Line #43 Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1_the_velvet_underground_and_nico.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''I don't know just where I'm going, but I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can''.]]
3
4	-> ''"Only 30,000 people bought ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'', and all of them started a band."''
5	-->-- '''Music/BrianEno''', [[BeamMeUpScotty attributed]]
6
7	''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' is the debut studio album by, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the name implies,]] Music/TheVelvetUnderground and Music/{{Nico}}. Released in 1967 through Creator/VerveRecords, and initially not selling well, it is considered one of the most influential rock albums of all time, as the attributed quote by Music/BrianEno can attest. Together with Music/FrankZappa's ''Music/FreakOut'' from 1966, it's often considered to be one of the first underground rock albums.
8
9	The album cover is equally famous: a huge banana against a solid white background, designed by Creator/AndyWarhol. On the original record cover, the banana was a sticker that could be peeled off, revealing a pink, naked banana underneath. This was later nodded to in the title of their box set ''Peel Slowly and See'', which featured a replica of the original banana sticker.
10
11	----
12
13	!!Tracklist:
14
15	[[AC:Side One]]
16	# "Sunday Morning" (2:54)
17	# "I'm Waiting for the Man" (4:39)
18	# "Femme Fatale" (2:38)
19	# "Venus in Furs" (5:12)
20	# "Run Run Run" (4:22)
21	# "All Tomorrow's Parties" (6:00)
22
23	[[AC:Side Two]]
24	[numlist:7]
25	# "Heroin" (7:12)
26	# "There She Goes Again" (2:41)
27	# "I'll Be Your Mirror" (2:14)
28	# "The Black Angel's Death Song" (3:11)
29	# "European Son" (7:46)
30	[/numlist]
31	----
32
33	!! Principal Members:
34
35	* Music/JohnCale - viola, piano, bass, backing vocals (track 8), celesta
36	* Sterling Morrison - bass, backing vocals (tracks 3, 5, 8)
37	* Music/{{Nico}} - lead vocals (tracks 3, 6, 9), backing vocals (track 1)
38	* Music/LouReed - lead vocals (all except 3, 6, 9), backing vocals (track 3), guitar
39	* Maureen Tucker - drums, percussion
40	----
41
42	!! "You better run run run run run, take a trope or two":
43	* AddictionSong: "Heroin", "I'm Waiting for the Man".
44	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''F'''emme '''F'''atale", "'''R'''un '''R'''un '''R'''un".
45	* AlternateAlbumCover:
46	** Later copies had the picture of Warhol associate Eric Emerson being projected upside-down behind the band airbrushed out after Emerson sued over the use of his image. The original image was restored on later reissues.
47	** US cassette releases and initial CD releases worldwide added text to the album's cover, bearing the band name and album title in big black letters. The 1996 remaster reverted back to the LP cover, albeit with the banana being printed on rather than using a sticker (the design behind the sticker, a pink, peeled version of the banana, was moved to the interior tray art).
48	* AlwaysLate: The song "I'm Waiting for the Man" describes the eponymous drug dealer as "never early, he's always late" in the third verse.
49	--> ''First thing you learn is that you always got to wait.''
50	* BeingWatched: "Sunday Morning":
51	--> ''Watch out, the world's behind you / there's always someone around you who will call / It's nothing at all''.
52	* TheBigRottenApple: "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "Run Run Run" both show an ugly side of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's night life and drug culture.
53	* 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.)
54	* CoverVersion: All of the songs have been covered by other artists numerous times; for that matter, the album has been covered in its entirety a few times, probably most famously by Music/{{Beck\|Musician}}.
55	* CreepyMonotone: Nico's voice.
56	* {{Crossover}}: Between The Velvet Underground and singer Nico, for whom it was both their debut album.
57	* DarkerAndEdgier: The Velvet Underground's debut album featured songs about sadomasochism, drugs, and sounds that most listeners would call gratuitous noise. Back in 1967, there weren't many rock groups like them.
58	* DaysOfTheWeekSong: "Sunday Morning":
59	--> ''Sunday morning, praise the dawning''
60	--> ''It's just a restless feeling by my side''
61	--> ''Early dawning''
62	--> ''Sunday morning''
63	* {{Dedication}}: "European Son", to the writer Delmore Schwartz, who had been one of Lou Reed's college professors. (Reed's solo song "My House" memorialised Schwartz.)
64	* DeathSeeker: The narrator of "Heroin" ("be the death of me") and the one in "The Black Angel's Death Song".
65	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover was designed by Creator/AndyWarhol and his artists at the ''Factory''. On the original LP the banana could be peeled too.
66	* DroneOfDread: A staple of several songs, especially "European Son" near the end. "The Black Angel's Death Song" and "Venus in Furs" feature a lot of this too. Basically, whenever Cale plays his viola, expect copious amounts of this.
67	* DrugsAreBad: "Run Run Run", "Heroin", and "I'm Waiting for the Man", though [[MisaimedFandom not all listeners got the message]]. Music/LouReed was horrified whenever fans told him that they took their first shot of heroin while listening to "Heroin".
68	* EpicRocking: "All Tomorrow's Parties" (6:00), "Heroin" (7:12), and "European Son" (7:46).
69	* EroticEating: The risqué lyrics make it tempting to interpret the banana on the cover as a phallic image. It doesn't help that anyone who manages to "PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE" would see that the banana is a fleshy pink colour.
70	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: That ungodly noise that kicks off the instrumental portion of "European Son" is Music/JohnCale pushing a metal chair with a stack of plates on it across the studio.
71	* FemmeFatale: "Femme Fatale":
72	--> ''Cause everybody knows''
73	--> ''(She's a femme fatale)''
74	* GainaxEnding: The album ends with a mad noisy jam.
75	* GenreRoulette: Eastern drones ("Venus in Furs", "Heroin"), lullabies ("Sunday Morning"), pop ballads ("Femme Fatale", "I'll Be Your Mirror"), amphetamine fueled surf-rock ("European Son"), Motown ("There She Goes Again"), your basic Rock 'n Roll ("I'm Waiting for the Man", "Run Run Run"), and an avant-garde folk-rock jig ("Black Angel's Death Song").
76	* HemoErotic: The sado masochistic song "Venus in Furs" closes with Lou Reed droning: "Now bleeeeeeed for me!"
77	* LarynxDissonance: That female voice you hear in "Sunday Morning"? Well, it's not a woman, it's just Lou Reed putting on an incredibly convincing female voice! Many listeners have been fooled into thinking it's Nico, though if you compare it to her other tracks on the album you immediately notice the difference.
78	* LecherousLicking: "Venus in Furs":
79	--> ''Kiss the boot / of shiny, shiny leather''
80	* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: The 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (no, seriously), which has no less than ''three'' different mixes of the album, along with Music/{{Nico}}'s first solo album, plus an entire concert.
81	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "Venus in Furs" is based on Creator/LeopoldVonSacherMasoch's [[Literature/VenusInFurs novella of the same title]].
82	* LyricalDissonance: "There She Goes Again", a relatively upbeat garage rock song, is a song about a woman in an abusive relationship from the perspective of her abuser. (Or about a sex worker, addressed to her abusive pimp. Either way.)
83	* MinimalisticCoverArt: A banana.
84	* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: The title of the album deliberately separating Nico from the rest of the band could come off as this, although it's accurate as she wasn't actually a member of the band.
85	* NewSoundAlbum: Both instrumentally and lyrically this album was quite unique when it came out: Experimental rock; songs about heroin, male prostitution, and sado-masochistic sex; weird instruments like the viola and to top it all off: Nico's bizarre CreepyMonotone singing. Where this trope comes into play is by comparison to their acoustic demo, which is Music/{{Bob Dylan}}-esque folk. (Then again, it's pretty easy to hear the influence of ''Music/Highway61Revisited'' on parts of this album, too - go figure.)
86	* NoiseRock: "European Son" is the prototype.
87	* NonAppearingTitle: Seeing this is a SelfTitledAlbum the title never appears in any of the lyrics.
88	* NothingLeftToDoButDie:
89	** What the Black Angel of Death seems to advise in "The Black Angel's Death Song".
90	** The narrator of "Heroin" is hoping to "nullify [his] life" by taking the titular drug.
91	* TheNotRemix: Several times over -- for instance, the first CD issue had an alternate mix of "All Tomorrow's Parties", and with all the various remasters, re-releases and luxury editions the album has seen, you can pretty much be a collector of this one album.
92	* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Venus in Furs". Potentially the originator of this trope, as they were one of the first bands to write and record songs of this nature.
93	* OneManSong: "European Son".
94	* OneWomanSong: "Femme Fatale".
95	** Or generally, all the songs where Nico sings the lead.
96	* PepTalkSong: "I'll Be Your Mirror", where Nico offers to be "your mirror", "your eyes", and "your hand in the darkness, so you won't be afraid."
97	* PerishingAltRockVoice: Pioneers!
98	* PostRock: "Heroin" is often said to be the UrExample.
99	* RecordProducer: Creator/AndyWarhol. Although credited as producer, his influence primarily seems to have been just to pay for the recording like a film producer. The actual creative production work was done by Tom Wilson and the band themselves. Lou Reed acknowledged that Andy's pedigree allowed them to get away with a lot for their debut that might have otherwise been lost in {{executive meddling}}.
100	* RipVanWinkle: "Venus in Furs":
101	--> ''I am tired; I am weary''
102	--> ''I could sleep for a thousand years''
103	--> ''A thousand dreams that would awake me''
104	* SelfDeprecation: The album reprinted scathing reviews of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable as well as favorable ones.
105	* SelfTitledAlbum: Just the name of the band and their guest.
106	* ShoutOut:
107	** "Venus in Furs" is a reference to the eponymous novel ''Literature/VenusInFurs'' by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
108	** At the end of the chorus for "I'll Be Your Mirror", the guitar riff from Music/TheKinks' "You Really Got Me" is played.
109	** The main riff of "There She Goes Again" is lifted from Music/MarvinGaye's "Hitch Hike".
110	* SingleStanzaSong: "European Son".
111	* TheSomethingSong: "The Black Angel's Death Song".
112	* {{Streetwalker}}: "There She Goes Again" is about one of these, addressed to her pimp.
113	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Nico's role on this album is somewhere between this and VocalTagTeam. Her vocal part on "Sunday Morning" is very easy to miss, because she's mixed in pretty quietly. It helps to listen on headphones.
114	* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "I'll Be Your Mirror", which sounds really innocent between those other songs about sex and drugs. "Femme Fatale" is also somewhat less heavy than the surrounding material, although it's still somewhat dark lyrically.
115	* UnusualEuphemism: Warhol called Nico a "chanteuse" when he introduced her to the Velvet Underground so that the band wouldn't have the impression he was actually adding a new front singer to the group.
116	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: "I'm Waiting for the Man":
117	-->''Up to a brownstone, up three flights of stairs''
118	-->''Everybody's pinned you, but nobody cares''
119	* WordSaladLyrics: "Black Angel's Death Song", deliberately by Reed. It devolves into actual gibberish just before the end, before reverting to something simple but ominous:
120	-->''Don't scream, try between\
121	If you choose, if you choose, try to lose\
122	For the loss of remain come and start\
123	Start the game I che che che che I\
124	Che che ka tak kooo-ooooh\
125	Choose to choose\
126	Choose to choose, choose to go''
127	* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: "I'll Be Your Mirror".
128	--> ''I find it hard to believe you don't know''
129	--> ''The beauty that you are''
130	--> ''But if you don't, let me be your eyes''
131	--> ''A hand in your darkness, so you won't be afraid''

Context Music / TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico