You only need to look at how the Velvet Underground & Nico’s iconic 1967 album cover has become synonymous with a conveyor belt of fashionistas and socialites who gleefully adorn the work of Warhol. It’s an adage that has managed to catch flight in an era where band shirts and artistic symbols have crossed over into pop culture and mainstream fashion.
Believe it or not, in the pre-post-punk 1980s, and Bowie’s glam-rock phase in the 1970s, which thrust Lou Reed into the spotlight of popular music, there was a little-known band called The Velvet Underground. Nobody believed in them aside from Warhol and a few eclectic personalities that hovered around the New York art scene in the 1960s.
Undeniably prophetic, and a perfect avant-garde antithesis to the flower power that had dominated the music scene in the mid-1960s. The Velvet Underground & Nico was an album released to little fanfare, didn’t crack the top 150 in the US charts, and did not re-enter until 2013, when it was immortalized in music history, but how exactly did it get there? Let’s take a look.
The Big Gamble
Andy Warhol’s fame and Pop Art icon status was already well defined by 1967. It was when he decided to go into music management, hypnotized by the dark, magnetic, drone-based melodies of talismanic frontman Lou Reed and the classically trained violinist John Cale. Together, their blend of dark personalities created a chemistry and a forward-thinking sound that has not been replicated since.
R. Couri Hay in conversation with Andy Warhol outside Studio 54
Initially, though, in the age of The Beatles, Dylan, and The Doors, jumping headfirst into taboo in the way the Velvet Underground did was simply something that artists didn’t do. It might sound like an overstatement, given that the 1960s were a time when it felt like nothing was off the table. Still, the subject matter of VU & Nico was so dark that it was blocked by many radio stations, which largely explains its original dismal chart position.
It was a gamble, like anything in life that pushed the boat out. We’ve seen this work across many forms of entertainment in the last few decades. How betting and casino gaming platforms have moved online is a great example, especially for traditional games like baccarat.
Thirty years ago, the idea of playing table games like baccarat online was an idea that few people could get behind: too expensive, too slow, and not enough of a market even to consider.
Fast forward a couple of decades, and the vast majority of people who play baccarat online are new to the market, embracing the ingenuity of the change and watching this classic game move into the digital age. Often, these gambles emerge from short-term pain but long-term gain, and the VU & Nico embodied that perfectly from a musical standpoint.
Cementing Their Music Legacy
It might be biased to say this as someone who adores the Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol, but great artists often see the future emerge on the horizon long before most people do. That’s what makes them visionaries.
Yes, Andy managed the Velvets and put his now-famous banana artwork on the cover to help it gain notoriety, but back in 1967, most people in the store walked past and shrugged. 56 years later, Billboard ranked it as the greatest album cover of all time.
Ultimately, though, this is the tip of the iceberg; songs like Venus In Furs, The Black Angels Death Song, and European Son were so far ahead of their time that people just weren’t ready for them. It wasn’t until Bowie picked it up years later, and a range of highly creative experimental bands like Sonic Youth, The Stooges, Joy Division, and Television.
They didn’t just influence copycats; they influenced bands to truly sound like themselves, not to kowtow to big corporations. This is what art, music, and expression is about; this is it in its purest form. The VU & Nico was where it all began.
Is It Still As Important As It Once Was?
Yes and no, there’s nothing that anyone can do or say that will change the tsunami of creativity that bloomed from the debut album the Velvet Underground delivered. John Cale is still going strong; he’s pushing boundaries and hasn’t lost sight of the approach that has cemented his place in 20th-century music.
As music becomes automated and the industry seems to collapse under the weight of the profit-driven machine that has gone into overdrive in the digital age, who knows where the industry will go if it is to survive and continue to influence original and creative work.
Looking at the current state of music, it doesn’t have the importance it once did. Vacuous pop is the order of the day. AI slop is considered interesting by millions of listeners, and the best that experimental bands have to offer? Who is there? Geese? Really?
The relentless quest for originality that the VU embodied with such raw tenacity in 1967 isn’t there anymore. It is such an engineered market that demands instant results these days, but back in 1967, the VU & Nico flew under the radar for years, so who is to say that this century’s version hasn’t been released yet?
