Velvet Underground & Nico Entry

The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album of the New York 60’s rock band, The Velvet Underground and has become one of the most influential rock albums in history. This album features a collaboration with the German singer/actress, Nico, singing vocals for four of the songs in the album. The music the band produced for this album was known for the explicit descriptions of topics including drug abuse, prostitution, hostility and sexual deviancy.

Lewis Allan “Lou” Reed was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 2, 1942. He learned how to play the guitar through listening to the radio and became interested in rock and roll and R&B music. His first recording was as a member of a doo-wop style group called The Jades. He later graduated from Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences with a Bachelor’s Degree in June 1964. Reed was the main songwriter for The Velvet Underground, where he wrote about subjects of personal experience including sexuality and drug culture. He was the vocals and guitarist for the band between 1965-1970. John Davies Cale was born in Garnant, Carmarthenshire, Wales on March 9, 1942. He showed an interest in the viola and studied music at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He was the conductor of the first performance in the UK of Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra. He then travelled to the United States to continue his music training, where he then co-founded The Velvet Underground with Reed in 1965 and in the band, played multiple instruments and was also the vocals.

Artist, Andy Warhol, was the only formally credited producer of the album but he had very little direct influence or authority over the album other than paying for the recording sessions. Norman Dolph and John Licata are sometimes credited to producing the Scepter Studios sessions, considering they were responsible for recording and engineering the band. Sterling Morrison described Warhol as the album's producer "in the sense of producing a film. We used some of his money and our money...Andy was the producer but we were the ‘executive producers’ too.” Cale then later recalled that it was Tom Wilson who actually produced nearly all the tracks. Upon the album’s original release, it was widely unsuccessful by popular music standards and was a financial failure. Its lack of success can also be accredited to Verve Records, who did not promote or distribute the album.

The lyrics in the songs set the album apart from the other mid-1960s recordings. Also, the cover of the album, produced by Andy Warhol, is among the most iconic record covers in all of history. It is of a yellow banana that when you peel back the plastic yellow skin, it reveals a flesh-colored banana. It was meant for the listener to “peel slowly and see”.

Peer Comment


To Adam Ruiz:

You executed a reasonable summary on Marvin Gaye’s most notable album, What’s Going On. Great key factors used to describe his pain and glory through out the events that led to the release of the album. On the Velvet Underground and Nico Entry, as I read, I was able to create a mental picture of the events that revolved around this fascinating album. I agree that Andy Warhol played a small role on the album and in my opinion he should’ve been credited as an executive producer not as the producer. Overall both entries were a great interesting read and well out together.