No. 314: The Velvet Underground

Band: The Velvet Underground
Album: The Velvet Underground
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The Velvet Underground's third album has Lou Reed growing inward and taking a shot at folk music and toning the band's sound down from the spasms that was "White Light/White Heat."
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Only one of the band's iconic songs is represented here, "What Goes On," though the rest of the album is excellent.
Best song: "After Hours" is, due to Mo Tucker's voice, the most tender thing the band ever released. "What Goes On" is one of the band's most famous songs and is fantastic.
Worst song: Here's my statement that will take away any indie cred I had previously had: I don't like "The Murder Mystery."
Is it awesome?: Yep.

One thing that bugs me a little when anyone writes about this record is how they describe it as being so different than their other stuff. The Velvets released four albums (I don't count "Squeeze" and neither should you) and none of them sounds like the others. The first record follows some song forms while rocking out, while "WL/WH" is wildly experimental. This record is softer while "Loaded" is, essentially, a pop album.

So, to say that this one sounds so different is silly. They all sound different.

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Listening to it again, the album is strikingly good. Lou Reed's ability to tell the dissonant and bizarre stories of the world (as his personality profile in "Candy Says" is fantastic) peppers the album as well as his pop sensibilities. The album highlight, "What Goes On" is a beautiful little pop love song with Reed singing "you know it'll be all right."

Padraig, one of my commentors, recently calledthis album his favorite VU record. I don't know that it is my favorite, but it is full of tracks that always sound good. "Pale Blue Eyes" is wonderfully personal, allegedly leading Sterling Morrison to protest "if I wrote a song like that, I wouldn't make you play it" when Reed first played it for him. "Jesus" is a touching religious number and "The Murder Mystery" is a word experiment.

"After Hours" closes out the album in a way no other Velvets song could. Solely a guitar and Maureen Tucker's voice occupy the soundspace. Tucker's voice is feminine and tender, something fitting the album more than Reed's Long Island growl. The song's themes of ends and darkness work within the band's oeuvre, but sound refreshing in Tucker's hands.

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Like every other Velvets album, "The Velvet Underground" is different and amazing. It may not be their best album, but it's certainly amazing.

No. 292: White Light/White Heat

Band: The Velvet Underground
Album: White Light/White Heat
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: If nothing, it's my favorite VU album. In an odd juxtaposition, the record has both the longest (“Sister Ray”) and also the most punk things (“I Heard Her Call My Name”) the Velvets ever die.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: It's not accessible, on any level. It's a tough record to enjoy if you're not ready for it. Seventeen minutes of a blues riff and lyrics about cross-dressing and heroin does not make for radio-friendly listening. Similarly, “The Gift” is macabre and an experiment.
Best song: I'd suggest “The Gift,” if only because of Cale's haunting reading. “Lady Godiva's Operation,” also sung by Cale, is similarly awesome.
Worst song: I don't love “Her She Comes Now.”
Is it awesome?: Yes. Absolutely.

Coming off the band's heavy involvement with Andy Warhol and Nico, the Velvets toured all around the country, improvising and experimenting with feedback. The result? “White Light/White Heat.”

I love this album, personally. The subject matter of nearly every song is creepy or dirty, both adjectives that could easily describe Lou Reed in every way. “Lady Godiva's Operation” is a sweet-sounding song that is lyrically about a drag queen's botched operation that turns into a lobotomy. “I Heard Her Call My Name” is full of guitars that are dragged out and nasty. The title track is a frenetic rush of guitars and a lyric glorifying the use of crank, while a pounding player-style piano finishs the song.

“The Gift” is unlike any Velvets song in both the way the song is constructed (a short story written by Reed and read by Cale) and the way it was recorded (Cale in one channel with the band in the other). The song was recorded that way in order for listeners to either enjoy the music or just Cale's reading of the story. Which, really, is kind of cool.

The album, of course, is famous for “Sister Ray.” The song's base – a bluesy jam called “Booker T.” that the Velvets had worked on during their first tour – rolls along as the band improvs on the guitar, organ and drums. The lyrics, of course, are standard Reed fare; Heroin, transvestites and sex. It's 17 minutes of awesome; Long and interesting as ever.

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Oddly enough, the album hit the Billboard 200 charts and got as high as... 199. That's kind of cool.

No. 109: Loaded

Band: Velvet Underground
Album: Loaded
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: While not the band's most groundbreaking work or its rawest, "Loaded" is a beautiful coda to one of the most influential bands of the 60s. "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll" were played on radio a great deal, "Who Loves The Sun?" was on the soundtrack to a big-time movie and "I Found A Reason" found a second life as Cat Power's greatest cover.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I'm not sure RS has it wrong. "Loaded" isn't the first album, but the combination of radio-friendliness and the weight of the band puts "Loaded" up there.
Best song: My favorite song on the album is probably "Who Loves The Sun?" if only because it's all about juxtaposition. One of the more twee songs in 1970, the lyrics are delightfully dark.
Worst song: I'm not in love with "Cool It Down."
Is it awesome?: Absolutely. It's the record that non-Velvets fans have to have.

"Loaded" is named as such because the record company reportedly wanted an album "loaded with hits" from the band. Reed, ever the sellout, decided to comply and stacked the album with radio-friendly song after radio-friendly song. It's strange to think that "Loaded" is a sellout album, but that's exactly what it was. Mo Tucker was taking care of her newborn, John Cale was long gone. It was a different group.

And the album teeters a weird line. It's nowhere near the experimentation of the earlier records (no Cale viola, no raucous feedback), but it was still the Velvets, so it didn't sell. At all. Reviewers didn't like it.

Everyone come around since. The Velvets are deified by most critics now -- rightfully so, for the most part -- and listening to the songs, the critics are correct. "Who Loves The Sun?" is Belle & Sebastian before B+S existed, "Rock and Roll" is the kind of jukebox heroism that rock has relied on forever, "Sweet Jane" is classic love-ish song that still resonates and "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" is classic Reed ballad.

The label tinkered with a lot of the production and sequencing, mostly because Reed had left the band towards the end of recording, though the 1997 re-release has fixed most of that. It's fantastic album, with or without Reed's wishes being granted.

No 13: The Velvet Underground and Nico

Band: The Velvet Underground
Album: The Velvet Underground and Nico
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: All that is "alternative" rests in the Velvets. To quote Jim DeRogatis (who was quoting Brian Eno), "Although the group didn't sell a lot of records in its lifetime, everyone who bought one went out and started a band of their own." Certainly the combining of Andy Warhol's vision of what a band should be and the musical excellence of Lou Reed made for some amazing records. While other records had feedback and cacophony as part of the sound, the Velvets embraced this and exploited it in "Femme Fatale" and "Heroin."
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I'm not sure they did. The record is important to all things rock and roll, but it's not in the class of the Beatles or Dylan. It probably should be in the top 10, but 13 isn't bad.
Best song: They're all pretty great. I, personally, like "There She Goes Again" and "Venus in Furs."
Worst song: I don't know that there is a worse song. Maybe "All Tomorrow's Parties?"
Is it awesome?: Absolutely, without question.

What can you say about "The Velvet Underground and Nico" that hasn't been in a movie ("I Shot Andy Warhol") or that Lou Reed hasn't said a million times? The Velvets were so far out there, so avant garde, that they basically influenced everyone who came after them. While the Beatles were trying to insinuate drug references, the Velvets did a song called "Heroin" that climaxed in a screeching viola/guitar combo. While the Stones wanted to "Spend the Night Together," the Velvets were doing a song based on a book about bondage by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.

Yeah, it pushed some boundaries. Again, anyone who is anyone from the avant garde and college radio scene of the '80s cites them as an influence. They were always the no. 2 band on my college radio station's yearly top 88 countdown.

They're college radio ("I'm Waiting For The Man"), they're glam ("Venus in Furs"), they're hard rock (listen to "The Downward Spiral" and tell me you don't hear the influence of the Velvets). They embraced the "scene" with Warhol and Lou Reed embraced punk with Iggy Pop.

Important? Absolutely. Great? Even moreso.