the velvet underground … & nico
Day Fourteen. An album that changed the way I thought about life as a whole.
I’m going to read this as “What was one of your life changing albums?” Similar, but slightly different.
While there have been a couple of life changing listens post 2000, I’d have to say the ones with the most power hit pre 90’s. One of those did not, at the time, look like a life changing album.
In 1967 this album was released, and not many people cared. When I was introduced to it about 18 years later, things had changed. This album found its way to a lot of people.
The Velvet Underground & Nico. The one with the banana. The one I thought might be some artsy fartsy pop album because of the Andy Warhol connection, and all I really knew about Mr. Warhol at 16 years old was Campbell’s Soup and Polaroids of Celebrities at Disco Parties.
This was not my introduction to the Velvet Underground. That had been about a year earlier with a purchase at Zulu Records. On Cassette, I believe. The fairly new VU. I was a fan of the Talking Heads, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, and others, so a high school friend had recommended these guys. It was cool, it was fun, it was quirky and poetic and sweet.
And then I started playing in a band, and we pulled in some punk influences, and noise influences, and Velvet Underground influences… and I said, “what, like Andy’s Chest?” and my bandmates said, “No. Like Heroin.”
And my mind, my life, my music, was blown. That album opened so many doors and led me on so many different musical paths, that I’m pretty sure my life would have been shaped slightly differently without it. Every song was a different trip and I went on all of them.
#30daysofalbums #thevelvetunderground #thevelvetundergroundandnico
Marcel Feldmar 