In 1982, Brian Eno noted that The Velvet Underground & Nico only sold 30,000 copies in its first five years. Yet, as Eno put it, “everyone who bought one of these 30,000 copies started a band.” The group’s influence on indie, alternative, and punk rock is scattered across decades of iconic recordings, as you’ll hear in these four groundbreaking songs by The Velvet Underground.
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“I’m Waiting For The Man”
David Bowie received the first Velvet Underground album before its release. When he played “I’m Waiting For The Man”, he said he’d heard the future of music. Soon, Bowie and his band were covering the song live. You can hear Bowie singing in a Lou Reed cadence on the Hunky Dory track “Queen B*tch”, written as a tribute to The Velvet Underground. In 2005, Noel Gallagher recorded his own tribute and echoed “I’m Waiting For The Man” on Oasis’s pounding tune “Mucky Fingers”.
“Sister Ray”
“Sister Ray” captures the raw and unhinged energy that would soon define punk rock. Before it did, the garage-band vibe sent a superfan named Jonathan Richman to New York, attempting to get close to The Velvet Underground. He’d later return to Massachusetts and form The Modern Lovers. Ex-Velvet Underground member John Cale produced tumultuous sessions for The Modern Lovers’ debut. Though this version of the band wouldn’t survive, Cale’s sessions produced “Roadrunner”, a track built on the improvised groove of “Sister Ray”. It laid the groundwork for punk’s evolution, as Reed’s seedy-street lyrics also pushed the boundaries of pop music.
“Sweet Jane”
The Velvet Underground’s fourth studio album was supposed to be chock-full of hits. And however one interprets the title Loaded, the band wouldn’t survive, but something more important did. Before Reed quit, he left behind one of the most indelible rock songs: “Sweet Jane”. It became a touchstone for alternative and indie rock artists, including Sonic Youth, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Pixies, and The Strokes. Loaded was the final Velvet Underground album to include any original members, but “Sweet Jane” transformed rock music more than any commercial success the group’s record label had pushed them toward.
“Sunday Morning”
John Cale’s celesta part on “Sunday Morning” gave Reed’s tune a dreamy sophistication. The kind of hazy orchestration you might recognize in masterpieces by The Flaming Lips and Radiohead. But Cale also produced seminal albums by The Stooges, Patti Smith, and The Modern Lovers. And it was Cale’s version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” that inspired Jeff Buckley’s untouchable reading. Few albums have been more consequential to rock history than The Velvet Underground’s dangerous and genius debut. Not every rock revolution requires loud guitars. Cale did it unwittingly on “Sunday Morning” by echoing Tchaikovsky.
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