Always enjoy your insightful and lyrical reviews, usually stuffed full of our favourite “Bazisms”...You tread an entertaining path of musical criticism, travelling somewhere between the uplands of Barry Norton and the dreamy dells of Whispering Bob Harris. Loving it Maestro!

@classicalbum

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoy my videos.

Lou Reed famously once said: One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz. I'll start a fight - I always thought this was a record we were supposed to like because a few New York critics once put it on a best album list. It always struck me as a bit of an The Emperor's New Clothes Album, although young King Louis at least has the good sense to accessorise well - A series of, musically, performance pieces illustrating Reed's desire to write (or rewrite) novels/novelas. It's very interesting and all, but of their four albums with Reed, it's the one you tick off as ''obligatorily listened to" and then go to the good (and Nico free) stuff on the next albums - particularly White Light/White Heat. Influential as it might have been , it hardly arrived wholeborn (It owes a huge debt to The Monks and their demented "Black Monk Time" LP), the unanswered (and unasked) question here is - "how"? Looking back, you can see the fingerprints of the parallel Detroit sound of huge swathes of music, but no one who has ever too directly followed the VU has ever been treated as much more than poseurs and novelty acts. So how were they so influential (answer on a postcard below) Of course, the answer lies not in looking at the music, it lies in looking at the album as an artefact of a largely imagined freedom. That's wny Vaclav Havel dug it and namedhis revolution after it, and why there are statues of Frank Zappa in Estonia (although I still can't figure out why there's a statue of Columbo in Budapest. But do you really need a reason to build a statue of Columbo? He's awesome.) Seriously, check out the Monks -they're mental - and they recorded this album while on active service in the US Army!

@furthercomplications5448

3 жыл бұрын

I listened to the Banana Record and thought it was rubbish. Couldn't see what the review was going on about. The music is juvenile and boring and the lyrics are the most joyless jumble of pulp novel cliches you'll ever hear. Maybe people thought it was great back then, but now?

@marktrickett5081

3 жыл бұрын

Wow. Thanks for that insight.

One of your best reviews ever, in my opinion. This is why I subscribe and contribute to your channel. You have described the indescribable, the essence of the densest album ever. You have safely and successfully navigated this listener through a black hole. Well done!

@classicalbum

3 жыл бұрын

Thank so much for watching and for your lovely comments.

An excellent review of an album, which properly kick-started Bowie's musical career and hasn't ceased to continue exciting me for almost 30 years!

I was surprised to find a brand new vinyl reissue of this album at the shopping mall just yesterday. I wasn't going to let that opportunity pass me by so I bought it.

I was just listening to Songs For Drella.....I love Cale and Reed together. I have been deep diving into Lou Reed’s catalog......I can’t get enough of Rock And Roll Animal....one of my favorite live records.....fantastic review as always Barry

@johnmavroudis2054

3 жыл бұрын

Songs for Drella is such a great album.

Thanks so much. One of the most important albums of my life. Still as powerful as when it was recorded. Your review is one of the only ones I've seen do this amazing album justice. Cheers!

@classicalbum

3 жыл бұрын

My pleasure! Do subscribe and share if you can

Inspiring review! That’s my Sunday listening now sorted! Some velvet underground morning...

a splendid and refreshing review of a true classic. thanks!

Brilliant review, kind sir!! I'd love to see a ranking video of VU and Lou Reed albums.

The album that changed my life forever. I'll never forget it!

Love your work

My favorite album of all time! Thank for the review! 🤗

Thanks Jim. Ill definitely tune in.

Brilliant analysis

The level of influence this album has is not a joke. Punk, post-punk, Goth, indie and alternative bands all owe their existance to this album.

@briancox8518

Жыл бұрын

Japan were heavily influenced by the velvets on there Quiet life album

Great review

This is my favorite Velvet Underground album. I like Nico`s contribution on the album. Her vocals on "Sunday morning" are beautiful. It`s too bad it didn`t sell more. It should have been a huge seller based on its quality.

Another great review, thank you. Some interesting comments here; it seems quite polarised. I can't help feeling that professing to like this album is seen as being an affectation by some. I first heard the LP in mid 70's with little prior knowledge of the history or mythology (I think that the only related thing I knew at the time was Walk on the wild side from the radio) and loved it at face value; certainly not because I thought I ought to. Watching them play All tomorrows parties (Cale on vocals) on their 1993 reunion tour was an all time gig highlight for me.

This album had me very confused me at first. The dark themes are presented like broken glass in some tracks, but in others they are presented almost as a twinkling lullaby. It took me several listens to sort it all out in my head. When the smoke cleared I purchased every VU album available. I still enjoy them today. Lovely and thoughtful review as always. Thank you

Sunday Morning has stayed with me from the first time I heard it... One of the most beautiful songs ever put to vinyl.

How about a review of Japan Quiet life album They were heavily influenced by the velvets on this album including a cover of all tomorrow parties Excellent review

That was an instant classic Classic Album Review

Brilliant thank you.I found the VU in the late 1980,s. There is an atmosphere about their music that is quite addictive.To be honest it was the band that led to me widening my musical genre much to my benefit.Had this very album amongst others of theirs at the time.Curiously the White Heat album led me to The Pixies which I took with open arms.

A great review of one of the greatest albums of all time

How about ranking VU albums or your top 10 VU songs

Surprised by the Baudelaire mention. In Victor Bockris, in his Lou Reed biography, calls him the _"Baudelaire of New York"_ . Lou Reed is part of the _poètes maudits_ tradition that goes from the Romantics, Baudelaire, Lautréamont, Rimbaud, to the Beat generation (Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs). Like Dylan, he is a modern bard (simple and repetitive music so that we can focus on the dense lyrics which tell a story, just like in the time of Homer, Hesiod and Sappho), but he adapts this persona to a more modern and dark sensibility. If Dylan is a dialogue with the Medieval troubadours, Lou Reed is a dialogue with Greek theatre and Shakespeare's darkest tragedies. If he was alive, I think he would deserve the Nobel prize for Literature just as much Dylan in 2016.

@classicalbum

Жыл бұрын

I rather like the Baudelaire quote, and do tend to overuse it somewhat.

Had to be done Barry. One of the seminal albums in rock history and a brilliant debut. Arguably the first truly 'Indie' album and a band name well chosen in describing the seedy underground world of urban New York and the street circus lives of its inhabitants. It's a modern Warhol world of chancers, fakers, givers, takers, performers, winners, losers, lovers and dreamers. A Desolation Row of strip clubs, porn shops, dealers, junkies, and hustlers. The Velvets utilised the three chord primal sounds of early rock and roll, combined with the drone tunings of Cale's modernist influence to create the sound of the city. With his Tin Pan Alley apprenticeship and love of '50s soul and doo-wop, Reed could also write real songs of tenderness and beauty. Nico gave these songs a waspish and airy European romanticism. It's a tremendous record and I found your analysis thoughtful and fascinating. Thanks for another great video.

@classicalbum

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and commenting

According to this month's Record Collector Jethro Tull have recorded a new album entitled 'The Zealot Gene'. I'm sure you know this but just in case.

James Young wrote one of pop music's most hilarious and pithy chronicles of 80's era Nico,(Songs They Never Play on The Radio) based on Mancunian local impressario Alan Wise's (Aka-Demetrius) attempts to resurrect a series of Nico- 'come back' tours and riding the Velvet-Undergrounds associative nostalgia train while essentially supporting her, biblical at that point, heroin addiction imperatives. There are vast treasures to be found in this rock-biog of unfathomable genius, Young is the most awesome of writers one could possibly imagine but given the rich and charismatic gang of Mancunian reprobates who surrounded Nico at the time, not entirely unsurprising. Even John Cale turns up as producer of Camera Obscura in one chapter, with a hilarity that's off the scale and not forgetting John Cooper Clarkes epic junkie cameos. I have read many rock iconographies but this is, for myself, a high watermark of the genre, genius-par-ex, despite the not exactly....major-league (In the music pecking order let's say) subject matter on display. The real star is James Young's writing style informed by his tenure as keyboard player on several Nico musical outings. This book is the faberge-egg of the music world, no home should be missing a copy.

Do The Stooges' Fun House next!

Supposedly the legend behind this album is that it only sold some 30,000 copies in its first 5 years. However, everyone who bought one of those copies went on to start a band! Love this record and all of VU’s other releases.

@classicalbum

3 жыл бұрын

I mention that in the video

Masterpiece than changed everything. One of the most influential albums.

@shanewright2772

3 жыл бұрын

How?

@GaryBook

3 жыл бұрын

@@shanewright2772 Because hundreds of bands formed after hearing it. It influenced the development of punk and literary content of material in rock music. In the middle of the 1968, it introduced themes and moods that emerged in the late 70’ies. They also merged art and music with Warhol that influenced culture.

@shanewright2772

3 жыл бұрын

@@GaryBook Perhaps. But I think that's a romantic argument based on an off hand quote by Brian Eno. You could just as easily substitute the Ramones there and make it even more apt. It echoed musical and thematic developments - the Fugs, for example, were way ''ahead' on that kind of topical songwriting. But I'm struggling to think of any late 70's act of any significance, Joy Division aside, who took their cue from the VU and not the Detroit bands. Your point about culture has a ring of truth though, but not in a musical way, It is a cultural accoutrement, not a cultural artefact and it serves as, critically, a counter point to the prevailing summer of love narrative.

@GaryBook

3 жыл бұрын

@@shanewright2772 The Ramones existed because of the Velvet Underground and Punk because of the Ramones. The argument isn’t based on Brain Eno’s quote, I lived through the Velvet’s and Lou Reed in real time. WNEW in NYC played them. They were a foundational band. David Bowie knew it, Iggy Pop, etc. There is a reason U2 honors them. They were very influential. Just as the Beatles on Ed Sullivan created so many that got a guitar, so will the Velvet Underground, they spun 3000 garage bands.

@shanewright2772

3 жыл бұрын

@@GaryBook Well, maybe, but in Everett True's biography of the Ramones- which I am sure a knowledgeable fan such as yourself has read - there are 8 references to the VU and more than twice that many to the Stooges, including a 3 page analysis. The Vu references are to Andy Shernoff being a fan (and the Ramones certainly weren't the Dictators) the New York Gay Bondage Scene, a comparison between Hawkwind and the VU (implying the primordial Ramones sounded like Hawkwind!), comparison between Suicide and the VU (much more appropriate), a passim reference to a band called The Shop Assistants, a quote from a chap called Slim Moon who says the Ramones were the greatest American Band ever, above the VU, (but then he also names Sonic Youth, the Byrds and Funkadelic as the other 3 best), a fan opining that Marky Ramone was better than Mo Tucker (he had a better haircut, that's for sure) and one perhaps meaningful reference, except that it is written by David Fricke, who writes for Rolling Stone so that speaks volumes to his credibility - but Fricke makes an interesting point - and if Barry is reading, I'd value his thoughts on this - are the VU the American Version of Pink Floyd? Fricke's point (and I maybe me misrepresenting it here, because I dont speak fluent liberal idiot) is the each the VU, Pink Floyd and Ramones are all Rock bands that operate largely without explicit reference to the blues or blues forms. So, given the fact that True is a meticulous journalist who doesn't overthink things (and he lives in my home town! and he introduced Kurt to Courtney!) I'd say what is an exhaustive book that fails to establish a significant lineage between the two bands yet connects the Ramones to the Stooges with a little more authority probably leans towards discounting that avenue of influence. But I could be wrong. Oh, and by the way, did you form a band because you heard the VU? That'd be an interesting story!

Best album ever

Great album but i prefer the loaded album for me is their best

Lou Reed is considered a God in Poland.

@furthercomplications5448

3 жыл бұрын

Just wait until they hear Iggy Pop.

🍌

Waiting For The Man and Venus in Furs are great, but a lot of the record is overrated.

Never liked this to be honest. It's contrarianism taken too far, and skipping vital parts of music making like actual production and mastering of songs doesn't make it "cool". I like Sunday Morning, Venus in Fur and the Nico tracks.