Mark Deming (All Music Guide)

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 30 years after first hitting the racks.

Douglas Wolk (Amazon.com)

When the Velvets recorded this debut, they were best known as the protégés of Andy Warhol (who designed the sleeve), and as a grating, combustive live band. Fueled by drummer Moe Tucker's no-nonsense wham and John Cale's howling viola, some of the straight-up rock & roll and arty noise extravaganzas here bear that out. But before Lou Reed was singing about sadomasochism and drug deals and writing lyrics inspired by his favorite poets, he was a pop songwriter, and this album has some of his prettiest tunes, mostly sung by Nico, the German dark angel who left the band after this disc. Even the sordid rockers are underscored by graceful pop tricks, like the two-chord flutter at the center of the classic "Heroin."

Martin Johnson (Barnes & Noble)

On one song, Nico gently croons, "I'll be your mirror/ Reflect what you are/ In case you don't know," while on another Lou Reed grumbles, "I'm waiting for my man/ Twenty-six dollars in my hand/ Up to Lexington, one-two-five/ Feel sick and dirty/ More dead than alive." The Velvet Underground delighted in bringing to light the things people felt but denied about themselves -- and in doing so became one of the most influential bands of all time. The members -- Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Moe Tucker, and, for this 1967 recording only, Nico -- were part of Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and that association gave them license to experiment with feedback and distortion in their music and taboo subject matter in their lyrics, with "Heroin" romanticizing the pleasures of smack and "Venus in Furs" exploring the role-playing and intricacies of S&M. Warhol had never produced a recording before, so he used his imprimatur -- in this case the classic banana cover -- to ward off interference. Brian Eno once said that only a few dozen people bought this record -- but that all of them were then inspired to start their own band.

(CD Universe)

Velvet Underground & Nico: Lou Reed (vocals, guitar); Nico (vocals); Sterling Morrison (guitar, bass, background vocals); John Cale (electric viola, piano, bass, background vocals); Maureen Tucker (percussion, background vocals).
Recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Hollywood California; Sceptor Studios and Mayfair Sound Studios, New York, New York in April & November 1966 & April-May 1967.
Originally released on Verve (5008).

Brian Eno once said that only a hundred people bought Velvet Underground records when they first came out, but those hundred people all went out and formed their own bands. The rest, of course, is history: the Velvet Underground was the catalyst that helped spark punk rock, and began the growth of an alternative branch within rock & roll's grand family tree. VU's was an unparalleled glimpse into the Summer Of Love's alter ego, complete with graphic, unapologetic descriptions of drug use and risque sexual situations. Their classic 1967 debut, VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO, was a tour de force that may never be equaled for its sheer radicalism in the face of rock convention.
The Velvet Underground also mapped out unconquered sonic territories. Bassist John Cale was weaned on deconstructing classical theory--the perfect avant-garde foil to help bring Lou Reed's terse songs to life. Even more noticeable when he switched to electric viola, Cale's sound evoked the terror of Reed's compositions, with the bowed strings screeching like a runaway subway car. Drummer Maureen Tucker played like no one before her. Her frantic swipes could mimic a galloping rush in "Heroin," or work with the delicate, hesitant charm of "All Tomorrow's Parties." Guitarist Sterling Morrison was a master of his craft, ably switching from oddly Middle-Eastern plucking (the eerie "All Tomorrow's Parties") to head-on rock (the ultra-edgy "Waiting For The Man"), always adding just the right element to fatten the cacophony. VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO is one of rock's most significant debuts.

© Frank Steven Groen