The Velvet Underground has tamed the big bad beast. The Velvet Underground … Read Full Bio ↴The Velvet Underground has tamed the big bad beast. The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. It originally comprised singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. In 1965 MacLise was replaced by Moe Tucker, who played on most of the band's recordings. Though their integration of rock and the avant-garde resulted in little commercial success, they became one of the most influential bands in rock, underground, experimental, and alternative music.
“The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band!” — Brian Eno.
Known by many as "The Velvets", the band was formed in New York City and first active from 1965 to 1973. Its best-known lineup consisted of vocalist/guitarist Lou Reed, bassist/violist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker. The band also collaborated with Nico for their debut album in 1967, under the supervision of producer and pop artist Andy Warhol.
Some see The Velvet Underground as being a bridge between the pacifist themes of the late 60s and the sheer chaos and indifference of the mid-70s punk movement.
The Velvet Underground was one of the first rock music groups to experiment heavily with the form by incorporating avant-garde influences. The group's often raw, sometimes difficult sound would influence many later punk, noise rock, and alternative music performers, and singer Lou Reed's lyrics brought new levels of social realism and sleaze to rock. Critics Scott Isler and Ira Robbins argue that "The Velvet Underground marked a turning point in rock history. After the release of The Velvet Underground & Nico knowing the power of which it was capable, the music could never be as innocent, as unselfconscious as before."
Pre-history (1964-1965)
The foundations for what would become The Velvet Underground were laid in late 1964. Lou Reed had performed with a few short-lived garage bands and had worked as a songwriter for Pickwick Records, a job Reed described as "a poor man's Carole King". Reed met John Cale, a Welshman who had moved to the United States to study classical music. Cale had worked with John Cage and La Monte Young, but was also interested in rock music. (Young's use of extended drones would be a profound influence on the early Velvet's sound). The pair rehearsed and performed together, and their partnership and shared interests steered the early direction of what would become the Velvet Underground.
Reed's first group with Cale was the short-lived The Primitives, assembled to support a Reed-penned single, "The Ostrich". Reed and Cale recruited Sterling Morrison – a college classmate of Reed's who had already played with him a few times – to play guitar, and Angus MacLise to play percussion. This quartet was first called The Warlocks, then The Falling Spikes.
While moving into his New York City apartment Reed found the book The Velvet Underground by Michael Leigh, a book about sadomasochism, left by previous tenant Tony Conrad. Reed and Morrison have reported the group liked the name, considering it evocative of "underground cinema," and fitting, due to Reed's already having written "Venus In Furs", inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's book of the same name, also dealing with sadomasochism. The band immediately and unanimously adopted the book's title for its new name.
Early stages (1965-1966)
The newly named Velvet Underground rehearsed and performed in New York City. Their music was generally much more relaxed than it would later become: Cale described this era as reminiscent of beatnik poetry, with MacLise playing gentle "pitter and patter rhythms behind the drone".
In July of 1965, Reed, Cale and Morrison recorded a demo tape. When he briefly returned to Britain, Cale gave a copy of the tape to Marianne Faithfull, hoping she'd pass it on to Mick Jagger. Nothing ever came of the demo. The demo was eventually released on the 1995 box set Peel Slowly and See.
When the group accepted an offer of $75 for their first paying performance at Summit High School, in Summit, NJ, MacLise left the group, protesting what he considered a sell out. "Angus was in it for art", Morrison reported.
MacLise was replaced by Maureen Tucker, Jim Tucker's younger sister. Tucker's abbreviated drum kit was rather unusual: She generally played on tom toms and an upturned bass drum, using mallets rather than drumsticks, and she rarely used cymbals. The band having asked her to 'do something unusual', she turned her bass drum on its side, and played standing up. When her drums were stolen from one club, she replaced them with garbage cans, brought in from outside. Her driving rhythms were at once simple yet exotic, influenced by Babatunde Olatunji and Bo Diddley records, and became an essential part of the group's music. The group earned a regular paying gig at a club, and gained an early reputation as a promising ensemble.
While the American west coast was undergoing the Summer of Love, psychedelia and flower power, the typically east coast Velvets concerned themselves with darker subject matter: transvestites, heroin addiction, and sadomasochism. Also setting them apart from their contemporaries was their use of feedback and amplifier noise in a musical context, exemplified by the seventeen minute track "Sister Ray" from their White Light/White Heat album.
Andy Warhol and the Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable (1966-1967)
Andy Warhol became the band's manager in 1965, and suggested they feature the German-born singer Nico on several songs. Warhol's reputation certainly helped the band gain a higher profile. Though Reed eventually fired Warhol, he praised the integrity of his early efforts with the group. Warhol helped the band land a coveted recording contract with MGM's Verve Records, with himself as nominal 'producer', and gave the Velvets unprecedented free reign over the sound they created.
During their stay with Andy Warhol, the band became part of his multimedia roadshow Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable., for which they provided the musical part. This show played a couple of months in New York City, then took to the road all over the United States and Canada until its last installment in May 1967.
In 1966, MacLise temporarily rejoined the Velvet Underground for a few E.P.I. shows when Reed was suffering from hepatitis and unable to perform. For these appearances, Cale sang and played organ and Tucker switched to bass guitar. Also at these appearances, the band often played an extended jam they had dubbed "The Booker T", after the leader of the musical group Booker T & the MG's; the jam later became the music for "The Gift" on White Light/White Heat. Some of these performances have been released as a bootleg; they remain the only recordings of MacLise with the Velvet Underground.
The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
At Warhol's insistence, Nico sang with the Velvet Underground on four songs off their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. The album was recorded in one or two days — there is some uncertainty between the band members' memories — at TT&G Studios during the November of 1966, and released by MGM Records in March of 1967.
The album cover was famous for its simple, suggestive Warhol design: a bright yellow banana with "Peel Slowly and See" printed near a perforated tab. Those who did remove the banana skin found a pink, phallic, peeled banana beneath. This would later be used as the cover to their boxed set, appropriately titled "Peel Slowly and See," released in 1995.
Eleven songs showcased their stylistic range, veering from the pounding attacks of "I'm Waiting For The Man" and "Run Run Run," the droning "Venus In Furs" and "Heroin" to the quiet "Femme Fatale" and the tender "I'll Be Your Mirror".
The overall sound was propelled by Reed's strong deadpan vocals, Cale's droning or shrieking viola, Morrison's often rhythm and blues or country-influenced guitar, and Tucker's hypnotically simple but steady, propulsive beat.
The Velvet Underground & Nico peaked at number 171 on Billboard Magazine's top 200 charts, but the promising debut was dampened somewhat by legal complications: The album's back cover featured a still from a Warhol motion picture, Chelsea Girls. The film's cinematographer, Eric Emerson, had been arrested for drug possession and, desperate for money, claimed the still had been included on the album without his permission. MGM Records pulled all copies of the album until the legal problems were settled (by which time the record had lost its modest commercial momentum), and the still was airbrushed out.
White Light/White Heat (1968)
The Velvet Underground performed live often, and their performances became louder, harsher and often featured extended improvisations. Cale reports that at about this time, The Velvet Underground were one of the first groups to receive an endorsement from Vox. The company pioneered a number of special effects, which the Velvet Underground utilized on White Light/White Heat.
Reed fired Warhol as manager, and Nico was jettisoned, partly due to her unreliability. In September 1967, the VU recorded what would become their second album, White Light/White Heat, with Tom Wilson as producer. It was released January 1968.
The recording was raw and oversaturated, one of the harshest, loudest records yet released. Cale has stated that while the debut had some moments of fragility and beauty, White Light/White Heat was "consciously anti-beauty". Isler and Robbins suggest that the record "is almost unbearably intense."
The title track and first song starts things off with Reed pounding on piano like a demented Jerry Lee Lewis. The eerie, hallucinatory "Lady Godiva's Operation" remains Reed's favorite track on the album.
Despite the dominance of noisefests like "Sister Ray", and "I Heard Her Call My Name", there was room for the darkly comic "The Gift", a Reed-penned short story narrated in Cale's deadpan Welsh accent. The meditative "Here She Comes Now" was later covered by Galaxie 500, Cabaret Voltaire, and Nirvana.
In 1968, a year after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Are You Experienced, there was an experimental feeling throughout rock music, while it should be noted that the Velvets are arguably the foremost pioneers in this realm. There were a few other experimenters with noise, but few were tackling noise with as much apparent glee as the V.U. White Light/White Heat was hugely important, and "Sister Ray" is arguably one of the most significant rock songs of the late 1960s. The songs' simple 3-chord progression along with screeching organ and lead guitar, all distorted perhaps beyond the bounds of tastefulness, coupled with William Burroughs-influenced lyrics, was completely unique. "Sister Ray" is often seen as one of the earliest precursors of punk and Alternative rock, with its blistering instrumentation and alarming lyrics.
The second album's cover was a subtle black-on-black picture of the tattooed arm of Billy Name, one of Warhol's "Factory" members. White Light/White Heat entered the Billboard top 200 chart for 2 weeks, at number 199.
Tensions were growing: the group was tired of receiving little recognition for their hard work, and Reed and Cale were pulling the Velvet Underground in different directions. The differences showed in the last recording session the band had with John Cale in February 1968: two pop-like songs in Reed's direction ("Temptation Inside Your Heart" and "Stephanie Says"), and a viola-driven drone in Cale's direction ("Hey Mr Rain"). None of these songs were released until they were included on the VU and Another View compilation albums.
The Velvet Underground (1969)
Before work on their third album started, Reed fired Cale, and replaced him with Doug Yule. The Velvet Underground was recorded in late 1968, and released in March of 1969.
It's often been reported that the early edition of the Velvet Underground was a struggle between Reed and Cale's creative impulses: Reed's rather conventional approach contrasted with Cale's experimentalist tendencies. The Velvet Underground would seem to prove the truth of these claims, as the harsh, abrasive tendencies on the first two records were almost entirely absent. This resulted in a gentler sound influenced by folk music, prescient of the songwriting style that would form Reed's solo career (another factor in the change of sound was the band's amplifiers being stolen from an airport while they were on tour; they obtained replacements by signing a new endorsement deal with Sunn).
Morrison's ringing guitar parts and Yule's melodic bass guitar and harmony vocals are featured prominently on the album. Reed's songs and singing are subdued and confessional, and he shared lead vocals with Yule, particularly when his own voice would fail under stress. A rare Maureen Tucker vocal is featured on "After Hours," a song that Reed said was so innocent and pure he couldn't possibly sing it himself. The album's influence can be heard in many later indie rock and lo-fi recordings.
A year on the road and the "lost" fourth album (1969)
The Velvet Underground spent much of 1969 on the road, feeling they were not accepted in their hometown of New York City and not making much headway commercially. During the same year, the band recorded on and off in the studio, creating a lot of material that was never officially released due to disputes with their record label. What many consider the prime of these sessions was released many years later as VU. This album has a transitional sound between the whisper-soft third album and the pop-rock anthems of their final record, Loaded.
The rest of the recordings, as well as some alternate takes, were bundled on Another View. After Reed's departure, he later reworked a number of these songs for his solo records ("Stephanie Says", "Ocean", "I Can't Stand It", "Lisa Says", "She's My Best Friend"). Indeed, most of Reed's early solo career's more successful hits were reworked Velvet Underground tracks, released for the first time in their original version on VU, Another View, and later on Peel Slowly and See. The standout from VU is considered by many to be "One of These Days," part torch song and part slide-guitar freakout.
Loaded (1970)
In 1969, MGM Records president Mike Curb wanted to purge any drug- or hippie-related bands from MGM, and the V.U. were on his list, along with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. (Nonetheless, MGM insisted on keeping the tapes of their unissued recordings.)
Atlantic Records signed the Velvet Underground for what would be its final studio album, Loaded, released on Atlantic's subsidiary label Cotillion. The album's title refers to Atlantic's request that the band produce an album "loaded with hits." Though the record was not the smash hit the company had anticipated, it contains the most accessible pop the V.U. had performed, and several of Reed's best-known songs, including "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll".
Though Tucker had temporarily retired from the group due to her pregnancy, she received a performance credit on Loaded. Drums were actually played by several people, including Yule, engineer Adrian Barber, session musician Tommy Castanaro, and Doug Yule's brother Billy, who was still in high school.
Disillusioned with the lack of progress the band was making and pressured by manager Sesnick, Reed decided to quit the band and did so in August 1970. The band essentially broke while recording the album, and Reed walked off before it was finished. Doug Yule finished the album, singing parts to some of Reed's vocal tracks. Lou Reed has often said he was completely surprised months later when he saw Loaded in stores. He also said, bitterly, "I left them to their album full of hits that I made."
Reed was particularly bitter about the truncation of a verse from "Sweet Jane". "New Age" was changed as well: as originally recorded, its closing line ("It's the beginning of a new age") was repeated many more times. A brief interlude in "Rock and Roll" was also removed. (Years later, the album would be reissued with the edits restored.) On the other hand, Yule has pointed that the album was to all intents and purposes finished when Reed left the band and that Reed had been aware of most if not all of the edits. The few weeks between Reed's departure in late August and Loaded’s arrival in the shops in September of the same year also would have left little room for the whole process of editing, reviewing, mastering and pressing.
1970 onwards
Although Loaded's spin-off single "Who Loves the Sun" did nothing, the album itself is something of a muted triumph. "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll" became U.S. radio favorites, and the band, featuring Walter Powers III on bass, and Doug Yule promoted to lead vocals and guitar, went on the road once more, playing the East Coast of the U.S. and Europe. By that time, however, Sterling Morrison had obtained a B.A. degree in English, and left the group for an academic career with the University of Texas at Austin. His replacement was singer/keyboard player Willie Alexander. The band played shows in England, Wales, and the Netherlands, some of which are collected on the 2001 box set Final V.U. (Longtime fans began mocking the new lineup as the "Velveteen Underground", perhaps unfairly.)
In 1972 Atlantic released Live at Max's Kansas City, a live bootleg of one of the Velvet Underground's final performances with Reed, recorded by fan Brigid Polk. By this time Doug Yule was once again touring the United Kingdom, this time backed with hired hands as Sesnick had sent home Tucker, Powers and Alexander, effectively ending their time with the band. Later that year, Sesnick managed to secure a recording contract with Polydor Records in England, and Yule recorded Squeeze under the Velvet Underground name with Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice. Squeeze is a controversial item among Velvet fans, most of whom flatly decline to consider any post-Lou Reed material as worthwhile. Rarely heard before the advent of Internet audio file sharing, the album's perceived Middle of the road content is sometimes dismissed out of hand by Velvets fans. Although the album technically is a Velvet Underground release, it is properly Doug Yule's debut solo album and it might have fared far better if it had been labeled as such, given the actual quality of most of the tracks, some of which would not have been out of place on Loaded. (Interestingly, Yule was actually in the group longer than Cale.)
Post-VU developments (1973-1990)
Reed and Cale, in the meantime, developed solo careers. Sterling Morrison was a professor for some time, teaching Medieval Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, then became a tugboat captain for several years. Maureen Tucker raised a family before returning to small-scale gigging and recording in the 1980s; Morrison was in a number of touring bands, among others with Tucker's band. In 1988, erstwhile singer Nico died of a brain hemorrhage while bicycling on the island of Ibiza.
Reunions (1990 and 1992-1994)
In 1990, Reed and Cale released Songs for Drella, dedicated to the recently deceased Andy Warhol. ("Drella" was a nickname Warhol had adopted, a combination of "Dracula" and "Cinderella".) Though Morrison and Tucker had each worked with Reed and Cale since the V.U. broke up, Songs for Drella was the first time the mercurial pair had worked together in decades, and rumors of a reunion began to circulate, fueled by the one-off appearance by Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker to play "Heroin" as the encore to a brief Songs for Drella set in Jouy-en-Josas, France.
The same lineup briefly reunited from 1992–1994, resulting in a European tour — both headlining and opening a few concerts for U2 — and a live album, Live MCMXCIII. Cale sang most of the songs Nico had performed with the group.
Before the band could tour the U.S. or record — an MTV Unplugged album was proposed — Cale and Reed fell out again, breaking up the band once more. The definitive end to the band's checkered career came when Sterling Morrison died of cancer in 1995. Reed's death in 2013 put a permanent end to any hopes of further Velvet Underground reunions; tributes poured out from all corners of the internet upon the news.
In recent years, the band's first four albums have been reissued with expanded box sets featuring two to five discs' worth of bonus content. An archival series of live recordings has also been issued as The Complete Matrix Tapes, which has been praised both for its audio fidelity and for the quality of the performances (many of the recordings here were initially the source of the band's acclaimed 1969 Live album, but the sound quality has been further cleaned up).
Selected discography:
1967 - The Velvet Underground & Nico
1968 - White Light/White Heat
1969 - The Velvet Underground
1970 - Loaded
1972 - Live at Max's Kansas City
1973 - Squeeze
1974 - 1969: The Velvet Underground Live
1985 - VU (rarities compilation)
1986 - Another View (rarities compilation)
1993 - Live MCMXCIII
1995 - Peel Slowly and See (box set)
2001 - Final V.U. 1971-1973 (live)
2001 - The Quine Tapes (live)
2015 - The Complete Matrix Tapes (live)
“The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band!” — Brian Eno.
Known by many as "The Velvets", the band was formed in New York City and first active from 1965 to 1973. Its best-known lineup consisted of vocalist/guitarist Lou Reed, bassist/violist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker. The band also collaborated with Nico for their debut album in 1967, under the supervision of producer and pop artist Andy Warhol.
Some see The Velvet Underground as being a bridge between the pacifist themes of the late 60s and the sheer chaos and indifference of the mid-70s punk movement.
The Velvet Underground was one of the first rock music groups to experiment heavily with the form by incorporating avant-garde influences. The group's often raw, sometimes difficult sound would influence many later punk, noise rock, and alternative music performers, and singer Lou Reed's lyrics brought new levels of social realism and sleaze to rock. Critics Scott Isler and Ira Robbins argue that "The Velvet Underground marked a turning point in rock history. After the release of The Velvet Underground & Nico knowing the power of which it was capable, the music could never be as innocent, as unselfconscious as before."
Pre-history (1964-1965)
The foundations for what would become The Velvet Underground were laid in late 1964. Lou Reed had performed with a few short-lived garage bands and had worked as a songwriter for Pickwick Records, a job Reed described as "a poor man's Carole King". Reed met John Cale, a Welshman who had moved to the United States to study classical music. Cale had worked with John Cage and La Monte Young, but was also interested in rock music. (Young's use of extended drones would be a profound influence on the early Velvet's sound). The pair rehearsed and performed together, and their partnership and shared interests steered the early direction of what would become the Velvet Underground.
Reed's first group with Cale was the short-lived The Primitives, assembled to support a Reed-penned single, "The Ostrich". Reed and Cale recruited Sterling Morrison – a college classmate of Reed's who had already played with him a few times – to play guitar, and Angus MacLise to play percussion. This quartet was first called The Warlocks, then The Falling Spikes.
While moving into his New York City apartment Reed found the book The Velvet Underground by Michael Leigh, a book about sadomasochism, left by previous tenant Tony Conrad. Reed and Morrison have reported the group liked the name, considering it evocative of "underground cinema," and fitting, due to Reed's already having written "Venus In Furs", inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's book of the same name, also dealing with sadomasochism. The band immediately and unanimously adopted the book's title for its new name.
Early stages (1965-1966)
The newly named Velvet Underground rehearsed and performed in New York City. Their music was generally much more relaxed than it would later become: Cale described this era as reminiscent of beatnik poetry, with MacLise playing gentle "pitter and patter rhythms behind the drone".
In July of 1965, Reed, Cale and Morrison recorded a demo tape. When he briefly returned to Britain, Cale gave a copy of the tape to Marianne Faithfull, hoping she'd pass it on to Mick Jagger. Nothing ever came of the demo. The demo was eventually released on the 1995 box set Peel Slowly and See.
When the group accepted an offer of $75 for their first paying performance at Summit High School, in Summit, NJ, MacLise left the group, protesting what he considered a sell out. "Angus was in it for art", Morrison reported.
MacLise was replaced by Maureen Tucker, Jim Tucker's younger sister. Tucker's abbreviated drum kit was rather unusual: She generally played on tom toms and an upturned bass drum, using mallets rather than drumsticks, and she rarely used cymbals. The band having asked her to 'do something unusual', she turned her bass drum on its side, and played standing up. When her drums were stolen from one club, she replaced them with garbage cans, brought in from outside. Her driving rhythms were at once simple yet exotic, influenced by Babatunde Olatunji and Bo Diddley records, and became an essential part of the group's music. The group earned a regular paying gig at a club, and gained an early reputation as a promising ensemble.
While the American west coast was undergoing the Summer of Love, psychedelia and flower power, the typically east coast Velvets concerned themselves with darker subject matter: transvestites, heroin addiction, and sadomasochism. Also setting them apart from their contemporaries was their use of feedback and amplifier noise in a musical context, exemplified by the seventeen minute track "Sister Ray" from their White Light/White Heat album.
Andy Warhol and the Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable (1966-1967)
Andy Warhol became the band's manager in 1965, and suggested they feature the German-born singer Nico on several songs. Warhol's reputation certainly helped the band gain a higher profile. Though Reed eventually fired Warhol, he praised the integrity of his early efforts with the group. Warhol helped the band land a coveted recording contract with MGM's Verve Records, with himself as nominal 'producer', and gave the Velvets unprecedented free reign over the sound they created.
During their stay with Andy Warhol, the band became part of his multimedia roadshow Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable., for which they provided the musical part. This show played a couple of months in New York City, then took to the road all over the United States and Canada until its last installment in May 1967.
In 1966, MacLise temporarily rejoined the Velvet Underground for a few E.P.I. shows when Reed was suffering from hepatitis and unable to perform. For these appearances, Cale sang and played organ and Tucker switched to bass guitar. Also at these appearances, the band often played an extended jam they had dubbed "The Booker T", after the leader of the musical group Booker T & the MG's; the jam later became the music for "The Gift" on White Light/White Heat. Some of these performances have been released as a bootleg; they remain the only recordings of MacLise with the Velvet Underground.
The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
At Warhol's insistence, Nico sang with the Velvet Underground on four songs off their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. The album was recorded in one or two days — there is some uncertainty between the band members' memories — at TT&G Studios during the November of 1966, and released by MGM Records in March of 1967.
The album cover was famous for its simple, suggestive Warhol design: a bright yellow banana with "Peel Slowly and See" printed near a perforated tab. Those who did remove the banana skin found a pink, phallic, peeled banana beneath. This would later be used as the cover to their boxed set, appropriately titled "Peel Slowly and See," released in 1995.
Eleven songs showcased their stylistic range, veering from the pounding attacks of "I'm Waiting For The Man" and "Run Run Run," the droning "Venus In Furs" and "Heroin" to the quiet "Femme Fatale" and the tender "I'll Be Your Mirror".
The overall sound was propelled by Reed's strong deadpan vocals, Cale's droning or shrieking viola, Morrison's often rhythm and blues or country-influenced guitar, and Tucker's hypnotically simple but steady, propulsive beat.
The Velvet Underground & Nico peaked at number 171 on Billboard Magazine's top 200 charts, but the promising debut was dampened somewhat by legal complications: The album's back cover featured a still from a Warhol motion picture, Chelsea Girls. The film's cinematographer, Eric Emerson, had been arrested for drug possession and, desperate for money, claimed the still had been included on the album without his permission. MGM Records pulled all copies of the album until the legal problems were settled (by which time the record had lost its modest commercial momentum), and the still was airbrushed out.
White Light/White Heat (1968)
The Velvet Underground performed live often, and their performances became louder, harsher and often featured extended improvisations. Cale reports that at about this time, The Velvet Underground were one of the first groups to receive an endorsement from Vox. The company pioneered a number of special effects, which the Velvet Underground utilized on White Light/White Heat.
Reed fired Warhol as manager, and Nico was jettisoned, partly due to her unreliability. In September 1967, the VU recorded what would become their second album, White Light/White Heat, with Tom Wilson as producer. It was released January 1968.
The recording was raw and oversaturated, one of the harshest, loudest records yet released. Cale has stated that while the debut had some moments of fragility and beauty, White Light/White Heat was "consciously anti-beauty". Isler and Robbins suggest that the record "is almost unbearably intense."
The title track and first song starts things off with Reed pounding on piano like a demented Jerry Lee Lewis. The eerie, hallucinatory "Lady Godiva's Operation" remains Reed's favorite track on the album.
Despite the dominance of noisefests like "Sister Ray", and "I Heard Her Call My Name", there was room for the darkly comic "The Gift", a Reed-penned short story narrated in Cale's deadpan Welsh accent. The meditative "Here She Comes Now" was later covered by Galaxie 500, Cabaret Voltaire, and Nirvana.
In 1968, a year after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Are You Experienced, there was an experimental feeling throughout rock music, while it should be noted that the Velvets are arguably the foremost pioneers in this realm. There were a few other experimenters with noise, but few were tackling noise with as much apparent glee as the V.U. White Light/White Heat was hugely important, and "Sister Ray" is arguably one of the most significant rock songs of the late 1960s. The songs' simple 3-chord progression along with screeching organ and lead guitar, all distorted perhaps beyond the bounds of tastefulness, coupled with William Burroughs-influenced lyrics, was completely unique. "Sister Ray" is often seen as one of the earliest precursors of punk and Alternative rock, with its blistering instrumentation and alarming lyrics.
The second album's cover was a subtle black-on-black picture of the tattooed arm of Billy Name, one of Warhol's "Factory" members. White Light/White Heat entered the Billboard top 200 chart for 2 weeks, at number 199.
Tensions were growing: the group was tired of receiving little recognition for their hard work, and Reed and Cale were pulling the Velvet Underground in different directions. The differences showed in the last recording session the band had with John Cale in February 1968: two pop-like songs in Reed's direction ("Temptation Inside Your Heart" and "Stephanie Says"), and a viola-driven drone in Cale's direction ("Hey Mr Rain"). None of these songs were released until they were included on the VU and Another View compilation albums.
The Velvet Underground (1969)
Before work on their third album started, Reed fired Cale, and replaced him with Doug Yule. The Velvet Underground was recorded in late 1968, and released in March of 1969.
It's often been reported that the early edition of the Velvet Underground was a struggle between Reed and Cale's creative impulses: Reed's rather conventional approach contrasted with Cale's experimentalist tendencies. The Velvet Underground would seem to prove the truth of these claims, as the harsh, abrasive tendencies on the first two records were almost entirely absent. This resulted in a gentler sound influenced by folk music, prescient of the songwriting style that would form Reed's solo career (another factor in the change of sound was the band's amplifiers being stolen from an airport while they were on tour; they obtained replacements by signing a new endorsement deal with Sunn).
Morrison's ringing guitar parts and Yule's melodic bass guitar and harmony vocals are featured prominently on the album. Reed's songs and singing are subdued and confessional, and he shared lead vocals with Yule, particularly when his own voice would fail under stress. A rare Maureen Tucker vocal is featured on "After Hours," a song that Reed said was so innocent and pure he couldn't possibly sing it himself. The album's influence can be heard in many later indie rock and lo-fi recordings.
A year on the road and the "lost" fourth album (1969)
The Velvet Underground spent much of 1969 on the road, feeling they were not accepted in their hometown of New York City and not making much headway commercially. During the same year, the band recorded on and off in the studio, creating a lot of material that was never officially released due to disputes with their record label. What many consider the prime of these sessions was released many years later as VU. This album has a transitional sound between the whisper-soft third album and the pop-rock anthems of their final record, Loaded.
The rest of the recordings, as well as some alternate takes, were bundled on Another View. After Reed's departure, he later reworked a number of these songs for his solo records ("Stephanie Says", "Ocean", "I Can't Stand It", "Lisa Says", "She's My Best Friend"). Indeed, most of Reed's early solo career's more successful hits were reworked Velvet Underground tracks, released for the first time in their original version on VU, Another View, and later on Peel Slowly and See. The standout from VU is considered by many to be "One of These Days," part torch song and part slide-guitar freakout.
Loaded (1970)
In 1969, MGM Records president Mike Curb wanted to purge any drug- or hippie-related bands from MGM, and the V.U. were on his list, along with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. (Nonetheless, MGM insisted on keeping the tapes of their unissued recordings.)
Atlantic Records signed the Velvet Underground for what would be its final studio album, Loaded, released on Atlantic's subsidiary label Cotillion. The album's title refers to Atlantic's request that the band produce an album "loaded with hits." Though the record was not the smash hit the company had anticipated, it contains the most accessible pop the V.U. had performed, and several of Reed's best-known songs, including "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll".
Though Tucker had temporarily retired from the group due to her pregnancy, she received a performance credit on Loaded. Drums were actually played by several people, including Yule, engineer Adrian Barber, session musician Tommy Castanaro, and Doug Yule's brother Billy, who was still in high school.
Disillusioned with the lack of progress the band was making and pressured by manager Sesnick, Reed decided to quit the band and did so in August 1970. The band essentially broke while recording the album, and Reed walked off before it was finished. Doug Yule finished the album, singing parts to some of Reed's vocal tracks. Lou Reed has often said he was completely surprised months later when he saw Loaded in stores. He also said, bitterly, "I left them to their album full of hits that I made."
Reed was particularly bitter about the truncation of a verse from "Sweet Jane". "New Age" was changed as well: as originally recorded, its closing line ("It's the beginning of a new age") was repeated many more times. A brief interlude in "Rock and Roll" was also removed. (Years later, the album would be reissued with the edits restored.) On the other hand, Yule has pointed that the album was to all intents and purposes finished when Reed left the band and that Reed had been aware of most if not all of the edits. The few weeks between Reed's departure in late August and Loaded’s arrival in the shops in September of the same year also would have left little room for the whole process of editing, reviewing, mastering and pressing.
1970 onwards
Although Loaded's spin-off single "Who Loves the Sun" did nothing, the album itself is something of a muted triumph. "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll" became U.S. radio favorites, and the band, featuring Walter Powers III on bass, and Doug Yule promoted to lead vocals and guitar, went on the road once more, playing the East Coast of the U.S. and Europe. By that time, however, Sterling Morrison had obtained a B.A. degree in English, and left the group for an academic career with the University of Texas at Austin. His replacement was singer/keyboard player Willie Alexander. The band played shows in England, Wales, and the Netherlands, some of which are collected on the 2001 box set Final V.U. (Longtime fans began mocking the new lineup as the "Velveteen Underground", perhaps unfairly.)
In 1972 Atlantic released Live at Max's Kansas City, a live bootleg of one of the Velvet Underground's final performances with Reed, recorded by fan Brigid Polk. By this time Doug Yule was once again touring the United Kingdom, this time backed with hired hands as Sesnick had sent home Tucker, Powers and Alexander, effectively ending their time with the band. Later that year, Sesnick managed to secure a recording contract with Polydor Records in England, and Yule recorded Squeeze under the Velvet Underground name with Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice. Squeeze is a controversial item among Velvet fans, most of whom flatly decline to consider any post-Lou Reed material as worthwhile. Rarely heard before the advent of Internet audio file sharing, the album's perceived Middle of the road content is sometimes dismissed out of hand by Velvets fans. Although the album technically is a Velvet Underground release, it is properly Doug Yule's debut solo album and it might have fared far better if it had been labeled as such, given the actual quality of most of the tracks, some of which would not have been out of place on Loaded. (Interestingly, Yule was actually in the group longer than Cale.)
Post-VU developments (1973-1990)
Reed and Cale, in the meantime, developed solo careers. Sterling Morrison was a professor for some time, teaching Medieval Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, then became a tugboat captain for several years. Maureen Tucker raised a family before returning to small-scale gigging and recording in the 1980s; Morrison was in a number of touring bands, among others with Tucker's band. In 1988, erstwhile singer Nico died of a brain hemorrhage while bicycling on the island of Ibiza.
Reunions (1990 and 1992-1994)
In 1990, Reed and Cale released Songs for Drella, dedicated to the recently deceased Andy Warhol. ("Drella" was a nickname Warhol had adopted, a combination of "Dracula" and "Cinderella".) Though Morrison and Tucker had each worked with Reed and Cale since the V.U. broke up, Songs for Drella was the first time the mercurial pair had worked together in decades, and rumors of a reunion began to circulate, fueled by the one-off appearance by Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker to play "Heroin" as the encore to a brief Songs for Drella set in Jouy-en-Josas, France.
The same lineup briefly reunited from 1992–1994, resulting in a European tour — both headlining and opening a few concerts for U2 — and a live album, Live MCMXCIII. Cale sang most of the songs Nico had performed with the group.
Before the band could tour the U.S. or record — an MTV Unplugged album was proposed — Cale and Reed fell out again, breaking up the band once more. The definitive end to the band's checkered career came when Sterling Morrison died of cancer in 1995. Reed's death in 2013 put a permanent end to any hopes of further Velvet Underground reunions; tributes poured out from all corners of the internet upon the news.
In recent years, the band's first four albums have been reissued with expanded box sets featuring two to five discs' worth of bonus content. An archival series of live recordings has also been issued as The Complete Matrix Tapes, which has been praised both for its audio fidelity and for the quality of the performances (many of the recordings here were initially the source of the band's acclaimed 1969 Live album, but the sound quality has been further cleaned up).
Selected discography:
1967 - The Velvet Underground & Nico
1968 - White Light/White Heat
1969 - The Velvet Underground
1970 - Loaded
1972 - Live at Max's Kansas City
1973 - Squeeze
1974 - 1969: The Velvet Underground Live
1985 - VU (rarities compilation)
1986 - Another View (rarities compilation)
1993 - Live MCMXCIII
1995 - Peel Slowly and See (box set)
2001 - Final V.U. 1971-1973 (live)
2001 - The Quine Tapes (live)
2015 - The Complete Matrix Tapes (live)
Andy
The Velvet Underground Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
If I could be anything in the world that flew
I would be a bat and come swooping after you
And if the last time you were here, things were a bit askew
Well, you know what happens after dark
When rattlesnakes loose their skins and their hearts
And all the missionaries loose their bark
All the trees are calling after you
And all the venom snipers after you
Are all the mountains boulder after you
If I could be anything of the things in this world that bite
Instead of being a tethered ocelot on a leash
I'd rather be your kite
And be tied to the end of your string
And flying in the air, babe, at night
Because you know what they say about honey bears
When you shave off all their baby hair
You've got a hairy minded big bare bear
And all the bells are rolling out for you
And stones are all erupting out for you
And all the cheap bloodsuckers are flying after you
Yesterday, Daisy Mae and Biff were grooving down the street
And just like in a movie, her hands became her feet
Her belly button was her mouth
Which meant she tasted what she'd speak
But the funny thing is what happened to her nose
It grew until it reached all of her toes
Now, when people say her feet smell, they mean her nose
And curtains laced with diamonds, dear, for you
And kingdom's Christian sailors (soldiers), dear, for you
And melting ice cap mountains, dear, for you
And knights in flaming silver robes for you
And bats, that with a kiss turn prince for you
Swoop, swoop, oh, baby, rock, rock ...
I would be a bat and come swooping after you
And if the last time you were here, things were a bit askew
Well, you know what happens after dark
When rattlesnakes loose their skins and their hearts
And all the missionaries loose their bark
All the trees are calling after you
And all the venom snipers after you
If I could be anything of the things in this world that bite
Instead of being a tethered ocelot on a leash
I'd rather be your kite
And be tied to the end of your string
And flying in the air, babe, at night
Because you know what they say about honey bears
When you shave off all their baby hair
You've got a hairy minded big bare bear
And all the bells are rolling out for you
And stones are all erupting out for you
And all the cheap bloodsuckers are flying after you
Yesterday, Daisy Mae and Biff were grooving down the street
And just like in a movie, her hands became her feet
Her belly button was her mouth
Which meant she tasted what she'd speak
But the funny thing is what happened to her nose
It grew until it reached all of her toes
Now, when people say her feet smell, they mean her nose
And curtains laced with diamonds, dear, for you
And kingdom's Christian sailors (soldiers), dear, for you
And melting ice cap mountains, dear, for you
And knights in flaming silver robes for you
And bats, that with a kiss turn prince for you
Swoop, swoop, oh, baby, rock, rock ...
The Velvet Underground's "Andy" is a surreal and enigmatic song that can be interpreted in multiple ways. The lyrics depict a dream-like world where the singer transforms into things that could both fly and bite. The song starts with the singer wanting to be a bat that swoops after his beloved. The use of the bat as a metaphor could be for the singer's desire to be in control and possessive. The lyrics that follow paint a picture of a world that's turned upside down, where rattlesnakes loose their skins and hearts, and missionaries lose their bark. This world seems to be calling out to the singer's beloved, with venom snipers and mountains boulder chasing after her.
The second verse is just as surreal. The singer expresses the wish to be anything in the world that bites, including a hairy big bear or a kite tied to the end of his beloved's string. The use of these metaphors could indicate the singer's desire to be close to his beloved, to be loved and cherished by her. The verse ends with the singer saying that all the cheap bloodsuckers are flying after his beloved. This line could also be interpreted in multiple ways, including as a commentary on the people that surround the singer and his beloved.
Line by Line Meaning
If I could be anything in the world that flew
If there was something in the world that could fly, I would want to be that
I would be a bat and come swooping after you
I would want to be a bat so that I could swoop down and be near you
And if the last time you were here, things were a bit askew
If the last time you were here, things were not quite right
Well, you know what happens after dark
At nighttime strange things can happen
When rattlesnakes loose their skins and their hearts
When rattlesnakes shed their skin and seem to become different creatures
And all the missionaries loose their bark
When the people who try to convert others to their beliefs suddenly act differently
All the trees are calling after you
Everything seems to be reaching out to you
And all the venom snipers after you
Even dangerous creatures seem to be following you
Are all the mountains boulder after you
Even mountains and rocks are paying attention to you
If I could be anything of the things in this world that bite
If there was something in the world that could bite, I would want to be that
Instead of being a tethered ocelot on a leash
Instead of being a caged and restrained wild animal
I'd rather be your kite
I would rather be on a string and flying up high, controlled by you
And be tied to the end of your string
I want to be connected to you and under your control
And flying in the air, babe, at night
I want to be with you, flying through the night sky
Because you know what they say about honey bears
There is a saying about a certain type of bear
When you shave off all their baby hair
When you remove their fur
You've got a hairy minded big bare bear
You end up with a very strange and different type of animal
And all the bells are rolling out for you
Everything is coming together for you
And stones are all erupting out for you
Even the ground seems to be reacting to your presence
And all the cheap bloodsuckers are flying after you
Even the people who take advantage of others are drawn to you
Yesterday, Daisy Mae and Biff were grooving down the street
There were two people walking down the street
And just like in a movie, her hands became her feet
Something strange and unbelievable happened, like in a movie
Her belly button was her mouth
Her body seemed to be changing in strange ways
Which meant she tasted what she'd speak
Her words and actions were closely tied together
But the funny thing is what happened to her nose
There was another strange change to her body
It grew until it reached all of her toes
Her nose grew incredibly long
Now, when people say her feet smell, they mean her nose
There was a strange reversal of body parts and their functions
And curtains laced with diamonds, dear, for you
There are beautiful things waiting for you
And kingdom's Christian sailors (soldiers), dear, for you
Even powerful and important people are drawn to you
And melting ice cap mountains, dear, for you
Even the most remote and inaccessible places are affected by your presence
And knights in flaming silver robes for you
There are powerful and heroic figures who would do anything for you
And bats, that with a kiss turn prince for you
Even the creatures that seem the weirdest or most unlikely can become something great for you
Swoop, swoop, oh, baby, rock, rock ...
Engaging in a playful and romantic activity together
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: LOU REED
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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Lyrics of all the songs of the album:
Sunday Morning
Sunday morning, brings the dawn in
It's just a restless feeling by my side
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It's just the wasted years so close behind
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Sunday morning and I'm falling
I've got a feeling I don't want to know
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It's all the streets you crossed, not so long ago
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Sunday morning
Sunday morning
Sunday morning
I'm Waiting For The Man
I'm waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I'm waiting for my man
Hey, white boy, what you doin' uptown?
Hey, white boy, you chasin' our women around?
Oh pardon me sir, it's the furthest from my mind
I'm just lookin' for a dear, dear friend of mine
I'm waiting for my man
Here he comes, he's all dressed in black
PR shoes and a big straw hat
He's never early, he's always late
First thing you learn is that you always gotta wait
I'm waiting for my man
Up to a Brownstone, up three flights of stairs
Everybody-body's pinned you, but nobody cares
He's got the works, gives you sweet taste
Aw then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I'm waiting for my man
Baby don't you holler, darlin' don't you bawl and shout
I'm feeling good, you know I'm gonna work it on out
I'm feeling good, I'm feeling so fine
Until tomorrow, but that's just some other time
I'm waiting for my man
(Walk me home)
Femme Fatale
Here she comes
You better watch your step
She's going to break your heart in two
It's true
It's not hard to realize
Just look into her false colored eyes
She builds you up to just put you down
What a clown
'Cause everybody knows (she's a femme fatale)
The thing she does to please (she's a femme fatale)
She's just a little tease (she's a femme fatale)
See the way she walks
Hear the way she talks
You're put down in her book
You're number 37, have a look
She's going to smile to make you frown
What a clown
Little boy, she's from the street
Before you start, you're already beat
She's gonna play you for a fool
Yes, it's true
'Cause everybody knows (she's a femme fatale)
The thing she does to please (she's a femme fatale)
She's just a little tease (she's a femme fatale)
See the way she walks
Hear the way she talks
'Cause everybody knows (she's a femme fatale)
The thing she does to please (she's a femme fatale)
She's just a little tease (she's a femme fatale)
Oh (she's a femme fatale)
Venus in Furs
Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girl child in the dark
Comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Downy sins of streetlight fancies
Chase the costumes she shall wear
Ermine furs adorn the imperious
Severin, Severin awaits you there
I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears
Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather
Shiny leather in the dark
Tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Severin, Severin, speak so slightly
Severin, down on your bended knee
Taste the whip, in love not given lightly
Taste the whip, now bleed for me
I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears
Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girl child in the dark
Severin, your servant comes in bells, please don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Run Run Run
Teenage Mary said to Uncle Dave
I sold my soul, must be saved
Gonna take a walk down to Union Square
You never know who you're gonna find there
You gotta run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
Marguerita Passion had to get her fix
She wasn't well, she was getting sick
Went to sell her soul, she wasn't high
Didn't know, thinks she could buy it
And she would run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
Seasick Sarah had a golden nose
Hobnail boots wrapped around her toes
When she turned blue, all the angels screamed
They didn't know, they couldn't make the scene
She had to run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
Beardless Harry, what a waste
Couldn't even get a small-town taste
Rode the trolleys down to forty-seven
Figured he was good to get himself to heaven
'Cause he had to run, run, run, run, run Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
All Tomorrow's Parties
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties?
A hand-me-down dress from who knows where
To all tomorrow's parties.
And where will she go and what shall she do
When midnight comes around?
She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door.
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties?
White silks and linens of yesterday's gowns
To all tomorrow's parties.
And what will she do with Thursday's rags
When Monday comes around?
She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door.
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties?
For Thursday's child is Sunday's clown
For whom none will go mourning.
A blackened shroud, a hand-me-down gown
Of rags and silks a costume
Fit for one who sits and cries
For all tomorrow's parties
Heroin
I don't know just where I'm going,
But I'm gonna try for the kingdom if I can,
'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man
When I put a spike into my vein,
And I'll tell 'ya, things aren't quite the same,
When I'm rushin' on my run,
And I feel just like Jesus' son,
And I guess that I just don't know,
And I guess that I just don't know.
I have made the big decision:
I'm gonna try to nullify my life.
'Cause when the blood begins to flow,
When it shoots up the dropper's neck,
When I'm closing in on death,
And you can't help me now, you guys,
And all you sweet girls with all your sweet talk,
You can all go take a walk.
And I guess that I just don't know,
And I guess that I just don't know.
I wish that I was born a thousand years ago
I wish that I'd sail the darkened seas,
On a great big clipper ship,
Going from this land here to that,
In a sailor's suit and cap,
Away from the big city
Where a man can not be free
Of all of the evils of this town,
And of himself, and those around.
Oh, and I guess that I just don't know.
Oh, and I guess that I just don't know.
Heroin, be the death of me.
Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life,
Because a mainer to my vein
Leads to a center in my head,
And then I'm better off than dead
Because when the smack begins to flow,
I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jim's in this town,
And all the politicians makin' busy sounds,
And everybody puttin' everybody else down,
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds,
'Cause when the smack begins to flow,
Then I really don't care anymore.
Ah, when the heroin is in my blood,
And that blood is in my head,
Then thank God that I'm as good as dead,
Then thank your God that I'm not aware,
And thank God that I just don't care,
And I guess I just don't know,
And I guess I just don't know.
There She Goes Again
There she goes again
She's out on the streets again
She's down on her knees, my friend
But you know she'll never ask you please again
Now take a look, there's no tears in her eyes
She won't take it from just any guy, what can you do
You see her walkin' on down the street
Look at all your friends she's gonna meet
You better hit her
There she goes again
She's knocked out on her feet again
She's down on her knees, my friend
But you know she'll never ask you please again
Now take a look, there's no tears in her eyes
Like a bird, you know she would fly, what can you do
You see her walkin' on down the street
Look at all your friends that she's gonna meet
You better hit her
Now take a look, there's no tears in her eyes
Like a bird, you know she will fly, fly, fly away
See her walking on down the street
Look at all your friends that she's gonna meet
She's gonna bawl and shout
She's gonna work it
She's gonna work it out, bye bye
Bye bye, bye bye bye b b b baby
All she's all right
I'll Be Your Mirror
I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are, in case you don't know
I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset
The light on your door to show that you're home
When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you
I find it hard to believe you don't know
The beauty you are
But if you don't let me be your eyes
A hand to your darkness, so you won't be afraid
When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you
I'll be your mirror
I'll be your mirror
I'll be your mirror
I'll be your mirror
I'll be your mirror
비정한세상
Lyrics of all the songs of the album:
Sunday Morning
Sunday morning, brings the dawn in
It's just a restless feeling by my side
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It's just the wasted years so close behind
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Sunday morning and I'm falling
I've got a feeling I don't want to know
Early dawning, Sunday morning
It's all the streets you crossed, not so long ago
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Sunday morning
Sunday morning
Sunday morning
I'm Waiting For The Man
I'm waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I'm waiting for my man
Hey, white boy, what you doin' uptown?
Hey, white boy, you chasin' our women around?
Oh pardon me sir, it's the furthest from my mind
I'm just lookin' for a dear, dear friend of mine
I'm waiting for my man
Here he comes, he's all dressed in black
PR shoes and a big straw hat
He's never early, he's always late
First thing you learn is that you always gotta wait
I'm waiting for my man
Up to a Brownstone, up three flights of stairs
Everybody-body's pinned you, but nobody cares
He's got the works, gives you sweet taste
Aw then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I'm waiting for my man
Baby don't you holler, darlin' don't you bawl and shout
I'm feeling good, you know I'm gonna work it on out
I'm feeling good, I'm feeling so fine
Until tomorrow, but that's just some other time
I'm waiting for my man
(Walk me home)
Femme Fatale
Here she comes
You better watch your step
She's going to break your heart in two
It's true
It's not hard to realize
Just look into her false colored eyes
She builds you up to just put you down
What a clown
'Cause everybody knows (she's a femme fatale)
The thing she does to please (she's a femme fatale)
She's just a little tease (she's a femme fatale)
See the way she walks
Hear the way she talks
You're put down in her book
You're number 37, have a look
She's going to smile to make you frown
What a clown
Little boy, she's from the street
Before you start, you're already beat
She's gonna play you for a fool
Yes, it's true
'Cause everybody knows (she's a femme fatale)
The thing she does to please (she's a femme fatale)
She's just a little tease (she's a femme fatale)
See the way she walks
Hear the way she talks
'Cause everybody knows (she's a femme fatale)
The thing she does to please (she's a femme fatale)
She's just a little tease (she's a femme fatale)
Oh (she's a femme fatale)
Venus in Furs
Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girl child in the dark
Comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Downy sins of streetlight fancies
Chase the costumes she shall wear
Ermine furs adorn the imperious
Severin, Severin awaits you there
I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears
Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather
Shiny leather in the dark
Tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Severin, Severin, speak so slightly
Severin, down on your bended knee
Taste the whip, in love not given lightly
Taste the whip, now bleed for me
I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears
Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girl child in the dark
Severin, your servant comes in bells, please don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Run Run Run
Teenage Mary said to Uncle Dave
I sold my soul, must be saved
Gonna take a walk down to Union Square
You never know who you're gonna find there
You gotta run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
Marguerita Passion had to get her fix
She wasn't well, she was getting sick
Went to sell her soul, she wasn't high
Didn't know, thinks she could buy it
And she would run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
Seasick Sarah had a golden nose
Hobnail boots wrapped around her toes
When she turned blue, all the angels screamed
They didn't know, they couldn't make the scene
She had to run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
Beardless Harry, what a waste
Couldn't even get a small-town taste
Rode the trolleys down to forty-seven
Figured he was good to get himself to heaven
'Cause he had to run, run, run, run, run Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
All Tomorrow's Parties
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties?
A hand-me-down dress from who knows where
To all tomorrow's parties.
And what shall she do and where will she go
When midnight comes around?
She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door.
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties?
White silks and linens of yesterday's gowns
To all tomorrow's parties.
And what will she do with Thursday's rags
When Monday comes around?
She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door.
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties?
For Thursday's child is Sunday's clown
For whom none will go mourning.
A blackened shroud, a hand-me-down gown
Of rags and silks a costume
Fit for one who sits and cries
For all tomorrow's parties
Heroin
I don't know just where I'm going,
But I'm gonna try for the kingdom if I can,
'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man
When I put a spike into my vein,
And I'll tell 'ya, things aren't quite the same,
When I'm rushin' on my run,
And I feel just like Jesus' son,
And I guess that I just don't know,
And I guess that I just don't know.
I have made the big decision:
I'm gonna try to nullify my life.
'Cause when the blood begins to flow,
When it shoots up the dropper's neck,
When I'm closing in on death,
And you can't help me now, you guys,
And all you sweet girls with all your sweet talk,
You can all go take a walk.
And I guess that I just don't know,
And I guess that I just don't know.
I wish that I was born a thousand years ago
I wish that I'd sail the darkened seas,
On a great big clipper ship,
Going from this land here to that,
In a sailor's suit and cap,
Away from the big city
Where a man can not be free
Of all of the evils of this town,
And of himself, and those around.
Oh, and I guess that I just don't know.
Oh, and I guess that I just don't know.
Heroin, be the death of me.
Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life,
Because a mainer to my vein
Leads to a center in my head,
And then I'm better off than dead
Because when the smack begins to flow,
I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jim's in this town,
And all the politicians makin' busy sounds,
And everybody puttin' everybody else down,
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds,
'Cause when the smack begins to flow,
Then I really don't care anymore.
Ah, when the heroin is in my blood,
And that blood is in my head,
Then thank God that I'm as good as dead,
Then thank your God that I'm not aware,
And thank God that I just don't care,
And I guess I just don't know,
And I guess I just don't know.
There She Goes Again
There she goes again
She's out on the streets again
She's down on her knees, my friend
But you know she'll never ask you please again
Now take a look, there's no tears in her eyes
She won't take it from just any guy, what can you do
You see her walkin' on down the street
Look at all your friends she's gonna meet
You better hit her
There she goes again
She's knocked out on her feet again
She's down on her knees, my friend
But you know she'll never ask you please again
Now take a look, there's no tears in her eyes
Like a bird, you know she would fly, what can you do
You see her walkin' on down the street
Look at all your friends that she's gonna meet
You better hit her
Now take a look, there's no tears in her eyes
Like a bird, you know she will fly, fly, fly away
See her walking on down the street
Look at all your friends that she's gonna meet
She's gonna bawl and shout
She's gonna work it
She's gonna work it out, bye bye
Bye bye, bye bye bye b b b baby
All she's all right
I'll Be Your Mirror
I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are, in case you don't know
I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset
The light on your door to show that you're home
When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you
I find it hard to believe you don't know
The beauty you are
But if you don't let me be your eyes
A hand to your darkness, so you won't be afraid
When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you
I'll be your mirror
비정한세상
The Black Angel's Death Song
Myriad had choice of his fate
Set themselves out upon a plate for him to choose
What had he to lose?
Not a ghost bloodied country all covered with sleep
Where the Black Angel did weep, not an old city street in the east
Gone to choose
And wandering's brother walked on through the night
With his hair in his face on a long splintered cut from the knife
Of GT
The rally man's patter ran on through the dawn
Until we said, "So long" to his skull
Shrill yell
Shining brightly red-rimmed and red-lined with the time
Infused with the choice of the mind on ice skates scraping chunks
From the bells
Cut mouth bleeding razors, forgetting the pain
Antiseptic remains cool, good buy
So you fly to the cozy brown snow of the east
Gonna choose, choose again
Sacrificials remain make it hard to forget
Where you come from, the stools of your eyes serve to realize fame
Choose again
And Rovermans' refrain of the sacrilege recluse
For the loss of a horse
With the bowels and a tail of a rat
Come again, choose to go
And if Epiphany's terror reduced you to shame
Have your head bobbed and weaved
Choose a side to be on
And if the stone glances off, split didactics in two
Leave the color of the mouse trails, don't scream, try between
If you choose
If you choose, try to lose
For the loss of remain come and start
Start the game
I-che-che
Che-che-I
Che-che-che
Ka-tah-ko
Choose to choose
Choose to choose
Choose to go
European Son
You killed your European son
You spit on those under twenty-one
But now your blue car's gone
You better say so long
Hey hey, bye bye bye
You made your wallpapers green
You want to make love to the scene
Your European son is gone
You'd better say so long
Your clown's bid you goodbye
Valley of (K.)(Y?)U. S.S.:in my head
👋👍👏 Almost the same!
We formed a group. It was truly improvisation and experimental trio.
And my friend had (after we moved) 2 "album of the year" here... 2nd was "best alternative" solo :)
Write there: "Jukka Nousiainen: Manuaalit Hukassa... or... his "Aurinko paistaa romukasaan".
He's a great man. Talented and truly friend(-ly). We made our trio and duo records about 7,5 years btw. Then we moved away. Separation roads.
So THAT verse is true :)
Classic Rock
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Klaus Ochs
@paula B Boavista 👍
Klaus Ochs
Thx a Lot !!
😎🎸
Klaus Ochs
Thx a Lot !!
😎🎸
Zack Zallie
You can hear every music style this album had influenced:
1. Sunday Morning - dream pop
2. I'm Waiting for the Man - punk rock
3. Venus in Furs - drone rock
4. All Tomorrow's Parties - gothic rock
5. Heroin - post-rock
6. There She Goes Again - jangle pop
7. The Black Angel Death's Song - avant folk
Bart from Belgium
8. Stredembledefle rock
daz it mane
Correct me if I’m wrong but weren’t the Beatles doing drone rock before this album ?
Glen Garcia
Don't forget Nico's sultry tones on "Feme Fatale."
James Stoltzfus
You win the Nobel Prize in Cool
Tommaso Savoia
A lot of music styles, but our lives overall