The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground was an influential avant garde rock group, promoted and produced by painter Andy Warhol. Their debut album "The Velvet Underground & Nico" (1967) is considered to be one of the most important rock albums of all time. Some of the members went on to have succesful solo careers, like John Cale, Lou Reed and Nico.

References

During the late 1960s The Mothers of Invention and The Velvet Underground were the two most well known alternative rock bands in the world. Both groups were rivals of each other and diminished each others' achievements and importance. They had a lot in common: both bands were cynical about the hippie movement and longed for experimentation. The main difference between the Velvet Underground and The Mothers was that they were much more serious and less colorful in appearance.

On May 3, 1966 The Mothers played as opening gig for The Velvet Underground in the Trip, Los Angeles. Zappa proclaimed from the crowd: "These guys really suck", whereupon Reed later returned the insult: "Zappa is probably the single most untalented person I've ever heard in my life. He's a two-bit, pretentious academic, and he can't play rock 'n' roll, because he's a loser. And that's why he dresses funny. He's not happy with himself and I think he's right." After Zappa's accident on stage (see The Rainbow Theatre Incident) Reed was booked to play at the Hammersmith Odeon but changed the venue to the Rainbow, he said, so that he could look down at the point where Frank hit the ground. (Source: Dweezil Goes Out To Lunch.) On page 94-95 from Richie Unterburger's extensive biography of The Velvet Underground he quotes Jimmy Carl Black: "I don't remember Zappa actually putting them down on stage, but he might have. He really disliked the band. For what reasons I really don't know, except that they were junkies and Frank just couldn't tolerate any kind of drugs. I know that I didn't feel that way and neither did the rest of the Mothers. I thought that they were very good, especially Nico (whom I secretly fell in love with or was it lust?). I especially thought that Moe was a very good drummer, because in those days I don't recall there being any other female drummers on the scene. The thinking of the audiences was completely different than those from New York City. They were lukewarmly received."

On October 23, 1967, in New York, singer Nico sang with The Velvet Underground. According to page 168 of Richie Unterburger's biography of The Velvet Underground, Chris Darrow of the magazine "Kaleidoscope" claimed: "The opening night was very crowded and Zappa and members of the Mothers of Invention showed up to show their support. (...) Nico's delivery of her material was very flat, deadpan, and expressionless, and she played as though all of her songs were dirges. She seemed as though she was trying to resurrect the ennui and decadence of Weimar, pre-Hitler Germany. Her icy, Nordic image also added to the detachment of her delivery. (...) The audience was on her side, as she was in her element and the Warhol contingent was very prominent that night. However, what happened next is what sticks in my mind the most from that night. In between sets, Frank Zappa got up from his seat and walked up on the stage and sat behind the keyboard of Nico's B-3 organ. He proceeded to place his hands indiscriminately on the kebyboard in a total, atonal fashion and screamed at the top of his lungs, doing a caricature of Nico's set, the one he had just seen. The words to his impromptu song were the names of vegetables like broccoili, cabbage, asparagus... This "song" kept going for about a minute or so and then suddenly stopped. He walked off the stage and the show moved on. It was one of the greatest pieces of rock 'n roll theater that I have ever seen."

The Velvet Underground later accused Zappa of helding up their debut album until 1967 so that Zappa's debut, Freak Out! could be released in 1966 as the first avantgarde rock album.

On the original LP version of We're Only In It For The Money (1968) Gary Kellgren spoke the line: "I get to work with the Velvet Underground, which is as shitty a group as Frank Zappa's group." On the CD release this line was cut.

However, in an interview with Frank Kofsky for Jazz & Pop Magazine, October 1967, Zappa claimed he liked the first Velvet Underground album. "I liked that album. I think that Tom Wilson deserves a lot of credit for making that album, because it's folk music. It's electric folk music, in the sense that what they're saying comes right out of their environment." And in 1980 during the Star Special radio special on BBC Radio 1 Zappa selected a song by The Velvet Underground as one of his personal favorites: "All Tomorrow's Parties". Another song he liked was "Femme Fatale".

When Zappa visited Czechoslovakia in 1990 he discovered that his music and that of The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones were illegal under the communist government because of their rebellious nature.

On January 12, 1995, in an ironic twist of events, Lou Reed inducted Zappa into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Gail Zappa and the children were first against it and asked for Johnny "Guitar" Watson instead. Gail and Reed had a long talk over the phone about the rivalry between Reed and Zappa and eventually the induction continued as planned. (See: Zappa Inducted Into The Hall Of Fame)

More information

• Wikipedia:The Velvet Underground
• UNTERBERGER, Richie, "White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day By Day", Jawbone, 2008, pages 33, 57, 94, 117, 164, 167, 168, 224, 252, 273, 299, 348.