The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album by American rock band The Velvet Underground and German singer and model Nico. It took almost a decade for the album's sales to reach six figures, and still nearly every rock group owes a clear debt to this album. This album diversity allowed Velvet Underground to try various styles of music such as wistful pop on the track Sunday Morning, rough garage rock on the track Waiting for the Man, basic R&B on the track There She Goes Again, and a minimalist love song on the track I'll Be Your Mirror. The Velvet Underground & Nico was known for its intense descriptions of drug abuse, prostitution, love, and sadomasochism in this album.

Lou Reed and John Cale played a tremendous role in the influential success of The Velvet Underground. Lou Reed born Lewis Allan Reed in 1942 is a rock musician,songwriter and photographer. Best known for his role as guitarist vocalist an done of two main songwriters of Velvet Underground. Reed mostly wrote about his personal experiences in life. John Cale born March 1942 is a musician,composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, and founding member of the Velvet Underground. Cale left the band in 1968, due to creative differences with Reed.What Cale and Reed did share with their time together was an ambition to bring the sensibilities of the avant-garde to rock music, which they succeeded with the Velvet Underground.

The production, promotion and support of the Velvet Underground & Nico had many hands involved in its creation. Andy Warhol technically produced the album,since being the only formally credited producer. Warhol didn't really have much influence over the album other than paying for the sessions, making them a crucial element of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia performance art show, and getting German singer Nico on the album. The lack of Warhol's manipulation over the album is a legitimate means of production credit of the album. Norman Dolph Columbia Records Sales Executive along side Warhol financed the album creation. Dolph acted as engineer with John Licata, Dolph sent a test copy of the album to Columbia and several other labels trying to persuade them to distribute the album, and ultimately Verse Records accepted the deal. John Cale is the rightful producer because he composed most of the arrangements but Cale hands the crown to Tom Wilson stating Wilson actually produced mostly all of the tracks on the Velvet Underground & Nico.

The Velvet Underground had a unique style totally different from any other music of their time. Mixing art with rock was a brilliant idea when dealing with creativity. Cale and Reed wanting to have avant-garde mixed in rock was a good move for them creatively but not financially. As a listener I can't say I enjoyed the Velvet Underground & Nico album, I just didn't understand why it was so great. To me upon listening to it all I could think of is a mesh of noises coming together to create a piece of work, but not in a good way. As a industry professional I hear creativity in this making rock music like no other before it with a splice of art, viola and simple drums. I can see why people look at the Velvet Underground as a influence to rock music, they used the number one cardinal rule create music and be free to express what you want. That is my take on The Velvet Underground & Nico.