Always quite liked it but aye could do with an edit
Berlin is great and I love Transformer. Rock n Roll Animal is a great live album. There are really good songs scattered through albums like Coney Island Baby, The Blue Mask, The Bells and Street Hassle but they are a bit hit and miss.
He had a bit of a later career resurgence with New York and Songs for Drella.
I like that one
Really like this live album from 1969
and at times when iāve listened to the albums they have absolutely hit the spot and sounded great. Most of the time they just sound average though and just not that bothered.
Probably do a little bit of reading up on Nico later after the up thread revelations and not listen again by the looks of it.
Thatās an amazing album - we had a discussion about it recently in this thread.
The version of What Goes On is astonishing.
That cover thoughā¦
oh nice, iāll go and have a look.
Thereās so many great sounding versions - listening to this i can see why people would have got excited seeing them and talkng about thatā¦just the albums never did them justice i donāt think.
But yeah, the cover hasnāt aged wellā¦
Musically speaking probably the most important band of all time. Any other band you like will have been filtered through those first few records.
Theyāre songs of moral ambiguity, urban degradation and depression so more of a picture of a time than a band producing art to be agreed with. Lou Reed was a complicated figure, a man who was give electric shock therapy as a teenager to ācureā him of homosexually and it left him bitter and difficult. Nico, the daughter of a Nazi soldier and multiple times sexual assault victim thrust into limelight by Andy Warhol. Iām not excusing their views or behaviour but theyāre a cultural epoch, theyāre a direct reflection of the nihilism and wrong doings of the twentieth century. And in doing so helped create pop art and rock as we know it. 6 out of 5.
Velvet Monorail
Iāve built monorails in Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook, and theyāre beginning to see the light!
This is the āpost Caleā version of the band of course - they were effectively a jobbing rock and roll band at this stage but still amazing. Also captured really well on this album:
They would have been a different proposition in the Cale/Warhol/Factory period but there arenāt any decent recordings of that.
Was so close to putting (Velvet meaning velvet, mono meaning one and rail meaning rail) after that option.
Love The Velvet Underground and The Velvet Underground & Nico. Their output could be pretty patchy and Iād hesitate to call any of it perfect, bit when they were good, they were really, really good, and the list of singles above is pretty staggering in terms of how hard it is to decide between them.
Obviously they went on to become one of the most important and influential bands, so Iāll be giving them an extra point for sheer cultural impact, but in my heart Iām really giving that extra point because the Velvet Underground gave us John Cale. 5
Also the best Welsh musician of all time donāt even at me
Venus in Furs is one of those songs that I remember hearing for the first time, just for how much of an instant love it was. I think it was on some rubbish chanel 4 vox-pop-celebrities remember the 60s things - canāt remember the program, but I remember hearing 40 seconds of Venus in Furs then getting up first thing to walk into town and buy the album the next morning. Itās arguably not even the best thing on there.
5
Tom Jones only sounds like heās Welsh I guess.
holding you all directly responsible for why we canāt have good music or art, will never forgive you all for this one
All you care about is tracing your stupid line of unbroken influence. Well I renounce all music now, never going to listen to any again
sweet - not heard that oneā¦and is reasonably cheap from discogs so may just go wild and pickup a copy thanks.
Yeah, the Cale period would have really been something live. Shame there is nothing worth listening to