Upon its release Andy Warhol's "The Velvet underground & Nico" was so poorly received, that @RollingStone wouldn't even review it.

Now it is number 23 on their list of 500 best albums of all time.

A (long) thread about drugs, masochism and a mesmerizing German accent

1) In 1966 Andy Warhol, his Factory artists and then unknown Velvet Underground were hosting a series of multimedia events under the name "Exploding Plastic Inevitable". Their first show was held at a dinner function of the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry.

2) The shows featured screenings of16mm film, a stroboscope lightshow and live music from songwriter @LouReed, multi-instrumentalist @therealjohncale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, drummer Maureen Tucker and a fashion model from Cologne, Germany, as a singer: Nico

3) Born as Christa Päffgen, Nico was discovered to model as a teen, moved to Paris, appeared in @voguemagazine, starred in several films, sang, made it to NYC and became Andy Warhol's muse. She had affairs with Brian Jones and Jim Morrison and a severe 15-year heroin addiction.

4) Being partly deaf, and with her thick German accent, her singing has been described as "something like a cello getting up in the morning". But I think it is her icy, mesmerizing, floating voice that adds magic to this otherwise pretty rough record. https://open.spotify.com/track/4PINSJIlBWsnVeveicq1S8?si=D9jasIneSO2adzkRiYiSHQ

5) Depending on the source, recording of the album took 8 hours to 4 days and cost $2000. Warhol, credited as producer, stayed out of all musical production, and instead provided the artistic room for the band to freely unfold, while taking all flak from the record company.

6) The music is no easy listening by any means: ostentative, dissonant guitars (often all strings tuned to the same note, so-called "ostrich guitar"), galloping or dragging drums, and the screeching and screaming viola of J. Cale are around Reed's nonchalant yet agitated vocals.

8) Lyrically, the album is as blunt as can be: overt talk of drug abuse, prostitution, sadism, masochism and sexual deviancy got it banned from all radio airtime immediately or - at best - ignored. Even Warhol's iconic peel-off banana cover was dismissed as a lame publicity-stunt

7) All starts smooth, though: "Sunday Morning" is a soothing ballad with child-like Glockenspiel, introducing Reed's and Nico's vocals. It is, however, about crippling paranoia and "always someone watching you" - yay! https://open.spotify.com/track/11607FzqoipskTsXrwEHnJ?si=xMTTNQrQQmeRZ9OxB-Mynw

8) "I am waiting for the man" is a casual song about buying heroin from a dealer, while "Heroin", the opener of the B-side is the most amoral and descriptive take on the drug I've ever heard. All while the music alternates between calm and absolute chaos. https://open.spotify.com/track/5by3w3NXvwDpV9FBSOR35u?si=VBRF0Q56RgiG2LFqWFBlUQ

9) "Venus in Furs" is about a sex-slave being whipped by a dominatrix, a fascinating reference to the 19th century novel with the same name by Austrian writer and BDSM enthusiast Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who is best known as the namesake of - Masochism
https://open.spotify.com/track/29engDqjmMr3VLqMm0c0WE?si=IUCKoxrPSRu2om-F8SPoXw

10) The more lighthearted songs poke fun at the vanity and self-infatuation of the beauties and losers in the "Factory": The ironic and scathing "Femme Fatale" was written in particular about Superstar and It-girl Edie Sedgwick on Warhol's request.
https://open.spotify.com/track/3PG7BAJG9WkmNOJOlc4uAo?si=6lUYMq9VRKS4e5IcxUs1Rg

11) Then there are songs, that are more layers of calculated noise, repetitive dissonance, pulse and chaos than what is conventionally agreed upon as music. "The Black Angel's Death Song" and "European Son" are great examples of the unleashed artistic freedom that Warhol wanted.

11) On release, this LP was hated, but with time it became the prophetic piece of art that should inspire art rock, punk, garage, shoegaze, goth, and indie.
Brian Eno once said "while the album only sold approximately 30,000 copies […] everyone who bought one started a band!"

12) After buying my copy of the LP on vacation at @AmoebaSF, I vividly remember my disappointment, when I first listened to it. If you're like me and found its first pass bad, I encourage you to give it a few more spins- no album has ever grown more on me! https://open.spotify.com/album/4xwx0x7k6c5VuThz5qVqmV?si=cSYZLknoTFqnrr-snaEZog

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