tracks on LP: Sunday Morning | I’m Waiting For The Man | Femme Fatale | Venus In Furs | Run, Run, Run | All Tomorrow’s Parties | Heroin | There She Goes Again | I’ll Be Your Mirror | Black Angel’s Death Song | European Son To Delmore Schwartz
Record label: Verve V6/5008
Released: March 1967
Borrowed: 1984 (Bob Turner)
The Velvet Underground | The Velvet Underground & Nico | (Verve) 1967 | At Warhol‘s insistence, Nico sang with the band on three songs of their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. The album was recorded primarily in Scepter Studios in New York City during April 1966, but for reasons unclear, some songs were rerecorded at TTG Studios in Los Angeles, along with the new song “Sunday Morning”, later in the year with Tom Wilson producing. The album was released by Verve Records the following year in March 1967.
The album cover is famous for its Warhol design: a yellow banana sticker with “Peel slowly and see” printed near the tip. Those who did remove the banana skin found a pink, peeled banana beneath.
Eleven songs showcased the Velvets’ dynamic range, veering from the pounding attacks of “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Run Run Run”, the droning “Venus in Furs” and “Heroin”, the chiming and celestial “Sunday Morning”, to the quiet “Femme Fatale” and the tender “I’ll Be Your Mirror”, as well as Warhol’s own favorite song of the group, “All Tomorrow’s Parties”.
Kurt Loder would later describe “All Tomorrow’s Parties” as a “mesmerizing gothic-rock masterpiece”. Closing out the album was the avant-garde “The Black Angel’s Death Song”, followed by the lengthy, feedback-laden “European Son”, which Reed dedicated to his Syracuse professor Delmore Schwartz.
The overall sound was propelled by Reed and Nico’s deadpan vocals, Cale’s droning viola, bass and keyboards, Reed’s experimental avant-garde guitar, Morrison’s often R&B or country-influenced guitar, and Tucker’s simple but steady and tribal-sounding beat with sparse use of cymbals.
A technique used on many songs was the “drone strum”, an eighth-note rhythm guitar style used by Reed. Although Cale was the band’s usual bassist, if he switched to viola or keyboards, Morrison would normally play bass. Despite his proficiency on the instrument, Morrison hated playing bass. Conversely, some songs had Reed and Morrison playing their usual guitars with Cale on viola or keyboards, but with nobody playing bass.
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