In a small, dark room, the exhibit plays snippets of music while displaying footage and photographs of the band. The museum also hosted author Richie Unterberger, whose lecture helped to break down the album’s unique makeup and legacy. The bulk of these recently discovered recordings would make up The Velvet Underground & Nico album a year later. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh is currently hosting an exhibit dedicated to the band’s 1966 sessions at Scepter Studio. If the first four songs of this album weren’t enough of a thrill to compel their underground audience, the tracklist only delves into deeper, more troubling waters with songs like “Run, Run, Run," “The Black Angel’s Death Song,” and, of course, “Heroin.” The experience of listening to these songs, whether for the first or hundredth time, always takes one on a journey through the seedy underbelly of the world. With lyrics like, “Taste the whip in love given lightly / Taste the whip, now bleed for me,” the song beautifully tells of a man’s desire to be completely enslaved and punished by his lover. Nico’s first appearance on the album is “Femme Fatale.” With mellow, toned down instrumentals, the star of this song is Nico’s vocals as she sings, “‘Cause everybody knows / The things she does to please / She’s just a little tease / See the way she walks / Hear the way she talks.” Cale and Reed sing back up vocals for her, creating a more masculine presence behind her words.īased on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novella of the same name, “Venus in Furs” is where the Velvet Underground’s inclination towards topics unacceptable in general society come to light. The backing music of this song hardly changes from the strumming of guitar and clanging piano keys as Reed tells his story. The album quickly transitions to the more upbeat “I’m Waiting for the Man," also sung by Reed, in which he not–so–subtly describes going up to Harlem to meet his drug dealer. Paranoia and perhaps regret seems to seep into Lou Reed as he sings, “Watch out, the worlds behind you / There’s always someone around you who will call / It’s nothing at all.” The album opens with “Sunday Morning,” and follows the dream–like journey of the morning after a Saturday night out. Unlike other contemporary titans of the music industry, the Velvet Underground stubbornly avoided following the popular music style-but that decision has kept them from sounding dated in the present. Although that resistance to pop culture kept them from being a commercial success, it's perhaps the exact reason why so many resonate with The Velvet Underground & Nico to this day. While everybody else during the Summer of Love sported long hair, flowery clothing, and spent their time taking hallucinogenic drugs and fighting against war and for free love, the Velvet Underground wore all–black leather, grappled with intravenous addiction, and explored the intense connection between love and pain. This is perhaps due to the music’s experimental sound and taboo topics: droning strings and avant–garde instrumentals, Nico’s androgynous and accented voice, sexual sadomasochism, and a seven–minute ode to shooting up aptly titled, “Heroin”. As one promotional poster put it, the album was “So far underground, you get the bends!” Despite being produced and supported by the successful Warhol, the album was a commercial flop and would remain outside of the mainstream for years. Released in 1967, The Velvet Underground & Nico served as the self–titled debut album of American rock band the Velvet Underground and German singer Nico.
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