Fact #148397
When:
Short story:
The Velvet Underground's imminent third LP, The Velvet Underground, is listed in "Album Reviews - 4 Star - Popular" in Billboard magazine in the USA.
Full article:
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND 3RD LP
by Johnny Black
Having horrified the ruling hippy cadre with their decadent and hedonistic debut album, and reduced rock to a minimalist onslaught with their second, The Velvets did a complete volte-face on their third offering.
The naked aggression that had been one of their distinguishing features was now replaced with resignation and despair. The stories in Lou Reed’s songs still originated in the gutters of the Big Apple, but the music was delicate, pretty and restrained.
This was largely because John Cale had been thrown out in September 1968 because he and Reed were tussling for control of the band. With Cale’s experimental, avant-garde tendencies excised, Reed’s songwriting became the core of the Velvets, whose other members were relegated to sidemen rather than the partners they had previously seemed to be.
Reed found Cale’s replacement, Doug Yule, easier to dominate, and it is his voice, sounding like a sweeter version of Reed’s, that gives much of this album its character. The uptempo tracks, What Goes On and Beginning To See The Light, although excellent, are comparatively lightweight. The real passion comes through on slow introspective songs like Pale Blue Eyes, where a threat of violence lurks beneath the song’s placid surface, or the despairing Jesus in which Reed petitions heaven for salvation from a corrupted life.
“Some people might call it muzak,” said Reed at the time, ”but I think it can function on both that and the intellectual or artistic levels at the same time.” The passage of time has certainly borne out his words.
(Source : by Johnny Black, first appeared in the book Albums by Backbeat Books, 2007)
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by Johnny Black
Having horrified the ruling hippy cadre with their decadent and hedonistic debut album, and reduced rock to a minimalist onslaught with their second, The Velvets did a complete volte-face on their third offering.
The naked aggression that had been one of their distinguishing features was now replaced with resignation and despair. The stories in Lou Reed’s songs still originated in the gutters of the Big Apple, but the music was delicate, pretty and restrained.
This was largely because John Cale had been thrown out in September 1968 because he and Reed were tussling for control of the band. With Cale’s experimental, avant-garde tendencies excised, Reed’s songwriting became the core of the Velvets, whose other members were relegated to sidemen rather than the partners they had previously seemed to be.
Reed found Cale’s replacement, Doug Yule, easier to dominate, and it is his voice, sounding like a sweeter version of Reed’s, that gives much of this album its character. The uptempo tracks, What Goes On and Beginning To See The Light, although excellent, are comparatively lightweight. The real passion comes through on slow introspective songs like Pale Blue Eyes, where a threat of violence lurks beneath the song’s placid surface, or the despairing Jesus in which Reed petitions heaven for salvation from a corrupted life.
“Some people might call it muzak,” said Reed at the time, ”but I think it can function on both that and the intellectual or artistic levels at the same time.” The passage of time has certainly borne out his words.
(Source : by Johnny Black, first appeared in the book Albums by Backbeat Books, 2007)