timeline

The Velvet Underground

The New York band that sold little in its lifetime across four albums with Lou Reed and came to be counted among the most influential groups in rock.

Origin
New York City, United States
Years active
1964-1973
Genres
art rock, experimental rock, proto-punk
Labels
Verve, MGM, Cotillion, Atlantic, Polydor

Ludlow Street

Lou Reed was a staff songwriter for Pickwick Records when he met John Cale in late 1964. Cale was a Welshman who had gone to the United States to study classical music, and he had worked with John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and La Monte Young. With Sterling Morrison, who had been a classmate of Reed at Syracuse University, and the percussionist Angus MacLise, they became the Velvet Underground in November 1965, naming themselves after a 1963 book on atypical sexual behavior.

MacLise left when the band took its first paying gig, a New Jersey high school show, and Maureen Tucker replaced him. In July 1965 Reed, Cale and Morrison taped a demo at their Ludlow Street loft, with early versions of songs that would appear on the first album.

Warhol and Nico

Andy Warhol became their manager, suggested the German singer Nico for several songs, and helped them to a contract with Verve, with himself as nominal producer. The band toured with his Exploding Plastic Inevitable show until May 1967. The Velvet Underground & Nico came out that March. Its songs took in the pounding I’m Waiting for the Man, the slow Heroin, the droning Venus in Furs and Sunday Morning.

It sold poorly. Record stores banned it, radio would not play it, and MGM recalled copies for a time after the actor Eric Emerson objected to his image on the back cover. It peaked at 171 on the Billboard albums chart. Brian Eno said in 1982 that everyone who bought one of the early copies started a band.

Noise, then calm

Reed fired Warhol and the band took on Steve Sesnick as manager. White Light/White Heat, made with Tom Wilson in September 1967, was recorded loud on new Vox equipment, and Morrison considered it a technical failure because of its distortion. It ends with Sister Ray, a track of about 17 minutes recorded in one take. It reached 199 on the Billboard chart. After the album Reed told Morrison and Tucker that Cale was out, and Doug Yule, from Boston, took his place.

The next record went the other way. The Velvet Underground was recorded in Los Angeles in late 1968 and released in March 1969. It was quiet, and it included Pale Blue Eyes. Yule sang the opener, Candy Says, and Tucker sang the closer, After Hours. Reed made his own mix, which put his voice forward, and a more conventional mix by MGM's Val Valentin was more widely distributed. The album did not chart on release.

Loaded and after

MGM dropped many of its acts in 1969 and the band moved to Cotillion, part of Atlantic, which asked for an album loaded with hits. Loaded appeared in November 1970, after Reed had left the group during the last week of a residency at Max’s Kansas City. It carries Sweet Jane and Rock & Roll. Tucker was pregnant and did not play, and Yule handled the bass and piano and drummed on several tracks. Morrison left in 1971, and Yule made Squeeze in 1973 under the band name, recorded mostly by Yule with Ian Paice of Deep Purple, and the band ended that year.

The band’s reputation grew afterward. Live recordings such as 1969: The Velvet Underground Live and Live at Max’s Kansas City were released, and in 1993 Reed, Cale, Morrison and Tucker reunited for a European tour. Morrison died in 1995. The band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, after Reed’s death in 2013. The critic Robert Christgau has called them the number three band of the 1960s, after the Beatles and James Brown. Morrison told Greg Kot in 1993 that they were the original alternative band, shunned into it. Acts that acknowledge a debt include Joy Division, Sonic Youth, R.E.M., U2 and Talking Heads.

Members

Records

Songs

Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico, Galaxie 500, Joy Division

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Fan sites and communities

Sources

  1. The Velvet Underground, Wikipedia
  2. The Velvet Underground’s greatest songs, ranked, The Guardian (2021-07-08)
  3. Do the Velvets beat the Beatles?, BBC Culture (2013-11)
  4. Robert Christgau: The Velvet Underground, Robert Christgau
  5. Velvet Underground, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  6. The 20 best Velvet Underground songs, Paste (2012-11-11)