5. The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico
1960s New York seemed a very odd place to live. Having the greys of life coloured in by Andy Warhol and his kaleidoscopic entourage must have been exhilarating. Yet, for all of the talk about peace and free love for all, a darker side lingered throughout. That dark side was never so well embraced or expressed than by Lou Reed, John Cale, the amply-breasted German goddess Nico and the rest of the Velvets. The Velvet Underground & Nico appears to have been contextualised as a day in the life of a moribund drug addict, desperately seeking assurance regarding his own existence. The sickly-sweet, ethereal opener Sunday Morning gives way to the heady bash of Im Waiting For The Man, with Lou Reed intoning about the boredom and desperation of waiting for his drug connection to arrive. Nico, the Amazonian enigma foisted on the group by Warhol himself, earns her keep by contributing other-worldly vocals to the tracks All Tomorrows Parties and Femme Fatale. Heroin acts as the albums linchpin; the songs precise pacing following the literal highs and lows of a junkie ingesting his latest hit. The Rolling Stones Altamont disaster may have been the final nail for the swinging sixties, but it was the Velvet Undergound that supplied the coffin. http://youtu.be/MOmZimH00oo
Joseph Viney
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Currently undertaking NCTJ (journalism qualification), do a lot of music writing and very interested in literature, film, current affairs and anything else in between. Find me on Twitter - @jjviney
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