Velvet Underground

Ah well, I like their first album the best (sure a lot of people do). That or their third. Loaded was just an attempt at getting more popularity (which they lacked at that time). After Loaded, it all went downhill with Squeeze. I don't like the albums released in the 80s of their earlier-recorded stuff either, but it's not as bad as when the band lacked Reed and Cale. Pretty much, I think their first three albums were genius. Kind of rarabled... yea, Squeeze was their worst album.
 
I like the first half.

Sweet Jane & Rock n Roll are 2 of the best pop songs the Velvets ever wrote.

Edit: Has anybody actually heard Squeeze , I'd like an unbiased non velvet's fanboy opinion of it.
 
& Nico is very overrated. Not bad, and 3-4 songs are actually very good. White Light/White Heat is the only Velvet album worth writing home about in my opinion.
 
Vastly over-rated. I give them credit for two good songs, "Venus in Furs" and "Rock n Roll". Pretentious art rock that misses about 80 percent of the time. Their albums deserved where they wound up...in the Cut-Out Bin.
 
Big fan, Love the Nico debut it's fantastic end to end. Someone hear said it right, Nico's voice works in the capacity they use it in this album.

Also molecules is dead on saying it's often a very personal record to the listener.

So true, I remeraber sitting in my parents garage listening to it with my brother and his frienRAB. It's one of my oldest memories and one I often visit.

Anybody else remeraber there first time "taking in" the Velvets?
 
I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents. Velvet Underground are pretty sweet. Lou ReeRAB lyrics are very abstract and that's merely because he was a nonsensical person. Whether you love or hate him the Velvet Underground would be nowhere without Andy Warhol. As Lou Reed said the man "made things happen."
 
VU and Nico is probably technically their best but i always think of my favourite as being White Light/White Heat. At times visceral, at times trippy, once the first song kicks in i tend to be hooked. I'm a sucker for that old school guitar fuzz.
 
you are definitely not alone, but i think most who don't "get" them have a hard time imagining listening to this band when they were actually around. they really were something special then, and only sound tired at all now because so many banRAB have emulated them.

i think the appeal a lot of people see in the velvet underground is based on the fact that there is a lot of skill and creativity in their music that is ahead of its time. their music was written well enough to really amaze people, and it was written simply enough so that someone could feel they might be able to write music, as well. it has been noted that most people that listened to the velvet underground when they first showed up subsequently went out and started a band themselves.
 
People tend to use worRAB like 'feel' 'skill' 'creativity' 'unique' when describing their music, I mean it's alright, nothing against what they did, but people seem to think of it as being something special and I just don't see it. VU & Nico is the only album I've listened to though, listened to it about 3 times and never took to it. Maybe it neeRAB more listens or maybe it was just a sign of it's time and special back then.
 
I'd say that White Light/White Heat comes fairly close, it is much shorter but has some great hits as well. If they extended this album and went farther into the world of feedback then it would have been close. Velvet Underground and Nico is a large, filthy diamond though.
 
I think if you were to look at the merits of a song like The Black Angel's Death Song, you would have to look at the album as a whole, even VU's work as a whole. When I first listened to & Nico, what struck me was the contrast going from I'll Be Your Mirror to The Black Angel's Death Song. I'll Be Your Mirror is a starkly beautiful song, with Nico being the champion of stark beauty in the entire album. When the album moves into the next song, Black Angel, that stark beauty is replaced by the stark dissonance of Cale's viola playing. A move like that forces the listener to really come to terms with what he defines as a good or bad sound. I mean, Black Angel is such a beautifully gruesome song that it forces the listener to actually think about what he's listening to.

Stuff like this is what made VU not just a good band, but a revolutionary band in my opinion.

Also, does Black Angel seem Dylan-esque to anyone else or is it just me?
 
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