1967 MONO THE VELVET UNDERGROUND + Nico Warhol PSYCH

$

305

Dionysians / Apollonians; avant-garde chamber group / rock and roll dance band; violent nihilists / compassionate humanists; white noise tornado / neo-folk tonic; satanists / moralists

         1967 FIRST PRESS IN STUNNING MONOPHONIC

 Andy Warhol       

   THE  VELVET  UNDERGROUND

                                         & Nico

\                                                  USA - VERVE - V-5008 - MONAURAL

Rare and highly collectible...with thee original back cover image ! When the album was first issued, the main back cover photo (taken at an Exploding Plastic Inevitable performance) featured an image of actor Eric Emerson ...his head and his outstretched arms on the right and left projected upside-down on the wall behind the band .. Emerson threatened to sue over this unauthorized use of his image, and MGM/VERVE pasted a sticker over remaining covers, then airbrushed the image out) ...here is the original with Eric Emerson image....

Very nice, all around pretty clean 1967 first press vinyl in thick gatefold; the famous andy Warhol banana cover is peeled...(see condition details below song listings)

The (((rare))) MONAURAL pressing offers different song mixes from the stereo release and also contains a bold punchy sound production = ideal for the 'white noise tornado rock & roll' sound of the Velvets...

Recorded in 1966 during Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event tour, The Velvet Underground & Nico would gain notoriety for its experimentalist performance sensibilities, as well as its focus on controversial subject matter expressed in many of their songs.

Theirs was the dim world of drugs and sexual perversion, of heroin addiction and the desperate loss of hope that goes with it. Their concern was with death and violence... Oozing evil and lubricity, they made every other group look like kid stuff, and they made a lot of people nervous... There is no word for their sound but sometimes it seems as if a presence has taken it over, perhaps even His Satanic Majesty himself. You can easily imagine someone performing black masses with the Velvet Underground’s albums. Not for the kiddies. 

Their world view was dark and nihilistic at a time when everyone else was singing about peace and flowers... The Doors (whose first album was a hit when Velvet Underground & Nico was released) had a darker vision than The Velvet Underground! Even Jefferson Airplane, whose Surrealistic Pillow LP defined for the time capsules the romance of the Hippie Moment, didn’t turn a blind eye to the dark side of the counterculture-- and the Airplane and The Doors were the most popular bands in America during the Velvets’ time.

The Velvet Underground & Nico (the latter being a Warhol-recommended "chanteuse" who departed after the album was released to pursue an even more quixotic solo career) does function as a kind of "map of their music" (to paraphrase The Doors’ description of their own debut LP). The overall impression created is dark, noisy, more than a little paranoid and seemingly amoral (as opposed to immoral)-- "Heroin" makes a point of being neither for nor against, but simply about; similarly, no specific judgment is passed upon the characters in songs like "I’m Waiting For The Man" and "Venus In Furs." The album concludes with "The Black Angel’s Death Song" and "European Son," likably self-indulgent exercises in sonic (and verbal) envelope-pushing. But the ballads Lou wrote for Nico to sing (including the album opener "Sunday Morning" ) provide a disarmingly sweet balance, and even a specific reassurance: "When you think the night has seen your mind, / That inside you’re twisted and unkind, / Let me stand to show that you are blind-- / Please put down your hands, / ‘Cause I see you-- / I’ll be your mirror..."

1. "Sunday Morning" (Reed, Cale) – 2:54
2. "I'm Waiting for the Man" – 4:39
3. "Femme Fatale" – 2:38
4. "Venus in Furs" – 5:12
5. "Run Run Run" – 4:22
6. "All Tomorrow's Parties" – 6:00

7. "Heroin" – 7:12
8. "There She Goes Again" – 2:41
9. "I'll Be Your Mirror" – 2:14
10. "The Black Angel's Death Song" (Reed, Cale) – 3:11
11. "European Son" (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker) – 7:46

CONDITION:The gatefold cover reveals a peeled banana, VG++ to "EX" (excellent) the front cover is close or right at EXcellent with the white cover still very white, even better to the naked eye than the photo shows; with no seam splits, no bends, no writing anywhere. The back cover is still well preserved with just a bit of shelf wear and nothing bad... all said, a nice collection piece from 1967

The vinyl is  VG++  really the only marks appear to be some minor hairline visual scuffs or a  few inner paper sleeve scuffings, nothing much ...the first thing you notice is a pretty clean surface on both sides. ...then....Playback is outstanding.

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record