The Velvet Underground

by Richard Witts

Though The Velvet Underground existed for no more than three years with its original lineup, it is considered to be not just the "ultimate New York band" but one of the most influential rock groups ever. Among its devotees are David Bowie, The Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, Joy Division, and Nirvana, along with hot new groups such as the White Stripes and the Strokes. Witts places the band and its genesis in the cultural context of Manhattan’s beatnik bohemianism, its radical artistic environment, and the city’s reaction to California’s "Hippie" counterculture. Lou Reed’s Brill Building background is also considered, while his Primitives (1964–65) and Velvet Underground (1965–70) songs are examined within the stylistic context of rock music. The band’s sound world is likewise considered in this light. John Cale’s experimental contribution is assessed, especially his work for LaMonte Young (The Theatre of Eternal Music), and what he carried from that experience into the Velvet’s sound. Andy Warhol, known to the group as Drella, became the band’s manager and producer in 1965. He installed his "superstar" Nico in the line-up (which already included a female drummer). Witts examines the radical nature of the Velvet’s Warhol-period performances, vis-à-vis issues of gender, sexuality, and the drug culture which was associated with the Warhol Factory scene, and contemplated in many of Reed’s songs. Witts studies the musical influences of The Velvet Underground on punk, post-punk, and subsequent rock movements, culminating in the group’s 1993 reunion. He also indexes the variety of media constructions that the group endured through the years and how these affected the attempts of Cale, Nico, and Reed to establish solo careers.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

162 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

Reviews

[Ian "Marvin" Graye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Move Right In

Lou Reed and John Cale have always been two of my favourite artists, and the Velvet Underground, on balance, my favourite band, notwithstanding vigorous competition from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Over the years, I've tended to read or buy everything I could find about the band and these artists.

I had high hopes for this book when it came out in 2006. It promised a different approach, although having flicked through it a few times, I deferred reading it from cover to cover, until now, shortly after the death of Lou Reed.

Having finally finished it, I have to confess some disappointment. It comes across as an autopsy of the band (even though two members are still alive) rather than a biopsy of the music.

The book positions the Velvets in the context of various artistic movements, but at no point did I get the impression that Witts was passionate about their music.

I can't even say that the work reads like a scholarly thesis that has found a publisher. It's more like lecture notes in PowerPoint format that have been fleshed out with biographical details that precis earlier bios by Victor Bockris.

The question is: what value does Witts add to the material that existed beforehand, let alone what is yet to come in the wake of Reed's death?

Foggy Notion

The body of the text is short, 137 pages. It devotes a chapter each to New York City, the band as a whole, Reed, Cale, Andy Warhol's Factory, and the concluding chapter, Death and Transfiguration.

The chapter on NYC, in particular the Lower East Side, barely mentions Reed and Cale. It sets an artistic context of Abstract Expressionism, Dadaism and Pop Art.

Witts links Cale to artistic abstraction and experimentalism, while Reed was more influenced by gritty realism. Together they blended a Dadaist interest in everyday objects and reality with an obsession with spontaneous performance (" the happening, the moment").

Later he adds:

"...Reed's output was locked into an outmoded Beat agenda of the 1950's: unadorned, disinterested observation of idiosyncratic characters, voyeuristic description of rough sex and indulgence in hard drugs, automatic writing, a desire to bring together 1950's rock 'n' roll with the 'ever now' improvisational approach of 1950's jazz.

"Cale was relatedly concerned with elitist, vanguard, performative minimalism influenced by late 1950's jazz (Coltrane, Coleman, Taylor).

"Neither of them 'reached out' to contemporary experience, which was in a prodigious phase of transition."

Beginning to See the Light

The chapter on the band as a whole starts with a reference to Richard Dawkins' book, "The Ancestor's Tale". He considers that Dawkins' analysis of evolution is apposite to popular music:

"Biological evolution has no privileged line of descent and no designated end. Evolution has reached many millions of interim ends... And there is no reason other than vanity...to designate any one as more privileged or climactic than any other."

Witts doesn't see the Velvets as important because they were ahead of their time. Instead, he sees them as "preterite", embodying and perpetuating their past influences in a way that can be rediscovered in the future:

"The Velvets' preterite view of the world, of the present as an assemblage of recent pasts, fusing dimly connected elements (modern jazz, doo-wop, rockabilly - 'Put it all together and you end up with me' - Reed), will remain influential whenever crises in periods of transition lead listeners to dwell in a dark place, a velvet underground perhaps, for the sake of stasis."

He adds that the band's existentialism -

"...will always be examined by those who are out of kilter with contemporary life, and who reject communal counteraction.

"They will seek solace in this idiosyncratic clash of creative individuals who only half comprehended their own influences - Reed's Beat poetry, Cale's fusion of [LaMonte] Young and [Phil] Spector, Morrison's rock 'n' roll, Tucker's African drumming.

"The Velvet Underground is existential proof that four halves make a whole."

I Found a Reason

This type of writing is Witts' ostensible value-add to the analysis of the Velvets. Yet, I found much of the contextualisation half-baked or half-digested.

It's not Reed or Cale, but Witts, who has "half-comprehended" their influences.

Too often, he simply juxtaposes influence with supposed outcome. He doesn't help us understand the influence or the transfiguration. He doesn't illuminate the dynamic that was at work.

I got the impression that he really wanted to write about AbEx or Dadaism or Pop Art or Dawkins, and he saw the Velvets bio as an opportunity to write about this subject matter, be published and maybe even be read, all on the back of Reed and Cale.

Equally, there is little discussion of the influence the Velvets, Reed and Cale have had on younger musicians, and why, other than the highly abstract reasoning of the passage quoted above.

Rock and Roll

The discussion of the music is almost solely in terms of chords and notation. Certainly, it was beyond my layperson's ability to comprehend. There was almost no mention of the dynamics or feel of the music, the thing that appeals to most fans, if you take away the street existentialist concerns of the lyrics.

Despite co-opting the framework of Dawkins, Witts describes the talent of the Velvets in terms of their ability to self-mythologise and to mystify.

In their mystery, their "disembodied inspiration", he finds "nothing you can put your finger on".

Immediately afterwards, he quotes the Joy Division producer, Martin Hannett:

"Primitive and complex at the same time, and just a fantastic, moody atmosphere. It was the atmosphere that interested us."

To which Witts retorts:

"In other words, nothing you could put your finger on."

I'm Sticking with You (Lou)

For me, this comment really highlighted Witts' inability to genuinely describe or enthuse about the music.

Here was a producer who understood what the Velvets were doing well enough to reconstruct it with countless post-punk bands in the 70's and 80's, and Witts puts him down, because he can't "put his finger on it", in other words, because he can't "dance about architecture".

Well, I think in that one sentence, for all its imprecision and impressionism, he did better than most of this book.


SOUNDTRACK:

The Velvet Underground and Nico - "Sunday Morning"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cWzxJ...

The Velvet Underground and Nico - "Femme Fatale" [Live]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjjDmX...

The Velvet Underground - "Femme Fatale"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0d5rH...

The Velvet Underground - "Femme Fatale" [Live as sung by Lou Reed at The Family Dog, San Francisco, November 1969 and taken from the Quine Tapes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCGO8a...

Richard Barone and Jane Scarpantoni - "I'll Be Your Mirror" (Lou Reed Tribute)[Live]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBPzxU...

Lou Reed - "Sweet Jane"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrMLt9...

[Lia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The music theory went over my head but I learned a lot from this, I really liked how it went into Lou reeds literary references because I could understand that.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good critical look at the first two albums and the background leading up to them. But I would have liked more on the third and fourth albums - as they're my favourites. Still, well written and great background.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't need a pulp novel, but this book is incredibly technical. If you want to know about not just the influences of VU, but what parts of their songs they used, or what chord structures they employed, dive in. It felt like I was reading a college dissertation. Still interesting, but be warned.