History Music / VelvetUnderground

* SpellMyNameWithAThe: Officially they're "The Velvet Underground", but the definite article gets lost pretty often.

Groundbreaking independent rock band from TheSixties famous for their pioneering and influencing various subgenres such as NoiseRock, experimental rock, art rock, AlternativeRock (hell, they were pretty much ''the'' [[UrExample first alt-rock band]]) and PunkRock. Also famous for their loudness and the nihilism of their material.

The Velvets broke off the relationship with Warhol and Nico rather quickly. In this period their live shows started to contain more pronounced improvisation and harsh, loud material. Their second album ''White Light/White Heat'' continued in this direction, as evidenced by the title track and the 17-minute "Sister Ray". By this time, the bandmembers were tired of having no recognition, and tensions were growing between Reed's traditionalism and Cale's experimental, abrasive tendencies.

The Velvets were kicked off Verve in 1969 by a new president who wanted to purge controversial acts from the label (FrankZappa & the Mothers of Invention were another victim). They signed with Atlantic Records, who requested less controversial material and an album "loaded with hits". The result was ''Loaded'', their swan song. Despite strong material and, indeed, some hits, the band dissolved during production when Reed left the band in August 1970.

* [[DeepPurple Ian Paice]] - drums (on ''Squeeze'')

* CoolCar: "Ridin' in a Stutz Bearcat, Jim..."
* CoverVersion: None by themselves, but the Velvets have been frequently covered by AlternativeRock bands like JoyDivision, {{Nirvana}}, Galaxie 500, TheRunaways and others. DavidBowie also got in on the act by covering "White Light/White Heat". Earlier, TheYardbirds covered "I'm Waiting For The Man" in their live shows during the band's final months.

** Their first album? Yeah, covered entirely by Beck and a lot of musicians, who dedicated an entire day, and posted everything in Beck's website and Website/YouTube.
** "Waiting for the Man" is a concert favourite of DavidBowie, and frequently makes appearances in his shows. Interestingly, he first heard it when his manager brought back an early acetate copy of ''The Velvet Underground and Nico'' before it was released. So when a young Bowie started playing it live with his band, not only was he the first person to cover the Velvets, he was the first person to do it ''before the Velvets even got their record out''. There's got to be some kind of special achievement for that.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The villain here being their manager Steve Sesnick. Reed quit in 1970 mostly because he had it with Sesnick and the record company's attempts to control his songwriting. He sent every other Velvet home but Yule when it was time to record ''Squeeze'' in England. He asked Yule and a new line-up to tour England but bailed on them right before the start, leaving them to try and finish the tour on their own.

* NamesTheSame: The Warlocks, the band's original name, was also that of TheGratefulDead.
* NewSoundAlbum: And how! Between their four canonical albums, the Velvets changed musical styles just as fast as any of [[Music/FrankZappa the most]] [[KingCrimson well known]] [[DavidBowie musical chameleons]].

* ShoutOut: "Sister Ray" is named after [[TheKinks Ray Davies]].

-->'''[[WordOfGod Lou Reed]]''':'Sister Ray' was done as a joke—no, not as a joke—but it has eight characters in it and this guy gets killed and nobody does anything. It was built around this story that I wrote about this scene of total debauchery and decay. I like to think of ‘Sister Ray' as a transvestite smack dealer. The situation is a bunch of {{Drag Queen}}s taking some sailors home with them, shooting up on smack and having this orgy when the police appear.

* WordSaladLyrics. "The Murder Mystery" especially.

* NewSoundAlbum: And how! Between their four canonical albums, the Velvets changed musical styles just as fast as any of [[Music/TheBeatles the most]] [[KingCrimson well known]] [[DavidBowie musical chameleons]].

* EpicRiff: Most of their songs.

[[caption-width-right:350:The Velvet Underground. And Music/{{Nico}}. Oh, and their friend [[AndyWarhol Andy]].]]

AndyWarhol was hired as manager and producer; at his insistence German singer Christa "Music/{{Nico}}" Päffgen joined the band on several songs. Thanks to his patronage, the band received a contract with Verve Records and entered the studio in 1966 to record. Their debut album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'', was released in March 1967; it contained several now-classic songs such as "Heroin", "All Tomorrow's Parties", "Venus in Furs", "Femme Fatale" and "I'm Waiting for the Man". It had a muted commercial reception and few people paid attention initially despite rigorous touring, [[VindicatedByHistory but it's now highly regarded among critics and fans]].

* MinimalisticCoverArt: All their albums. ''VU&N'' has an AndyWarhol-drawn banana on the cover (on the original vinyl you could peel it away, which explains the title of their boxset ''Peel Slowly and See''), ''WL/WH'' is a blacker-than-black cover with white text and a faintly embossed picture of a tattoo, ''Velvet Underground'' is just a picture of the band, ''Loaded'' depicts a subway station with pink smoke emerging from it, ''VU'' is a picture of [[IncrediblyLamePun a VU meter]] and ''Another View'' is another picture of the band.

* RecordProducer: AndyWarhol, technically - his job was to just pay for the sessions and use his influence to protect the band from ExecutiveMeddling. The sessions were engineered by Tom Wilson, but Reed does point out that Andy's name allowed them to do stuff they couldn't get away with otherwise on a debut.

The Velvet Underground were formed in 1965 by dissatisfied Long Island songwriter LouReed and [[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} Welshman]] John Cale, who was studying classical music in the USA. Reed was the main guitarist and songwriter, while Cale played keyboards and viola. Sterling Morrison joined at the same time, assuming guitar and bass duties. After a period with Angus [=MacLise=], the lineup was rounded out by drummer Maureen Tucker, who played with no cymbals and used a very simplistic, tribal style.

->''Then one fine mornin' she puts on a New York station\\

You know her life was saved by rock 'n' roll''
-->'''Rock and Roll'''

The Velvet Underground were formed in 1965 by dissatisfied Long Island songwriter LouReed and [[LandOfMyFathersAndTheirSheep Welshman]] John Cale, who was studying classical music in the USA. Reed was the main guitarist and songwriter, while Cale played keyboards and viola. Sterling Morrison joined at the same time, assuming guitar and bass duties. After a period with Angus [=MacLise=], the lineup was rounded out by drummer Maureen Tucker, who played with no cymbals and used a very simplistic, tribal style.

** At least, not released. There are several rehearsal recordings in which the band are heard to play, among others, "Green Onions", "Boom Boom Boom Boom", and, amazingly, TheBeatles' "Day Tripper".

* NewSoundAlbum: And how! Between their four canonical albums, the Velvets changed musical styles just as fast as any of [[TheBeatles the most]] [[KingCrimson well known]] [[DavidBowie musical chameleons]].

!Iiiiiiiii'm waiting for my man, 46 tropes in my hand:

The Velvet Underground were formed in 1965 by dissatisfied Long Island songwriter [[LouReed Lou Reed]] and [[LandOfMyFathersAndTheirSheep Welshman]] John Cale, who was studying classical music in the USA. Reed was the main guitarist and songwriter, while Cale played keyboards and viola. Sterling Morrison joined at the same time, assuming guitar and bass duties. After a period with Angus [=MacLise=], the lineup was rounded out by drummer Maureen Tucker, who played with no cymbals and used a very simplistic, tribal style.

** Their first album? Yeah, covered entirely by Beck and a lot of musicians, who dedicated an entire day, and posted everything in Beck's website and YouTube.

** The [[LostEpisode possibly unrecorded]] "full version" of "Sister Ray" played to open gigs on the 1968 tour, which would begin with a ''forty-minute'' intro jam called "Sweet Sister Ray" before evolving into a twenty-plus-minute version of the song itself, which in turn would sometimes be reprised at the end of the show. In other words, ''[[BeyondTheImpossible over an hour of each show was devoted to]] '''[[CrazyAwesome one epic song]]'''''.

* WordSaladLyrics

-->'''Lou Reed''': One chord is fine. Two chords... that's pushing it. Three chords and it's jazz.

[[caption-width-right:350:The Velvet Underground. And {{Nico}}. Oh, and their friend [[AndyWarhol Andy]].]]

AndyWarhol was hired as manager and producer; at his insistence German singer Christa "{{Nico}}" Päffgen joined the band on several songs. Thanks to his patronage, the band received a contract with Verve Records and entered the studio in 1966 to record. Their debut album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'', was released in March 1967; it contained several now-classic songs such as "Heroin", "All Tomorrow's Parties", "Venus in Furs", "Femme Fatale" and "I'm Waiting for the Man". It had a muted commercial reception and few people paid attention initially despite rigorous touring, [[VindicatedByHistory but it's now highly regarded among critics and fans]].

* CreepyMonotone: LouReed and {{Nico}}'s vocals.

* MissingEpisode: A number of early songs were probably recorded but never released; others may never have been recorded at all. [[http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/andsoon/lostsongs/lostsongs.html Here's a list.]] Many songs that ''were'' missing episodes have since been released. Indeed, an entire album's worth of material recorded before they were dropped from Verve (recorded in between ''The Velvet Underground'' and ''Loaded'') was eventually released as ''VU'', and several other songs from the same recording sessions were released shortly thereafter as ''Another View''. The two releases add up to over eighty minutes' worth of material. Countless other outtakes have been released on box sets and enhanced re-releases of albums.

* MissingEpisode: A number of early songs were probably recorded but never released; others may never have been recorded at all. [[http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/andsoon/lostsongs/lostsongs.html Here's a list.]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image002.jpg
[[caption-width:350:The Velvet Underground. And {{Nico}}. Oh, and their friend [[AndyWarhol Andy]].]]

* DisContinuity: Nobody acknowledges ''Squeeze'', despite [[http://bobchaos.com/squeeze/squeeze1.html some (misguided?) defenders]]. To be fair, it's basically a Doug Yule solo album since only he and Ian Paice played on it, and the only reason it's even ''in'' the VU discography is because of their manager Steve Sesnick.