Commercially, at the time, it never recovered. 171 on Billboard’s album chart, but legal issues over the back cover meant it had to be withdrawn from sale while the artwork was changed. Upon its release in March 1967, The Velvet Underground And Nico made No. His insistence that German-born Nico sings three songs on The Velvet Underground And Nico, as well as his genius, all helped to create the art-meets-music template from which later punk would in part be fashioned. In early 1966 Maureen ‘Mo’ Tucker took over the drumming duties and her unique approach certainly added to their sound.Īndy Warhol became the band’s manager in 1965 and his reputation helped their profile and got them a recording contract with Verve Records. They recorded a multi-track demo but nothing came of it, despite John Cale giving it to Marianne Faithful in the hope she may give it to Mick Jagger. R (language, sexual content, nudity, some drug material).The Velvet Underground trace their origins to a 1965 assemblage of Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison, who called themselves The Primitives, although by the end of the year they had adopted Velvet Underground, the name of a paperback by Michael Leigh about a clandestine subculture of sex that perfectly fitted the band, as Lou Reed had already written Venus in Furs.
At Kendall Square, West Newton, and streaming on Apple TV+. Without the snarl, the songs wouldn’t be a pleasure to listen to - even if pleasure isn’t necessarily quite the right word.ĭirected by Todd Haynes. His voice is as distinctive as Cale’s, though with a snarliness that isn’t a comparable pleasure to listen to. Almost 35 years after his death, what doesn’t he haunt in this culture? More directly, so does Reed, who’s often heard in archival audio interviews. It wasn’t just in songs like “Heroin” or “White Light/White Heat.” No wonder that Cher - yes, that Cher - said of the band at its height, “It will replace nothing except suicide.” Get real.” There you have, still, the sense of menace in the band’s attitude. “This love, peace crap,” she says, “we hated that. The most important interviewees are the two surviving original band members: Cale, whose Welsh intonations are a pleasure to listen to, and Tucker, whose granny fierceness in front of the camera now is a match for her gamine fierceness behind a drum kit then.
Still in his teens, he opened for them once and claims to have heard them in concert “60-70 times,” often at the Boston Tea Party.įrom left: John Cale, Spencer Morrison, Lou Reed.
The singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman, of Modern Lovers fame, speaks fervently of the band. There’s a comparable high-octane quality to the documentary.Īlong with the archival footage, there are talking-head interviews with the likes of Warhol “superstar” Mary Woronov Reed’s sister (who does a nifty version of The Ostrich, a dance inspired by a small hit from the Primitives, a Velvets’ forerunner) and the classical composer La Monte Young. The Factory was amphetamine central, and Reed’s heavy indulgence would help break up the band. It allows Haynes to cram in that much more information into each shot and the image onrush that results makes for a very energetic film. It also means that seeing the documentary in a theater would make the viewing experience even more preferable to streaming than usual. Much of the film is presented in split screen, which means multiple images are presented simultaneously. Split screen images from "The Velvet Underground." Apple TV+