the avant-garde video of the time (which Conrad was involved in), as well as the fact that at this time Reed composed the song “ Venus in Furs ” - inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch ’s book “ Venus in Furs ” and which also had a sadomasochistic theme. As a result, the group decided to make “The Velvet Underground” its name.

The Velvet Underground began to actively rehearse in New York . Their music at that time was much softer than further work: Cale temporarily withdrew from the avant-garde and was fascinated by the ideas of the beat generation , McLees playing the drums was extremely soft and calm. In July 1965, Reed, Cale and Morrison recorded a demo in their room on Lodlow Street. When Cale went to Britain for a while, he gave the demo to Marianne Faithful , hoping that she would give it to Mick Jagger ; however, no reaction to the demo followed. In 1995, it was included in the Peel Slowly and See retrospective box set.

When the group earned about $ 75 for their concert at a school in Summit , New Jersey , McLees left the group (he explained this by saying that the group “sold out” - according to Morrison, he played only for the sake of art ^[8] ). Maureen Tucker , the younger sister of Morrison’s friend Jim Tucker, was replaced by McLees. Tucker's simplified drum style became something completely new for the band: she played mostly tom-toms and a bass-barrel , using hammers as percussion sticks and practically without using cymbals . When the other participants asked Tucker about something unusual, she slightly moved the bass drum and began to play standing up, and when her installation was forgotten in one of the clubs, Maureen made a new one from the drums and crates found in the garbage. The original rhythms of Tucker became an organic part of the general sound of the group. The Velvets began to play in clubs and gradually achieved a certain fame in narrow circles.

Meeting with Andy Warhol (1965-1967)

In 1965, the famous Andy Warhol became the manager of the group. He suggested that the band use his protégé, a German-born singer Nico , as a vocalist on some songs. Warhol's reputation helped the group achieve even greater fame; Moreover, it was he who helped the group sign a contract with Verve Records , formally meaning “ producer ”, and actually giving The Velvet Underground the opportunity to create the sound that would suit them. Thanks to Warhol, the band also became involved in the Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia show , which used their music; The show included video and illustrations made by Warhol. For several months, this show arranged its performances in New York, and then toured the United States and Canada . The last time its installation occurred in May 1967.

In 1966, McLees briefly returned to the group, and together they played several concerts (Reed did not participate in them, since he contracted hepatitis ); Cale sang and played the organ, and Tucker switched to bass. In particular, during these recordings the band performed the “Booker T” jam (the basis for the name was Booker T. & the MG’s rock band); later, this jam was recorded under the name “The Gift” for “ White Light / White Heat ”. Some of these concerts were recorded and released on bootlegs, becoming the only surviving recordings of The Velvet Underground with McLees. McLees wanted to return to the group that had already achieved certain popularity without him, but Reed eventually prevented this.

In December 1966, Warhol and David Dalton created a special multimedia project for Aspen magazine ^[9] . In addition to various illustrations and booklets, the “bundle” included a double-sided disc, on one side of which were recordings related to Timothy Leary , and on the other - the recording “Loop”, signed by the name The Velvet Underground. In fact, “Loop” was recorded alone by Kayle and was a recording of a guitar feedback , whose volume was increased by the end. This recording has become a kind of forerunner of Reed's “ Metal Machine Music ” noise album, based on the same idea, and one of the first recordings that predetermined noise and industrial . Loop also became the first published and available for sale recording by The Velvet Underground.

The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)

The Velvet Underground debut album was recorded in three different studios throughout 1966 ; Most of the sessions were held at Scepter Studios in New York in April. On four songs, Niko took part as vocalist. Album released in 1967 label Verve Records . Despite the fact that the album played a very important role in the development of rock music, and in the future was praised by music critics, after the release the album reached only 171 places on the Billboard chart .

White Light / White Heat (1968)

The Velvet Underground continued to perform live, and their concerts became harder and more experimental, they began to present numerous improvisations. According to Kayla, the group during this period was one of the first to use Vox amplifiers; other new sound effects began to be applied. All this is reflected in the second longplay of the group.

The Velvets ceased working with Warhol and Nico, and began recording White Light / White Heat in September 1967 with Tom Wilson as a producer. The material of the group has become more raw, dirty and hard; according to Kayla, if the first album had moments of weakness and beauty, the second album became “deliberately anti-beautiful”.

The album’s first self-titled song begins with the energetic sound of Kale’s piano in the spirit of Jerry Lee Lewis , describing the use of amphetamines . Reed's favorite song from the album was an ominous “ Lady Godiva's Operation ”, about a failed transsexual lobotomy . “The Gift” was a short story written by Reed and narrated against the background of Kayle's music with his characteristic Scottish accent. One of the most famous songs of the record was the meditative “ Here She Comes Now ”, rewrited later by REM , Nirvana , Galaxie 500 and Cabaret Voltaire . However, the most experimental moments of the record were two noise-fatal compositions - “I Heard Her Call My Name” and “Sister Ray”, and the second one lasts about 17 minutes.

Commercially, the band's second album started even less successfully than the first one - it lasted two weeks on the Billboard Top 200 at position 199. The group was extremely unhappy with such a weak reaction to their efforts, and as a result, contradictions intensified in The Velvets. The last session in the “classic” line-up was recorded by the group in February 1968 and vividly reflects the differences between its two leaders: Reed composed two melodic pop songs (“Temptation Inside Your Heart” and “ Stephanie Says ”), and Kayle - another experiment with "Sawing" violin ("Hey Mr. Rain"). (These records were not released until the inclusion of rare tracks VU and Another View in the compilation). A whole number of songs co-written with Kayle, the group performed at concerts, but he recorded them in the studio already solo (“Walk It and Talk It”, “Guess I'm Falling in Love”, “Ride into the Sun” and "Countess from Hong Kong").

The Velvet Underground (1969)

Before starting work on the third album, Cale left the band. He was replaced by Doug Yule from the Boston-based group The Glass Managerie, who played for The Velvets several times. At the end of 1968, the third, self-titled album of the group, The Velvet Underground , was recorded. The album was released on March 12, 1969 and did not hit the Billboard Top 200 .

The early albums The Velvet Underground, in the opinion of many critics, were a kind of result of the creative collaboration-confrontation between Reed and Kayla, the melody of the first and the avant-garde ideas of the second. On the third disc of the group, the first without Kayla, the sound became softer and more calm and much less experimental; in the melody of songs, the influence of folk is noticeable, and it was here that the style of Reed's songs was formed, which he later began to follow in his solo works. An additional reason for the change in sound was that Vox's gadgets and amplifiers were stolen from the airport where the band was during the tour; therefore, The Velvet Underground decided to sign a contract and maintain the equipment of Sunn. In continuation of this “policy”, Reed and Morrison bought Fender twelve-string electric guitars. As a result, Morrison’s ringing, light guitar sound and Yule's melodic bass lines became the basis of the new Velvets sound. Reed sought a softer vocal and, therefore, on some songs he even gave up his lead vocalist duties: Doug Yul sang on the album opening song “Candy Says”, Tucker - on “ After Hours ” (Lou found this song so pure and innocent that he did not dare to sing her myself). The sound of the album “The Velvet Underground” had a significant impact on the development of indie rock and the style of low-fi .

Sessions for the fourth album. Loaded (1969–1970)

The Velvet Underground spent most of the year 1969 on the road, almost without stopping in New York. In October 1969, the live album “ 1969: The Velvet Underground Live ” was recorded (released in 1974 on the Mercury Records label by critic Paul Nelson ). Also during the year the group worked in the studio, recording a considerable amount of material that was never released due to disagreements with the label. The sound of these recordings became a kind of transition between the soft sound of “The Velvet Underground” and the pop rock of the fourth album. Much later, these records were included in the collections of “ VU ” and “ Another View ” outlays ; It should also be noted that Reed reworked some of these songs for his solo albums (“Stephanie Says”, “Ocean”, “I Can't Stand It”, “Lisa Says”, “She's My Best Friend”). In essence, much of Reed’s most successful early solo songs became re-recordings of his songs, rehearsing with The Velvet Undergound; in the original versions they were released later on VU , Another View , Peel Slowly and See .

In 1969, the president of MGM Records, Mike Carb, decided to clear the label of groups related to drug and hippie- themed; The Velvet Underground was also on this list (as well as Frank Zappa with The Mothers of Invention ). Despite this, the label reserved the rights to the unreleased recordings of the expelled groups.

The Velvets came to Atlantic Records ; on his subordinate label Cotillion Records and released their latest album with Reed, Loaded . The title of the album (“loaded”) hints at the slogan proclaimed by Atlantic Records that albums should be “loaded with hits”. Despite the fact that the disc did not become such a hit, as the company expected, it included the most mainstream pop songs ever recorded by the band, first of all “ Rock and Roll ” and “ Sweet Jane ”. The sound of the group has become more pop-rock , with elements of folk-rock and rhythm and blues , without losing melody.

Since Tucker temporarily left the band due to pregnancy, despite being listed as a drummer in the album’s release data, the drum parts were actually played by various people, including Yule, engineer Adrien Barber, session musician Tommy Castanero, and brother Doug Yule Billy , while high school student.

Desperate to achieve at least some success with the group, under the influence of new manager Steve Sesnick in August 1970, Reed decided to part with The Velvet Underground. Essentially, the band broke up while recording the album, and Lou left immediately before his release. He later claimed that he was surprised to see the album on the shelves; according to him, he “left them with their album full of hits written by me”.

Reed was extremely disappointed in the form in which the album got the songs " Sweet Jane " and " New Age ". Both songs were cut; so, in the original version of “New Age” the final phrase “It's the beginning of a new age” (from English - “This is the beginning of a new century”) should have been repeated many times. Also, Loaded did not make a short introduction to Rock and Roll . On the other hand, according to Yul, the album was finished by the time that Lou left the band, and he knew about all the changes made; in the few weeks that had passed between Reed’s departure and the release of the record, the entire long process of correction, mastering, and preparation for publication could not take place. Anyway, the initial versions of the songs were released on Loaded reissued a few years later, and were also included in the Peel Slowly and See box set.

Last years. Squeeze (1973)

Although the single “Who Loves the Sun” accompanying Loaded did not have any noticeable effect, on the whole the disc became a kind of triumph against the background of the band’s previous “successes”. Rock and Roll and Sweet Jane became extremely popular on the radio, and the band, including Walter Powers who joined her on bass and Yul, who became the guitarist and lead vocalist, went on tour in the US and Europe. At the same time, Morrison received the title of Bachelor of Arts and left the group for an academic career at the University of Texas and Austin. He was replaced by keyboard player and singer Willie Alexander . The Velvets gave a number of concerts in England , Wales and Holland ; Some of the material from them was published in the 2002 box-box of Funal VU .

In the meantime, such radical changes in the group have displeased the fans, who began to call the group “Velveteen Underground” (pun - Velvet and teen - teenager). Yul also began to feel discomfort, speaking under the name "Velvet Underground"; The surviving recordings from this period demonstrate that he tried to perform mostly new material, and not the old stuff by Reed.

In 1972, Atlantic Records released a record of The Velvets' latest concert with Reed - Live at Max's Kansas City . This recording was made by a group fan and member of the Warhol Bridget Polk on August 23, 1970. At the same time, Doug Yule performed a solo tour of Great Britain, on returning from which he found himself without a group — Sesnik fired Tucker, Powers and Alexander. Sesnik also secured a reliable contract with Velvet Underground label Polydor Records , and in 1973, Yule recorded and released the album Squeeze . Deep Purple drummer Ian Pace took part in the recording.

Attitude to the last studio album released under the name The Velvet Underground remains extremely controversial. Critic Stephen Eyrlvayn from the resource All Music Guide notes that the disc received "monotonous bad reviews" and was, in fact, deleted from the traditional discography of The Velvet Underground ^[10] . The rating of this album on the “All Music Guide” is 1 of 5 (the rest of the studio albums of The Velvets received 5 of 5); Squeeze is also in the ranking of the worst albums of all time resource Rate Your Music ^[11] . The album is dominated by light pop-rock / country- intonation, some things from it resemble songs with Loaded ; in the opinion of many, the album would have become more successful if it were released not under the name The Velvet Underground, but as Yul's solo disc (since in fact it was one).

In 1972, Reed, Cale and Niko teamed up and gave two concerts in London and Paris . The Paris concert at the Bataclan club was released as a bootleg, and in 2003 it was released as an official live album called Le Bataclan '72 .

After the collapse (1973–1990)

Cale, Reed and Niko began more or less successful solo careers, periodically collaborating with each other (for example, Cale produced a series of albums by Niko). Sterling Morrison became a professor, for some time teaching medieval literature at the University of Texas at Austin, and then a captain of a tugboat for several years. Maureen Tucker lived a family life, in the 80s for some time, returning to music. Among the groups with whom Morrison tried to continue his musical career was touring was Tucker.

On July 18, 1988, Niko died of a cerebral hemorrhage after falling off a bicycle.

Czech dissident Vaclav Havel was a fan of The Velvet Underground and was even on friendly terms with Lou Reed. Commenting on his involvement in the name of the group “ Velvet Revolution ” ( eng. Velvet Revolution ), as a result of which communism was overthrown in the Czech Republic, Reed said that her ideas correspond to his peace-loving nature - because these events were bloodless ^[12] . After Havel was elected as president of Czechoslovakia first, and then of the Czech Republic, Reed visited him in Prague ^[13] . September 16, 1998 at the request of Havel Reed played at a gala dinner in honor of him at the reception at Clinton .

Reunions and subsequent years (1990, 1992–2017)

In 1990, Reed and Cale recorded a joint album, Songs for Drella , dedicated to the memory of Andy Warhol, who died in 1987. (“Drella” is Warhol's pseudonym, composed of the words “Dracula”, Dracula , and “Cinderella”, Cinderella). Despite the fact that Morrison and Tucker worked with Reed and Kayle during their solo career, on the “Songs for Drella” two leaders of The Velvet Underground “met” for the first time. Rumors began to circulate about the reunion of the group, backed up by a joint performance of “ Heroin ” for an encore during the concert timed for Songs for Drella .

As a result, The Velvet Underground as part of Reed-Cale-Morrison-Tucker united in 1992 and embarked on a tour of Europe, which began in Edinburgh on June 1, 1993. The group also performed at the Glastonbury festival , and the photo from this performance was on the cover of NME magazine . In most of the songs that Niko sang in the original, the vocals went to John Cale. The Velvets also participated in five concerts of the U2 Zoo TV Tour . The materials of these concerts in 1993 were released on the album Live MCMXCIII .

The group planned to tour the US, take part in MTV Unplugged and release another studio album, however, due to the recurring contradictions of Reed and Keila, the revived The Velvet Undergrounds fell apart.

August 30, 1995 Sterling Morrison died of lymphoma. This was originally thought to put an end to the group’s intentions to reunite. However, plans changed when, in 1996, The Velvet Underground was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ; Reed and Cale decided to leave the differences and revive The Velvet Underground for the last time with Tucker. Doug Yul was not invited, which he regarded as disrespect from his former comrades. Patti Smith presented the band at the ceremony, and Velvet Underground sang the song “Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend” dedicated to the memory of Sterling Morrison.

In December 2009, at the 45th anniversary of the formation of the group, Reed, Tucker and Yule (without Kayla), reunited, gave a rare interview in the New York Public Library ^[14] .

On 27 October 2013, Lou Reed died at the age of 71. ^[15] Back in April 2013, he had a liver transplant, and in his own words, after the operation, he felt better and healthier than ever ^{[16] [17] [18] [19]} .

John Cale, regarding the death of Reed, said the following: “The world has lost a wonderful composer and poet ... I lost my companion in the schoolyard” ^[20] .

In 2017, Tucker and Cale reunited to perform " I'm Waiting for the Man " at the Grammy Salute to Music Legends concert ^[21] .

In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine put The Velvet Underground in 19th place in the list of the 100 greatest artists of all time ^[22] .

Timeline

• The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
• White Light / White Heat (1968)
• The Velvet Underground (1969)
• Loaded (1970)
• Squeeze (1973)