Velvet Underground & Nico ----- All Tomorrow's Parties
ON THIS DATE (54 YEARS AGO)
March 12, 1967 – The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 5/5
# Allmusic 5/5
The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album by The Velvet Underground and vocal collaborator Nico, released on March 12, 1967. It reached #171 at the time of release. It has been added to the 2006 National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.
The critical world also took little notice of the album. One of the few print reviews of the album in 1967 was a mostly positive review in the second issue of Vibrations, a small rock music magazine. The review described the music as "a full-fledged attack on the ears and on the brain" and took note of the dark subject matter to be found in the majority of the song's lyrics. It was not until decades later that the album received almost unanimous praise by numerous rock critics, many of whom made particular note of its influence in modern rock music.
The Velvet Underground & Nico was recorded with the first professional line-up of The Velvet Underground, including Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker. For this record Nico was included, who would occasionally sing lead with the band at the instigation of their mentor and manager, Andy Warhol. Nico sang lead on three of the album's tracks—"Femme Fatale", "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'll Be Your Mirror"—and back-up on "Sunday Morning". In 1966, as the album was being recorded, this was also the line-up for their live performances as a part of Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable.
Brian Eno once said that only a hundred people bought Velvet Underground records when they first came out, but those hundred people all went out and formed their own bands. The rest, of course, is history; the Velvet Underground was the catalyst that helped spark punk rock, and began the growth of an alternative branch within rock and roll's grand family tree. VU's was an unparalleled glimpse into the Summer Of Love's alter ego, complete with graphic, unapologetic descriptions of intravenous drug-use and risque sexual situations. Their 1967 debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, was a tour de force that may never be equaled for its sheer radicalism in the face of rock convention. The Velvet Underground also mapped out unconquered sonic territories. Bassist John Cale was weaned on deconstructing classical theory--the perfect avant-garde foil to help bring Reed's terse songs to life. Even more noticeable when he would switch to electric viola, Cale's sound evoked the terror of Reed's compositions, with the bowed strings screeching like a runaway subway car. Drummer Maureen Tucker played like no one before her. Her frantic swipes could mimic a galloping rush in "Heroin," or work with the delicate, hesitant charm of "All Tomorrow's Parties." Guitarist Sterling Morrison was a master of his craft, ably switching from oddly Middle-Eastern plucking (the eerie "All Tomorrow's Parties") to head-on rock (the ultra-edgy "Waiting For The Man"), always adding just the right element to fatten the cacophony. The Velvet Underground & Nico is one of rock's most significant debuts.
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COVER
The original album cover allowed fans to peel back the banana skin as a sticker, revealing the fruit of a nude-colored banana underneath. The sexually-charged effect was difficult for manufacturers to pull off (the time it took to perfect the peel was part of the reason behind the album's delayed release), but MGM deemed it warranted, since Warhol's stamp of approval was bound to go far in the 1960s.
"He just made it possible for us to be ourselves and go right ahead with it because he was Andy Warhol," Reed once said. "In a sense he really did produce [the album] because he was this umbrella that absorbed all the attacks when we weren't large enough to be attacked."
Alas, the record was hardly a commercial success. It was only in the decades after VU's breakup that the band became a cult favorite, transforming their vintage peel-off sticker album into a rare collector's item and a symbol for the protopunk genre. In fact, nearly 50 years after the release, the band and the Andy Warhol foundation would battle over who reserved the right to market the now-coveted banana as their own.
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REVIEW
Mark Deming, allmusic
One would be hard-pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as The Velvet Underground & Nico. While it reportedly took over a decade for the album's sales to crack six figures, glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set. While The Velvet Underground had as distinctive a sound as any band, what's most surprising about this album is its diversity. Here, the Velvets dipped their toes into dreamy pop ("Sunday Morning"), tough garage rock ("Waiting for the Man"), stripped-down R&B ("There She Goes Again"), and understated love songs ("I'll Be Your Mirror") when they weren't busy creating sounds without pop precedent. Lou Reed's lyrical exploration of drugs and kinky sex (then risky stuff in film and literature, let alone "teen music") always received the most press attention, but the music Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker played was as radical as the words they accompanied. The bracing discord of "European Son," the troubling beauty of "All Tomorrow's Parties," and the expressive dynamics of "Heroin" all remain as compelling as the day they were recorded. While the significance of Nico's contributions have been debated over the years, she meshes with the band's outlook in that she hardly sounds like a typical rock vocalist, and if Andy Warhol's presence as producer was primarily a matter of signing the checks, his notoriety allowed The Velvet Underground to record their material without compromise, which would have been impossible under most other circumstances. Few rock albums are as important as The Velvet Underground & Nico, and fewer still have lost so little of their power to surprise and intrigue more than 40 years after first hitting the racks.
TRACKS:
All songs written by Lou Reed unless otherwise noted.
Side one
"Sunday Morning" (Reed, Cale) – 2:54
"I'm Waiting for the Man" – 4:39
"Femme Fatale" – 2:38
"Venus in Furs" – 5:12
"Run Run Run" – 4:22
"All Tomorrow's Parties" – 6:00
Side two
"Heroin" – 7:12
"There She Goes Again" – 2:41
"I'll Be Your Mirror" – 2:14
"The Black Angel's Death Song" (Reed, Cale) – 3:11
"European Son" (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker) – 7:46
[Verse 1]
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
Where will she go, what shall she do
When midnight comes around?
She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door
[Verse 2]
And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties?
Why silken trimmings of yesterday's gown
To all tomorrow's parties?
What shall she do with Thursday's rags
When Monday comes around?
She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door
[Verse 3]
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
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