The Velvet Underground & Nico

    1967 Self Titled  Debut Vinyl LP V6-5008

This Album is Number 13 on Rolling Stone Magazine's List of the 500 Greatest  Albums of All Time

Description: The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album by The Velvet Underground and vocal collaborator Nico. It was released in March 1967 by Verve  Records. 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.

Though a commercial failure upon release, the record has since become one of the most influential and critically acclaimed rock albums in history, appearing at number thirteen on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time as well as being added to the 2006 National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

The Velvet Underground & Nico was recorded with the first professional line-up of The Velvet  Underground, including Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and  Maureen "Moe" Tucker. For this record Nico was included, who would  occasionally sing lead with the band at the instigation of their mentor and manager, Andy Warhol. Nico sang lead on three of the  album's tracks - "Femme Fatale", "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'll Be  Your Mirror" - and back-up on "Sunday Morning". In 1966, as the album was being recorded, this was also the line-up for their live  performances as a part of Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable.

The bulk of the songs that would become The Velvet Underground & Nico were recorded in mid-April, 1966, during a four-day stint at Scepter Studios, a decrepit recording studio in  New York City. This recording session was financed by Warhol and Columbia Records' sales executive Norman Dolph, who also acted as an  engineer with John Licata. Though exact total cost of the project is unknown, estimates vary from $1500 to $3000. Soon after recording, Dolph sent an acetate disc of the recordings to Columbia in an attempt to interest them in distributing the album, but they declined, as did Atlantic Records and Elektra Records. Eventually, the MGM  Records-owned Verve Records accepted the recordings with the help of  Verve staff producer Tom Wilson, who had recently moved from a job at  Columbia.

With the affirmation of a label, three of the songs, "I'm Waiting for the Man", "Venus in Furs" and "Heroin", were re-recorded in two days at T.T.G. Studios during a stay in  Hollywood later in 1966. As the record's release date was bumped back time after time because of production problems, Wilson also took them into a New York studio in November 1966 to add a final song to the track listing: the single "Sunday Morning". The production on that song is far more professional and lush, aimed as it was at radio  playtime.

Review: One would be hard pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as The Velvet Underground and Nico. While it reportedly took over a decade for the album's sales to crack six figures, glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other  left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set. While  The Velvet Underground had as distinctive a sound as any band, what's most surprising about this album is its diversity. Here, the Velvets dipped their toes into dreamy pop ("Sunday Morning"), tough garage rock ("Waiting for the Man"), stripped-down R&B ("There She Goes  Again"), and understated love songs ("I'll Be Your Mirror") when they weren't busy creating sounds without pop precedent. Lou Reed's lyrical exploration of drugs and kinky sex (then risky stuff in film and literature, let alone "teen music") always received the most press attention, but the music Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker played was as radical as the words they accompanied. The bracing discord of "European Son," the troubling beauty of "All Tomorrow's Parties," and the expressive dynamics of "Heroin," all  remain as compelling as the day they were recorded. While the significance of Nico's contributions have been debated over the years, she meshes with the band's outlook in that she hardly sounds like a typical rock vocalist, and if Andy Warhol's presence as producer was  primarily a matter of signing the checks, his notoriety allowed The Velvet Underground to record their material without compromise, which would have been impossible under most other circumstances. Few rock albums are as important as The Velvet Underground and Nico and fewer still have lost so little of their power to surprise and intrigue more than 40 years after first hitting the racks. Mark Deming                                                                                                   

Label: 1967 Verve Records  Release # V6-5008

Recording Date: April, 1966 - November, 1966

Recording Location: Scepter  Studios, 254 West 54th St., New York City, NY 1966-05-00

Genre: Experimental rock,  protopunk, art rock, avant garde

Style: Rock

Release Date: March 12, 1967

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo

Country: US

Cover: Gatefold

Duration: 48:59

Producer: Andy Warhol.

Engineers: Norman Dolph & John  Licata

Original LP mastering date: 1966-10-25

Credits:

    Design [Cover  Design] – Acy R. Lehman
    Lead Guitar, Guitar [Ostrich], Vocals – Lou Reed
    Painting [Cover Painting Banana] – Andy Warhol
    Percussion – Maureen Tucker
    Photography By – Hugo (38), Paul Morrissey (2)
    Producer – Andy Warhol (tracks: A2 to B5)
    Remix – David Greene, Gene Radice
    Rhythm Guitar, Bass Guitar – Sterling Morrison
    Supervised By [Remix] – Tom Wilson (2)
    Viola [Electric], Piano, Bass Guitar – John Cale
    Vocals [Chanteuse] – Nico (3)

Barcode and Other Identifiers:

   Side 1, Label: V6-5008  (MGS-558)
  Side 2, Label: V6-5008 (MGS-559)
  Matrix / Runout (Side 1): V6-5008 SIDE-1 MGS-558 REV

  Matrix / Runout (Side 2): V6-5008 SIDE-2 MGS-559-RE1

Listen  to   Heroin  (Side 2, Track 1)

Banana Album:  The Velvet Underground & Nico is sometimes referred to as the "banana album" as it features a Warhol print of a banana on the cover. Early copies of the album invited the owner to "Peel slowly and see"; peeling back the banana skin revealed a flesh-colored banana underneath. A special machine was needed to manufacture these covers  (one of the causes of the album's delayed release), but MGM paid for costs figuring that any ties to Warhol would boost sales of the album. Reissues only have the printed banana.

Cover: The original back cover on the monaural releases have an upside-down image of Eric  Emerson's head at the top of the photo and his outstretched arms on the right and left. The back cover as seen on subsequent copies of the album, have Emerson's image airbrushed from the cover.

Back cover lawsuit controversy: 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 projected upside-down on the wall behind the band. Emerson threatened to sue over this unauthorized use of his image, unless he was paid. Rather  than complying, MGM recalled copies of the album and halted its distribution until Emerson's image could be airbrushed from the photo on subsequent pressings. Copies that had already been printed were  sold with a large black sticker covering the actor's image which resulted in three variations of the cover for this, all with peel able banana on front. This is the first version with an image of journalist Emerson superimposed on Lou Reed's face on the back cover. This is known as the ''torso'' version. The second version has a sticker blotting this out. The third version has it airbrushed away. The image was restored in the 1996 CD reissue.

  Track List
  Side one
    "Sunday Morning" (Reed, Cale) – 2:54
    "I'm Waiting for the Man" – 4:39
    "Femme Fatale" – 2:38
    "Venus in Furs" – 5:12
    "Run Run Run" – 4:22
    "All Tomorrow's Parties" – 6:00
  Side two
    "Heroin" – 7:12
    "There She Goes Again" – 2:41
    "I'll Be Your Mirror" – 2:14
    "The Black Angel's Death Song" (Reed, Cale) – 3:11
    "European Son" (Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker) –    7:46

  Verve Records; was originally the product of the vision of jazz impresario Norman Granz (1918-2001). Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records (founded in 1946) and Norgran Records (founded in 1953), and  material which had been licensed to Mercury previously. Granz sold Verve to MGM in 1961 for $3 million. Besides its main focus on jazz, Verve did host a handful of rock artists in the 1960s, including The Righteous Brothers, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, The Velvet Underground, and The Blues Project. These recordings were usually released on blue Verve labels, which helped to distinguish them from Jazz releases, which used black labels. In the seventies, the label became part of the PolyGram label group. Verve Records became the Verve Music Group after PolyGram was merged with Seagram's Universal Music Group in 1998. Today, Verve is one of the world's leading jazz labels. The active roster of artists include:  Andrea Bocelli, Smokey Robinson, Natalie Cole, Carla Bruni, Yuna, Agnetha Faltskog, Lou Doillon, Blake Mills and Cody Karey.

Album Condition:  The album was originally released in monaural. When finally released in stereo Emerson was airbrushed out of the image on the rear of the album. The album in this auction is the original gatefold cover. The album cover is in good condition showing some wear along the edges (see images). There is an  album liner included although it is not the original Verve records. The vinyl is in good condition. On side one there appears be a few scuffs and one visible scratch.  On side 2 there are some scuffs and one visible scratch. The record labels are blue/silver T Verve and have no writing, markings or spindle wear although there appears to be a few scuffs on Side 1 (see images). This album is an original heavy duty pressing. This album is not a reissue, an import, or a counterfeit pressing. It has the original, thick cardboard cover (American style). There are no barcodes, cut out holes or saw marks.

The Auction: This is a No Reserve Auction.  Your album will be shipped in a 200 lbs test corrugated cardboard mailer box  with a 32 lb. edge crush rating. The buyer pays for  handling, packaging and shipping in the US by USPS Media Mail  at a flat rate of $4.00. PayPal, Cashiers Checks, and Personal Checks accepted  as payment. Payment is expected within five days from the close of the auction.  Please allow up to seven days for personal checks to clear. Please see the below  chart for international mailing rates and USPS Priority Mail if requested. This  item is guaranteed to be as described above. If you do not agree with my  description then you may return these items for a refund (less fees, shipping  and handling) within fourteen days. No return if the album or cover has been  damaged.            

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