allmusic wrote "One would be hard pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as The Velvet Underground and Nico." Who am I to argue!
So a bit of my history. As a youngster in the early 70's I first heard of Lou Reed via his major hit single Walk On The Wildside. When reading music magazines I found that he was connected with a band with a very exotic name called The Velvet Underground but to a teen such as I it was the fact that David Bowie was working with Reed that was the initial attraction. My 2nd memory of Reed was live in the late 70's at Brisbane's now demolished Festival Hall and he did not leave that great an impression. I put this down to 2 things. My at the time less than mature tastes and the fact that the previous night I had seen Afro Rock specialists Osibisa and, to be blunt, they were so good he was never going to follow their sensational performance.
As the years passed I heard a few Velvet Underground songs such as Sweet Jane and Rock And Roll but as much as I liked them placing them into an historical perspective was difficult. They were after all only Rock songs. The moment of revelation came when I discovered The Velvet Underground and Nico. There was a certain raw experimental atmosphere to the album that demanded attention. For a start it was the release date. January 1967. So this must have been recorded in 1966 when all others where heading in a vastly different direction. Peace and love and all that was the order of the times but this gave us street grit with tales of drugs and transvestites among other things. The surprise to me was the opening track Sunday Morning. On initial hearing it was not the start I expected. 60's Dream pop. With time and knowledge though it now fits the album perfectly.
I will not bore anyone with details of each song. Plenty has been written elsewhere. What I will do is recommend a little book called The Velvet Underground And Nico by Joe Harvard.
This is part of a series of books about specific albums that are of influence to their authors and Joe Harvard has written a light and easy to read revue. More Later.
