The End...Nico
Island ILPS 9311
1974
In a previous post I mentioned my fondness for Nico's 1967 solo debut "Chelsea Girl" even though it is not representative of her personal style. I would say that "Chelsea Girl" is my favorite Nico album, but if I had to select the one that best represents her career, I would choose "The End..." which was her fourth studio album. It is gloomy, enigmatic and bleak with minimalist accompaniment provided by Nico on harmonium and a bunch of instruments played by album producer John Cale with some assistance from Phil Manzanera on guitar and Brian Eno on synthesizer. The album opens with "It Has Not Taken Long" which uses the imagery of a hunt to portray persecution and abuse I believe. Nico solemnly intones the lyrics over a swirling harmonium drone bolstered by chimes and incongruously sweet background vocals by Vicki and Annagh Wood. There is also a percussive heart beat sound that adds to the song's ominous tone. "Secret Side" evokes rape and pillage with its tied up virgins and invading ships but I have no idea what she's trying to say besides conveying menace. Nico's enthusiastic vocal sounds sinister, almost sadistic. "You Forget to Answer" is reportedly about her ex-lover Jim Morrison although the lyrics just vaguely describe a communication failure. The song has a richer musical accompaniment than most of the songs on the album with Manzanera's guitar flourishes and Cale's pounding piano runs very prominent. Nico's vocal has more emotion than it normally does and I have to admit the song gives me chills. I consider it one of her most powerful songs ever. It leads into a cathartic blast of noise like a scream that links it to the drone that drives "Innocent and Vain." The song has some violent imagery but I'm baffled by it. Nico's mournful vocal sounds like it is being delivered at a funeral. The song ends as it begins with blasts of noise that I presume are Eno's work. The first side concludes with "Valley of the Kings" which has more violence depicting a vengeful warrior expecting death which I interpret as a metaphor for emotional conflict in a relationship. The song continues the dolorous tone of the previous song as Nico croons like she is riding a boat into Valhalla. Side two opens with some dissonant chords and then the drone of the harmonium kicks in on "We've Got the Gold" which is another song that puzzles me. I'm sure the discussion of wealth and poverty has some poetic intent that is eluding me. Nico delivers it coldly and the random clanks and twangs of the music gives it a mechanical, almost robotic sound. It is followed by the least subtle song on the album, Nico's cover of the Doors' "The End." It was the darkest moment on the Doors' debut album, but here it sounds almost comical next to Nico's doleful poetic dirges. The Doors' version benefited from its hypnotic raga-rock soundtrack as well as Jim Morrison's charisma and over the top melodramatic delivery. Nico naturally strips all that away. The music is fragmented and dissonant. Nico sings slowly and icily. I assume she intended the song as some sort of tribute, but stripping the song of its theatrical allure just makes it sound silly. It can't sustain the heaviness she brings to it. Despite all that I find it fascinating and even fun in places, which is not an adjective one typically associates with Nico. There is even a sort of Manzanera driven rave-up near the song's conclusion. It is followed by "Das Lied der Deutschen," the German national anthem. The song is introduced with funereal organ music and then Nico grimly sings the German lyrics. Nico includes the verses that were associated with the Nazis' use of the song (the "Deutschland über alles" part) but that are omitted by modern performances. I'm guessing this is more for shock value and nihilism than any fascist ideology on Nico's part although some of her associates have claimed she had Nazi sympathies. It gives a suitably dark finish for an anguished album. I didn't hear this album until many years after its release when dark punk and goth music were common place, but even then this album shocked me a little. When I think back to the music of 1974 which I still unfortunately remember pretty well, this sounds like it came from another planet. I can't think of another pop record from that era (assuming you accept that this is a pop record) that comes close to being so bleak and miserable. I don't say that as a criticism, I do respect her commitment to her vision and I consider her to be a true artist even if I don't identify with her artistic sensibility at all. Normally I would be dismayed that the lyrics are so abstruse, but Nico's art is so negative that in this case I'm grateful that she doesn't explicitly vent her spleen. Her vagueness and poetic obscurity is part of her charm for me. Her music is generally reserved and cold, but there is no escaping where her head is at. She doesn't have to spell it out, its dismal presence is overwhelming on this album. She was arguably the mother of gothic rock, although frankly most goths sound like sunshine pop compared to her. I think this black hole of a record is a kind of masterpiece and that she created an album that approaches high art while still retaining a modicum of pop sensibility. Recommended to depressed poets, it won't cheer you up but it might inspire you to vent your own spleen.
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground & Nico
Verve V6-5008
1967
I started listening to this album again for my post on the VU's "Scepter Studio Sessions" record last year. It is not like I had completely stopped listening to it, it is one of the ten most important records in my life. However after over 30 years of playing it, I wasn't really hearing it anymore, I knew it too well. Hearing the acetate version opened up the record for me again. My copy is not an original pressing. It dates from the late 1970s when it was reissued by Polydor on the Verve label. It looks nice and sounds fine so I've never felt compelled to replace it with an original or any of the modern reissues. Originals were not hard to find in Berkeley back when I was there, but they were pricey and most of them had the banana skin sticker peeled off the cover revealing the pink banana underneath. This is such a rich album that it has been able to appeal to me in different ways as I have grown and changed. When I first got it I was an immature and naive teenager from the suburbs. Back then I was drawn to the shock value of "Heroin," "Venus In Furs," "There She Goes Again," and "I'm Waiting for the Man" with their vivid depictions of drug abuse, perversion and sexual violence. Those songs were already more than 10 years old when I first heard them but they were still so much more daring and dark than the classic rock crap I was hearing on the radio. I was as straight as they come and I got a big charge out of hearing Lou Reed singing about putting a "spike" into his vein. As I got into my 20s and 30s it was the music itself that appealed to me the most. I loved the slow/fast dynamic of "Heroin," the incessant pounding rhythm of "Run Run Run" and "I'm Waiting For The Man," the dissonant noise of "The Black Angel's Death Song" with John Cale mercilessly tormenting his viola and above all the band's fantastic assault on the eardrums with their epic workout on "European Son." That song still sounds so modern and exciting to me, it remains one of my favorite VU songs. However now that I'm an old fogey I find myself drawn to "Sunday Morning" and the three songs Nico sings on the album, "Femme Fatale," "All Tomorrow's Parties," and especially "I'll Be Your Mirror." The mixture of angst, ennui and tenderness in those songs appeals strongly to me. I like Nico as an artist and a singer more now than I did when I was young and I value her contribution to this record more than I did back when I first heard it. Cale has always been intellectual and cold as an artist and Reed was a sarcastic smart ass with a rock and roll heart. Neither conveyed as much feeling as Nico did as a vocalist. Nico made the group sexy and her sincerity and worldly persona gave them depth. The Velvets made great music without her, but I like them best when Nico was with them. This album is 47 years old but it still sounds fresh and invigorating, unlike a lot of the hippie music from that era. It captured the world that produced it as well as any record ever has. Lou Reed had a fantastic gift for observation worthy of a journalist and thrust into the frenzied environment of lunacy, perversion and creativity that surrounded Andy Warhol and the New York experimental art world, he responded with a record that is both a documentary portrait and an artistic analysis. It is not only a depiction of the energy and insanity of the 1960s but it also foreshadows the nihilism and narcissism of the 1970s. To borrow an expression from Jean-Luc Godard, this record is the truth at 33 and 1/3 revolutions per minute and it is delivered with music that is brimming with vitality and adventurousness. Cale, Reed and Nico went on to make a lot of great music after this album, but I don't think the music on this album has ever been surpassed, by them or any other rock artist. Recommended to people who think Andy Warhol's films are better than his paintings.
Chelsea Girl
Nico
Verve V-5032
1967
A mono pressing of Nico's debut album. I was watching a dvd of a Nico concert from much later in her career and after the show some college kid interviewed a bored Nico in her dressing room. He asked her why there were no songs from this album in her repertoire. Her response was something like they weren't her songs, although that did not stop her from performing in her concert all of the Velvet Underground songs she sang on their debut album. I know what she meant though, this record is completely unlike all her other records, it attempts to mold her into a pop chanteuse with commercial appeal. Good luck with that. The liner notes compare her to Mary Travers (which is ludicrous) but I think the real role model here for producer Tom Wilson and arranger Larry Fallon was Judy Collins. This record sounds a lot like the chamber pop and genteel folk rock albums Collins cut with Joshua Rifkin in the mid-1960s. That is practically the opposite of Nico's personal style which emphasizes minimalist rock and roll and moody drones. Despite Fallon and Wilson's meddling, the presence of Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison and John Cale both as musicians and as songwriters throughout the record still gives it the feel of an extension of "The Velvet Underground & Nico" although much less charged. The album begins however with the first of three songs written by Jackson Browne who had a romantic relationship with Nico for awhile. "The Fairest of the Seasons" was co-written with Gregory Copeland and features a delicate guitar accompaniment from Browne bolstered by strings. The song is typical of Browne as he verbosely considers commitment issues. If he were singing it I'd be bored, but the inherent drama in Nico's deep voice makes the song seem profound, even moving. The string arrangement is heavy-handed, but I think the instrumental color it provides greatly enhances the feeble tune. Browne also wrote "These Days" which has identical accompaniment. I'm no fan of Browne's own version of this song, it sounds phony to me, but Nico's worldly persona and the heavy grain of her vocal give the song the gravity and feeling it needs to overcome Browne's glib cleverness. It is one of my favorite songs on the album. "Little Sister" was written by John Cale and Lou Reed and its dark, romantic lyrics are more consistent with Nico's gothic persona. Cale's droning organ is also more in keeping with Nico's personal style although the song also features strings and a flute that apparently Nico found very upsetting. Admittedly the cheery chamber pop that results works against the dark tone of the song, but it does not bother me too much. This is more of a problem with John Cale's bleak "Winter Song" where the flute and strings are truly obtrusive and completely undermine the feeling of the rest of the song. This is unfortunate because the song is otherwise perfect for Nico. Side one ends with "It Was a Pleasure Then" by Cale, Reed and Nico. This is the song on the album that is truest to Nico's style. It is a minimalist tune featuring Nico solemnly intoning the gloomy lyrics with Reed noodling around on guitar emitting occasional shrieks of feedback and Cale brutally sawing away on his viola. No chamber pop on this one, it reflects both Nico's past with the experimentally minded Velvet Underground and the uncompromising and personal music she would make in the future. A great song. Side two opens with Reed and Sterling Morrison's "Chelsea Girls" which is based on the Andy Warhol film of the same name that Nico appeared in. It is the song that sounds most like Nico's work on "The Velvet Underground & Nico" aside from the string arrangement and flute which once again undermine the dark lyrics of the song. The song sticks pretty close to the film, but you don't need to have seen the film to understand the lyrics which are typical of the detached descriptions of decadence favored by Reed in songs like "Venus in Furs" and "Femme Fatale" and it ranks with Reed's best work from that period. Nico's vocal is mesmerizing, I wish I could erase the strings and flute from it, it would be a masterpiece. "I'll Keep It With Mine" was written by Bob Dylan another paramour of Nico's. According to her, he wrote the song about her and her baby and gave her an acetate of it to record. She waited too long though and Judy Collins beat her to it. It was also sung by Sandy Denny with Fairport Convention on their second album, "Fairport Convention." Nico's performance is surprisingly energetic, she sounds very inspired. Nico is a far more limited singer than Denny or Collins but I think this is the definitive version of the song. "Somewhere There's A Feather" is another Jackson Browne song which Nico sings with engaging enthusiasm. The optimism expressed by the lyrics couldn't be further from Nico's oeuvre, but she sounds very convincing crooning it and to his credit Browne manages to restrain his usual long-winded approach to write a direct and lovely song. "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" was written by Lou Reed for the Velvet Underground. If you think Nico is a bad singer you should check out the Velvets' demo on the box set, "Peel Slowly and See" featuring John Cale on lead vocal. The song sounds dreary and lifeless in the Velvets' version, Nico's version is so much more vibrant and appealing. On this tune the string arrangement makes the song stronger. The album concludes with Tim Hardin's "Eulogy to Lenny Bruce." This song has a very minimal arrangement relying on the intimacy of Nico's vocal to carry the song much like most of her later solo work. The song is about Lenny Bruce who had recently died and the song decries his drug use which seems pretty ironic coming from Hardin, a longtime junkie who would also die from a drug overdose (and of course Nico herself was no stranger to drug addiction either.) I think this album is largely a
betrayal of Nico as an artist, but I still like it. Yes
it is over-produced, but the songs are terrific and suit her voice and
persona extremely well. In contrast to the gloom and doom she projected on her later records, on this album Nico sounds lively, even charming at times. As a big chamber pop fan, I often like the sound of the record even when it works against Nico's vision. Besides the compelling quality in Nico's deep dramatic voice ultimately transcends Wilson's attempt to smother her with pretty music, her inner darkness can't be suppressed. Unlike her later records where the unrelenting gloom of the music can be wearying (to me at least), this album, with its dynamic tension between the singer and the music, is consistently interesting and stimulating. Recommended to people who prefer "Femme Fatale" over "Heroin."
Scepter Studios Sessions
The Velvet Underground
Polydor B0017649-01
2012
By an eerie coincidence I was listening to this album this morning when I started my laptop and opened the Yahoo homepage and saw a picture of Lou Reed. A chill ran through me even before I read the text, I knew that he must be dead. There he was singing on my turntable as I read about his death. Ironically the first time I ever heard of Lou Reed was when I was a freshman in high school sitting in Electronics class and a couple of stoner girls asked our hip teacher, Mr. Farrow, if he had heard that Lou Reed was dead. He was of course very much alive back then. The girls spoke of Reed as if he were some rebel junkie, which I guess was not too far from the persona he had cultivated. I was just becoming aware of underground culture and was intrigued by their conversation. Soon I had some rock reference books and learned about Reed and the Velvet Underground. I bought "Transformer" but was kind of lukewarm in my reaction to it. But then I picked up "The Velvet Underground & Nico" and it blew me away. I loved the Velvets from that moment and I managed to track down all of their records and listened to them all the time. I was far
more interested in the Velvets than Reed's solo career but as I got
older I came to admire his solo albums and acquired most of them. It is a very impressive body of work, consistently interesting and adventurous. The Velvets are still one of my favorite groups and I dutifully collect their archival recordings of which there are now quite a few. This one comprises the acetate they cut at Scepter Records Studio in New York, financed and "supervised" by Andy Warhol and Norman Dolph, a former record company executive. It was discovered by a record buff at a New York City flea market where he bought it for 75 cents, perhaps the greatest used record score of all time. Six of the nine tracks on here were re-mixed and used by Verve for the Velvet's debut album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico." The other three tracks, "Heroin," "Venus In Furs" and "I'm Waiting for the Man" were re-recorded for that album. The acetate version of "Heroin" is nearly a minute shorter than the Verve version and is less noisy although otherwise the arrangements are similar. I think the re-recorded vocal is more expressive than the acetate one. The acetate version of "Venus in Furs" is also shorter than the release version but otherwise they are similar and I don't see that the Verve version is any big improvement over the acetate track. The acetate "I'm Waiting for the Man" however pales in comparison to the supercharged release version. Not only is the Verve re-recording a lot punchier but it boasts a superior, more effusive vocal from Reed. The version of "European Son" on the acetate goes on for more than a minute longer than the official release version. The acetate version of "All Tomorrow's Parties" features Nico's vocal on just a single track as opposed to the double-tracked lead vocal on the Verve release. The double tracked vocal is certainly stonger and heavier, but I like the more plaintive quality of the acetate recording. The acetate's version of "I'll Be Your Mirror" is missing the backing vocal of "reflect what you are" at the conclusion of the song. The backing vocals in "Femme Fatale" are different too. On the acetate you hear more voices, on the Verve version Lou Reed's backing vocal is higher in the mix and the recording has more reverb. The acetate "The Black Angel's Death Song" and "Run Run Run" sound practically identical to the release versions to me aside from very slight variances in the mixing, most notably because the acetate is a mono mix. "The Velvet Underground & Nico" is definitely a more professional sounding record, it jumps out of the speakers more forcefully than the acetate recording does, but as someone who has heard the Verve record countless times, the unpolished mixes on the acetate offer a chance to hear these classic songs from a fresh perspective. I should note however that on the quieter recordings like "I'll Be Your Mirror" or "Femme Fatale" you can hear noticeable surface noise since the album is recorded from the acetate record which apparently has some wear. Unless you are a big fan you probably don't need the acetate recordings, just stick with "The Velvet Underground & Nico." Recommended to people who believe that rock and roll lost one of its greatest masters today, a man who was a true original and a genuine artist who profoundly elevated the genre.
