The Velvet Underground was four-part: Singer Lou Reed was both chief songwriter and lead guitarist, John Cale (a classically-trained violist) played bass, Sterling Morrison played rhythm guitar, and Maureen Tucker played an unlikely drum set with a conspicuous absence of cymbals. Indeed, almost all alternative American and British music since 1967 has its roots–if not in execution, then at least in style–in The Velvet Underground & Nico, the first album of the band’s incredibly brief career.įirst, a brief history. The Velvets were a product of their time as sure as any other band however, their influence on the rock and pop of subsequent generations has, over time, vaulted them to the near-monolithic status of even their most popular peers. Nevertheless, the recording had no place in a landscape soon to be dominated by San Francisco psychedelics and high-concept British pop. The Velvet Underground’s seedy, druggy music defiantly reflected an urban attitude even closer to the beatniks than Bob Dylan and even more devoted to rock n’ roll primitivism than The Rolling Stones or The Who.

Its sales were dismal, due in part to legal troubles, and MGM’s bungled attempts at promoting the record. When The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March of 1967, it was to a public that hardly cared and a critical establishment that could not make heads or tails of it. They were expected to choose a musician (before 1970) and review a full-length LP by that artist he felt particularly inclined to make the case for a set of truly bizarre, radical artists who have been historically misunderstood and misaligned. He wrote this paper as one part of a multi-paper project in Historical Studies in Jazz and Popular Music, taught by Dr. Budds for encouraging him and his submission to this journal. He writes in his spare time and fronts a local Columbia rock band, “The Rollups”. Sam Jennings started attending the University of Missouri in 2012 and is currently pursuing a bachelor of music performance in guitar. Album Review of The Velvet Underground & Nico

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