Alternative rock starts here.
On the band’s debut The Velvet Underground & Nico, Lou Reed’s stark, matter-of-fact lyrics and delivery evoke a dark realism in tales of hustlers and addicts, forlorn lovers and thugs. Street-life depictions of drug abuse and sexual perversity sit beside tender expressions of love and devotion. This wasn’t the counter-culture glorified or romanticized; here it was exposed, beauty marks and warts and all. And the abrasive, dissonant sounds expanded the horizons of music in unforeseen directions.
Even the band members were a far cry from the typical rock band crowd—from the classically trained avant-garde pianist and violist John Cale, who had previously played with John Cage and LeMonte Young; to Moe Tucker, one of rock’s first female drummers. And on their debut, German model-turned-singer Nico lent her icy mystique to three of the album’s best songs.
The follow-up, White Light/White Heat, brought abrasive dissonance to new heights, particularly in the extended improvisation “Sister Ray,” about a drug-fueled orgy, featuring drag queens, a murder, and the police knocking at the door. Their excellent third album, The Velvet Underground, explored the band’s gentler, contemplative side, and their last proper album, Loaded, went in a more accessible pop-rock direction entirely. (The “band” would release one more album, with none of the original members involved.)
Their music, dismissed and relatively unheard at the time, would go on to be a guiding light for ‘70s punk, ‘80s college-radio rock, and the alternative rock explosion of the ‘90s.
Playlist One
Compiles their ground-breaking first two albums, including all of The Velvet Underground & Nico and some highlights from the more abrasive White Light / White Heat.
Playlist Two
Contains almost all of their excellent third album, The Velvet Underground, a gentler affair, plus highlights from their wealth of subsequent studio recordings, not released until the mid-‘80s on VU and Another View.
Playlist Three
Contains the best of Loaded, plus live highlights. I must be the only person alive who prefers the originally released version of “Sweet Jane”; I prefer the deleted bridge vocal passage as it appears on the 1969: Velvet Underground Live album.
Cover Art Citation: White Light/White Heat, back cover: Source, Amazon.com
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