![]() ![]() ![]() According to Reed and Morrison, the group liked the name, considering it evocative of "underground cinema", and fitting, as Reed had already written " Venus in Furs", a song inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's book of the same name, which dealt with masochism. The Velvet Underground by Michael Leigh was a contemporary mass market paperback about the secret sexual subculture of the early 1960s Cale's friend and Dream Syndicate associate Tony Conrad showed it to the group, and MacLise made a suggestion to adopt the title as the band's name. This quartet was first called the Warlocks, then the Falling Spikes. Reed and Morrison both played guitars, Cale played viola, keyboards and bass and Angus MacLise joined on percussion to complete the initial four-member unit. Reed and Cale recruited Sterling Morrison-a college classmate of Reed's at Syracuse University-as a replacement for Walter De Maria, who had been a third member of the Primitives. Reed's first group with Cale was the Primitives, a short-lived group assembled to issue budget-priced recordings and support an anti-dance single written by Reed, "The Ostrich", to which Cale added a viola passage. The pair rehearsed and performed together their partnership and shared interests built the path towards what would later become the Velvet Underground. Cale was pleasantly surprised to discover that Reed's experimentalist tendencies were similar to his own: Reed sometimes used alternative guitar tunings to create a droning sound. Young's use of extended drones would be a profound influence on the band's early sound. Cale had worked with experimental composers John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and La Monte Young, and had performed with Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, though was also interested in rock music. Reed met John Cale, a Welshman who had moved to the United States to study classical music upon securing a Leonard Bernstein scholarship. Singer-songwriter and guitarist Lou Reed had performed with a few short-lived garage bands and had worked as a songwriter for Pickwick Records (Reed described his tenure there as being "a poor man's Carole King"). The foundations for what would become the Velvet Underground were laid in late 1964. History Pre-career and early stages (1964–1966) The New York Times wrote that the Velvet Underground was "arguably the most influential American rock band of our time". In 2004, the Velvet Underground were ranked number 19 on Rolling Stone 's list of the " 100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Reed, Cale, Tucker and Morrison reunited for a series of well-received shows in 1993, and released a live album from the tour, Live MCMXCIII.Īfter Morrison's death in 1995, the remaining members played a final performance at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1996. The members collaborated on each other's solo work throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and a retrospective "rarities" album, VU, was released in 1985. Yule led an abortive UK tour in 1973, and released a final album under the Velvet Underground name, Squeeze (1973), recorded mostly by Yule with session musicians. In the early 1970s, all but Yule left the band. None performed to the expectations of record labels or Reed, the band's leader. They released three more albums, White Light/White Heat (1968), The Velvet Underground (1969), and Loaded (1970), with Doug Yule replacing Cale for the final two. Their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, featuring the German singer and model Nico, was released in 1967 to critical indifference and poor sales but later drew acclaim. They served as the house band at Warhol's studio, the Factory, and his traveling multimedia show, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, from 1966 to 1967. In 1966, the pop artist Andy Warhol became their manager. The group performed under several names before settling on the Velvet Underground in 1965, taken from the title of a book on sadomasochism. Their provocative subject matter, musical experiments, and nihilistic attitude was also influential in the development of punk rock and new wave music. Though their integration of rock and the avant-garde achieved little commercial success, they became one of the most influential bands in rock, underground, experimental, and alternative music. MacLise was replaced by Moe Tucker in 1965, who played on most of the band's recordings. It originally comprised singer and guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. ![]() The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964.
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