History Music / VelvetUnderground

* MinimalisticCoverArt: All their albums. ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'' has an Creator/AndyWarhol-drawn banana on the cover (on the original vinyl you could peel it away, which explains the title of their box set ''Peel Slowly and See'', on which you could do the same thing), ''Music/WhiteLightWhiteHeat'' is a blacker than black cover with white text and a faintly embossed picture of a tattoo, ''Music/TheVelvetUnderground'' is just a picture of the band, ''Music/{{Loaded}}'' depicts a subway station with pink smoke emerging from it, ''VU'' is a picture of [[VisualPun a VU meter]] and ''Another View'' is another picture of the band.

The band reunited once from 1992 to 1993. A live album was released featuring performances from the second reunion. Morrison's death of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1995 pretty much iced the possibility of there being any further long-term reunions of the band (although the surviving members did play in 1996 for the band's induction of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), and Reed's death of liver disease in 2013 certainly ended the possibility for good. Nico, for her part, died in a cycling accident in 1988.

The band reunited once from 1992 to 1993. A live album was released featuring performances from the second reunion. Morrison's death in 1995 pretty much iced the possibility of there being any further long-term reunions of the band (although the surviving members did play in 1996 for the band's induction of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), and Reed's death in 2013 certainly ended the possibility for good. (Nico, for her part, died in 1988).

* BreakupBreakout: After Lou Reed quit, he went on to a solo career which was much more commercially successful than anything the VU did. John Cale has also had an impressive solo career.

* ProgressiveRock: Even though the band is usually thought of as an UrExample of PunkRock, the band's classical influence (thanks to Music/JohnCale) and Reed's poetic lyrics also anticipated prog. The Velvets also influenced a lot of {{Krautrock}} bands, including Music/{{Can}} and Music/{{Neu}}.

* ShaggyDogStory: "The Gift" (guy mails himself to girlfriend and gets killed), "Sister Ray" (huge debauched party, someone gets shot), "Lady Godiva's Operation" (transsexual goes to have some operation, gets a botched lobotomy from a sloppy doctor and dies).

* {{Transsexual}}: "Lady Godiva's Operation".

** And organ, glockenspiel, tambourine, piano, organ...

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: "After Hours" and "I'm Sticking with You" for Maureen Tucker. Reed admitted he gave "After Hours" to Mo on purpose because if he sang it wouldn't have sounded as innocent.

** They sort of zigzagged this, really. They used all kinds of unorthodox and avant-garde arrangements, but Reed wanted the songs to be the kind of music anyone could play, so they're still usually pretty simple melodically.

* Trope Makers: For AlternativeRock and NoiseRock, pretty much. "Sunday Morning" could also be arguably the first DreamPop song.

* UrExample: For PunkRock (they are considered ProtoPunk for a reason, after all) and AlternativeRock. As mentioned above, they also had some influence on ProgressiveRock bands, as well, and they are sometimes cited as this for PostRock as well (BoleroEffect-laden songs like "Heroin" would certainly seem to support this assertion).

The Velvets were kicked off Verve in 1969 by a new president who wanted to purge controversial acts from the label ([[Music/FrankZappa Frank Zappa and 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 ''Music/{{Loaded}}'', their swan song. Despite strong material and, indeed, some hits, the band dissolved during production when Reed left the band in August 1970.

[[caption-width-right:350:The Velvet Underground, circa 1967. And Music/{{Nico}}. Oh, and their friend [[Creator/AndyWarhol Andy]]. From left to right: Nico, Andy Warhol, Maureen Tucker, Music/LouReed, Sterling Morrison and Music/JohnCale.]]

!!Principal Members (Founding members in '''bold'''):

* 1967 - ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'' [[note]]A collaboration with Music/{{Nico}}[[/note]]

* 1973 - ''Music/{{Squeeze 1973}}''

!!Live Discography:

!!Selected Compilations & Box Sets:
* 1985 - ''VU'' [[note]]Collects many of the songs from the band's aborted "fourth album" sessions for Verve, as well as a few outtakes recorded with Cale[[/note]]
* 1986 - ''Another View'' [[note]]essentially the second volume of ''VU''[[/note]]
* 1995 - ''Peel Slowly and See'' [[note]]box set compiling the band's four albums, their demo, and a number of other assorted rarities[[/note]]
* 2012 - ''The Verve/MGM albums'' [[note]]vinyl box set featuring the mono mixes of the band's first three albums and Music/{{Nico}}'s ''Chelsea Girl'' as well as another attempt to reconstruct the band's missing "fourth album" for Verve, which has this time been entitled simply ''1969'' and, unlike the others, is presented in stereo[[/note]]

* CanonDiscontinuity: Nobody acknowledges ''Music/{{Squeeze 1973}}'', despite [[http://bobchaos.com/squeeze/squeeze1.html some defenders]]. To be fair, it's basically a Doug Yule solo album since only he, [[Music/DeepPurple Ian Paice]] and a few session musicians played on it, and the only reason it's even ''in'' the VU discography is because of their manager Steve Sesnick.
* TheChanteuse: How Warhol named Nico to avoid the band from thinking that he was actually adding a female front singer to the group. (Which he, in a sense, did).
* ComedicSociopathy[=/=]ComicallyMissingThePoint: In "Sister Ray", when Cecil shoots the sailor, the narrator's only reaction is "Oh, you shouldn't do that/Don't you know you'll stain the carpet/Now don't you know you'll mess the carpet."

* CoverVersion: None by themselves, but the Velvets have been frequently covered by AlternativeRock bands like Music/JoyDivision, Music/{{Nirvana}}, Galaxie 500, Music/TheRunaways and others. Music/DavidBowie also got in on the act by covering "Music/WhiteLightWhiteHeat". Earlier, Music/TheYardbirds covered "I'm Waiting for the Man" in their live shows during the band's final months.

* DownerEnding: In perhaps one of the saddest ends to a band ever, their final album ''Music/{{Squeeze 1973}}'' had no founding members play on it and received terrible recognition from most critics and fans alike.

** Other super-long live tracks include "Melody Laughter" (complete version is half an hour), "The Nothing Song" (nearly twenty-eight minutes), and "Chic Mystique" (over twenty-six minutes). These probably aren't the only ones, but all of these, as well as "Sweet Sister Ray", can be found on a bootleg box entitled ''Caught Between the Twisted Stars''. ("Melody Laughter" and "The Nothing Song" also appear on the 45th anniversary edition of ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico''). Another lengthy song performed live, which in this case is actually a song, is "Follow the Leader", which in at least one version is over seventeen minutes long (again, see ''The Quine Tapes''). Many other songs would also be extended dramatically when performed live; for example, "White Light/White Heat" is under three minutes long in the studio version, but live recordings exist that exceed ten minutes in length (yet again, see ''The Quine Tapes'' for an example).

* LighterAndSofter: ''Music/TheVelvetUnderground'', ''Music/{{Loaded}}'', ''Music/{{Squeeze 1973}}''.

* MinimalisticCoverArt: All their albums. ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'' has an Creator/AndyWarhol-drawn banana on the cover (on the original vinyl you could peel it away, which explains the title of their box set ''Peel Slowly and See'', on which you could do the same thing), ''Music/WhiteLightWhiteHeat'' is a blacker-than-black cover with white text and a faintly embossed picture of a tattoo, ''Music/TheVelvetUnderground'' is just a picture of the band, ''Music/{{Loaded}}'' depicts a subway station with pink smoke emerging from it, ''VU'' is a picture of [[VisualPun a VU meter]] and ''Another View'' is another picture of the band.

* ObligatoryBondageSong: [[TropeMaker More or less invented it]] with "Venus in Furs." "Some Kinda Love" also qualifies.

* RecordProducer: Creator/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. Reed also credits Warhol with giving him the confidence as a songwriter to follow his muse wherever it took him, regardless of how many people wanted to censor his songs. Various other people have also been credited as de facto producers for the first album, including Norman Dolph and John Licata, who were engineers for the Scepter Studios sessions, and Music/JohnCale, who is credited with coming up with many or most of the arrangements. (Interestingly, Dolph credits Cale, and Cale credits Wilson.)

* SelfTitledAlbum: Two of them, in fact: ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'' (their debut, with [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg their guest singer's name tacked on at the end]]) and ''Music/TheVelvetUnderground'' (their more subdued third studio album)

* ShoutOut: "European Son" is dedicated to the [[{{Poetry}} poet]][=/=][[ShortStory short-story]] writer Delmore Schwartz, who had been one of Lou Reed's professors at Syracuse University.

* TakeThat: The "Evil Mothers" who'll tell you that "Everything is just dirt" in "Sweet Jane" may have been referencing The Mothers Of Invention, whose leader Music/FrankZappa was regarded by Lou Reed as a rival [[note]]For his part, Zappa didn't consider Reed to be a rival; he had no time for the Velvets' drug use and didn't think much of their records, but he admired Reed's song-writing, especially "All Tomorrow's Parties"[[/note]].

-->'''Lou Reed''': One chord is fine. Two chords... that's pushing it. Three chords and it's jazz.
** They sort of ZigZagged this, really. They used all kinds of unorthodox and avant-garde arrangements, but Reed wanted the songs to be the kind of music anyone could play, so they're still usually pretty simple melodically.

-->'''[[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.

* {{Trope Maker|s}}: for AlternativeRock and NoiseRock, pretty much. "Sunday Morning" could also be arguably the first DreamPop song.

'''The Velvet Underground''' were formed in 1964 by dissatisfied Long Island songwriter Music/LouReed and [[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} Welshman]] Music/JohnCale, 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 line-up was rounded out by drummer Maureen Tucker, who played with no cymbals and used a very simplistic, tribal style.

* ObligatoryBondageSong: [[TropeMaker More or less invented it]] with "Venus in Furs."

* RecordProducer: Creator/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. Reed also credits Warhol with giving him the confidence as a songwriter to follow his muse wherever it took him, regardless of how many people wanted to censor his songs.

* SinisterShades: As seen above, very nearly the whole band wore them.

Creator/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, ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'', was released in March 1967; it contained several now-classic songs such as "Heroin", "All Tomorrow's Parties", "Venus In Furs", "Sunday Morning", "Femme Fatale", "I'llBe Your Mirror", and "I'm Waiting For The Man". It had a muted commercial reception and few people paid attention initially despite rigorous touring, [[VindicatedByHistory but is now highly regarded among critics and fans]].

The Velvets were kicked off Verve in 1969 by a new president who wanted to purge controversial acts from the label ([[Music/FrankZappa Frank Zappa And 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 ''Music/{{Loaded}}'', their swan song. Despite strong material and, indeed, some hits, the band dissolved during production when Reed left the band in August 1970.

* 1972 - ''Live At Max's Kansas City''

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

** "I'm Waiting For The Man" is a concert favourite of Music/DavidBowie, and frequently makes appearances in his shows. Interestingly, he first heard it when his manager brought back an early acetate copy of ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'' 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.

* FaceOnTheCover: Only on their third album ''Music/TheVelvetUnderground''.

* [[GirlInABox Guy In A Box]]: "The Gift" shows us why it's a bad idea.
* GratuitousPanning: "The Murder Mystery", "The Gift" being the most extreme examples.
* HeavyMeta: "Rock And Roll".

* InvincibleClassicCar: The Stutz [=Bearcat=] in "Sweet Jane".

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "Venus In Furs". The band's name itself is taken from a book about, fittingly enough, the sexual subculture of TheSixties.
* LyricalDissonance: "The Gift", "Lady Godiva's Operation", "Sister Ray", "Who Loves The Sun".

* MinimalisticCoverArt: All their albums. ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'' has an Creator/AndyWarhol-drawn banana on the cover (on the original vinyl you could peel it away, which explains the title of their box set ''Peel Slowly and See''), ''Music/WhiteLightWhiteHeat'' is a blacker-than-black cover with white text and a faintly embossed picture of a tattoo, ''Music/TheVelvetUnderground'' is just a picture of the band, ''Music/{{Loaded}}'' depicts a subway station with pink smoke emerging from it, ''VU'' is a picture of [[VisualPun a VU meter]] and ''Another View'' is another picture of the band.
* MisogynySong: "There She Goes Again". May be a {{deconstruction}} since it's based around jealousy, an emotion Lou Reed is on record as considering "a destructive, horrible emotion" ("The Gift" and "Satellite Of Love" also de-construct jealousy).
* MistakenForGay: Lou Reed and John Cale. According to Cale's autobiography ''What's Welsh For Zen'', when they were making music together in the very early days of the Velvet Underground, they were seen as "weird, sadistic, aloof, and nasty," as Cale puts it, and were seen as so close to one another that everyone was certain they were gay.
** According to Sterling Morrison, all the members of the band were assumed to be gay due to their association with Andy Warhol.
* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: ''The Velvet Underground And Nico''.
* MythologyGag: As pointed out above, the title of the box set ''Peel Slowly And See''.

* ObligatoryBondageSong: [[TropeMaker More or less invented it]] with "Venus In Furs."
* ObsessionSong: Several entries deal with the negative consequences of jealousy, most directly "The Gift", but also "Satellite Of Love" (later remade by Reed in his solo career) and "There She Goes Again". There's an interview with Reed in which he expounds at length on how destructive an emotion he finds jealousy to be, as if the song itself didn't already make it obvious.

* ProgressiveRock: Even though the band is usually thought of as an UrExample of PunkRock, the band's classical influence (thanks to Music/JohnCale) and Reed's poetic lyrics also anticipated prog. The Velvets also influenced a lot of KrautRock bands, including Music/{{Can}} and Music/{{Neu}}.

* SillyLoveSongs: Yeah, they have one. "I Found A Reason", to be precise. "I Love You" could qualify, too, although it's hard to tell how sincere Reed is being.

* SpokenWordInMusic: "The Gift", "The Murder Mystery", arguably bits of "I Found A Reason".
* StepUpToTheMicrophone: "After Hours" and "I'm Sticking With You" for Maureen Tucker. Reed admitted he gave "After Hours" to Mo on purpose because if he sang it wouldn't have sounded as innocent.

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

* UrExample: For PunkRock (they are considered ProtoPunk for a reason, after all) and AlternativeRock. As mentioned above, they also had some influence on ProgressiveRock bands, as well.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: People familiar with their more abrasive first two albums may be surprised to find out that their 1965 demo recordings consist entirely of acoustic FolkMusic.

* UrExample: For PunkRock (they are considered ProtoPunk for a reason, after all) and AlterntaiveRock. As mentioned above, they also had some influence on ProgressiveRock bands, as well.

Creator/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, ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'', was released in March 1967; it contained several now-classic songs such as "Heroin", "All Tomorrow's Parties", "Venus In Furs", "Sunday Morning", "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 its now highly regarded among critics and fans]].

* ProgressiveRock: Even though the band is usually thought of as an UrExample of PunkRock, the band's classical influence (thanks to Music/JohnCale) and Reed's poetic lyrics also anticipated prog. The Velvets influenced a lot of KrautRock bands, including Music/{{Can}} and Music/{{Neu}}.