3/2/2023 0 Comments The velvet underground albumThe group recorded many songs that would qualify as soft- or folk-rock, and with much more conventional topics. Unlike many groups that followed, however, the Velvet Underground defined itself neither by its extreme subject matter nor by its noise levels. So whereas The Beatles used a bit of guitar feedback to introduce the otherwise traditional song, “I Feel Fine,” VU used feedback much more pervasively, and as a way of painting an urban landscape that was as foreign to normal sensibilities as was the music they were playing. In some of the Velvet Underground’s work, however, these effects were the centerpiece of the group’s sound. Again, whereas other groups used feedback and borrowed avant-garde techniques from other musicians, these touches were mostly ornamental and carefully woven into the fabric of traditional pop and rock. The sounds the group produced were equally unique. In the sexual realm, they sang about sado-masochism and other alternatives, again focusing on the immediate feelings of the participants, and not on the attitudes of the surrounding society, or on the larger consequences of such behavior. While other, mostly West-coast or London based bands, snuck in sly references to marijuana or LSD, and sang wryly about straight, extra-marital intercourse, the New York based VU trod an entirely different path: they sang, without apparent moral judgment, about addiction to harder drugs, such as heroin, with music that simulated the experiences accompanying such drug use. This is apparently the only way to explain the immense influence this group has had, despite its almost entire lack of commercial success.Īlthough the Velvets were apparently similar to other late-sixties rock groups, in that their subject matter included sex and drugs, these similarities were only superficial. The Velvet Underground Track analysis for “ Sweet Jane”īrian Eno once said that even though hardly anyone bought Velvet Underground recordings at the time they first appeared, almost everyone who did formed their own bands.
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