20 Landmark Songs Of The 60s

5. The Velvet Underground - Venus In Furs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwzaifhSw2c Well we couldn't have an article about landmark songs from the 60's without including Andy Warhol's Velvets, a band who took one look at pop in the 60's and decided one thing, which was 'Here's how it's done'. To make their seduction of the listener they realised that they had to play the game to an extent, songs such as 'There she goes again' which were borne from Lou Reeds' previous day job as a songwriter for hire, but it was 'Venus in Furs' that really set them apart from the competition and would be an everlasting influence for the more outré guitar bands up to the current day. There are so many things to say about this song and the first thing is that is it incredibly vicious. As a paean to S&M it has no peers, John Cale's viola sounds like a whip to the back and the drone of the other instruments makes the experience sound arduous and unpleasant, whilst its compelling it's a story you want to hear about, not experience. What made this such a landmark was that it showed that the musicianship didn't need to be masterful, but have the requisite raw power to blow the listener away, Lou Reed's voice bears no comparison to Scott Walker on a technical level, but it doesn't need to. Without this song, most of the guitar bands that you love wouldn't exist.