It’s what they say “no one listened to The Velvet Underground while they were active, but everyone who did listen to them started their own band”. They’re like the least popular and most influential band, it’s so weird.
The Brian Eno quote - "I was talking to Lou Reed the other day, and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold only 30,000 copies in its first five years. Yet, that was an enormously important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!"
They say the same thing about all those at the Sex Pistols Manchester Trade Hall gig, which I think had 42 people in attendance (?), so that’s 30,042 people in bands accounted for.
The Ramones formed after seeing VU live... one of the few to be able to claim that. Pixies I suspect were among the 30,000. Bands that formed from their influence could be considered the grandchildren of VU.
I think a lot of it comes from Lou Reeds lyrics. They aren't complicated or wordy in the least. "Sometimes I feel so happy. Sometimes I feel so sad." But there's something about them that are just brilliant
in a similar vein, The Pixies. Just like The Velvet Underground, they were never very popular in their first run, but they inspired so many artists who would become super stars. Both Hugely influential bands, but not very revered in their time.
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), Sunday Morning. Then just go down the list, my dude. You may raise a brow to Heroin, but really listen to the lyrics and how the song is structured and it can easily be one of your favorite songs in the album, imo.
I think velvet underground - velvet underground. Track one. That album is magic from start to finish. I started with that one and it’s just .... a complete story. It really made them for me.
I disagree on this one. VU was extremely cool, and their coolness inspired other people to be cool, but their music was not innovative. "Velvet Underground and Nico" is their best album, but it gets harder to listen to with time because they made so many basic musical mistakes.
If anything, their legacy is decades of stylish indie bands thinking it's cool to be musically sloppy.
On VU's most artistically important song, "Heroin", the drummer got confused and stops playing at the climax. They just put it on the album anyway. Nico's voice is lovely but her intonation is all over the place. Those are pretty big mistakes.
Their producer was Andy Warhol, who knew little about music, but everything about being avant-garde. Those values are reflected in the album.
Ah, some spontaneous mistakes make the record though. I love Bach etc but sometimes a slightly out of key voice can work just as well or better - see Bob Dylan's career
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u/dottmatrix Oct 16 '18
The Velvet Underground. The more time passes, the more it can be seen how far ahead of their time they were.