That "whoop" sound is made by John Cale playing an electric viola of dubious tunage. ;-) One of Lou's guitars is tuned in an interesting fashion, as well. Each string is tuned to the same note, which gives it that "Eastern" drone.
This is the Velvet Underground's most perfect fusion of Cale and Reed's different gifts and backgrounds. Musically, Cale brought to Venus In Furs the stuff he'd learned from working with the American composer and musician LaMonte Young - in particular the use of drone. As you say, no one had ever done this in pop music previously - one of the many reasons why the first Velvet Underground album was so influential for so long. It only sold about 30,000 copies on release, but as Brian Eno famously remarked, everyone who did buy it went out and started a band! This track still sounds as disturbingly different as it did over half a century ago.
Simply not true. Beatles went in that direction on Revolver, as acknowledged by Cale. Btw, I was more into Cale than Beatles, whom I didn't appreciate till age 44 when 12-year-old daughter heard Pepper in 1999
@@cuebj Despite what Cale may have uttered once in a interview that's nonsense. The first Velvet Underground album was recorded before Revolver was even released. You might need to avail yourself of Cale's background in LaMonte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music of which he was a core member up until 1964 when the Beatles were still doing "A Hard Day's Night".
@@cuebj load of bollox, sick and tired of all these never ending Beatles wank fests. The songs on The Velvet Underground & Nico were recorded at the Scepter Studios/NYC in April 1966, and at the TTG Studios in Hollywood May 1966! Revolver wasn't released until August 1966, so no, that album by the suposedly fab4 had no influence on the Velvets debut whatsoever. How about checking your facts before posting such drivel.
This song is inspired from a novella of the same name.written by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. It tells the story of a man who wishes to be dominated and treated as a slave by the woman he loves. Hence the word "masochism." Dominance and submission and the works of Marquis De Sade.. John Cale's electric viola is haunting.
Glad you are continuing on your journey through this album. This record ranks very high in my personal pantheon, and it is one that I return to again and again, because of its power and unique intensity.
Absolutely not spiritual, whatever that means. Atheism to music and good for that. Try reading Hans Rookmaaker, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture; Francis Schaeffer; Os Guinness, eg Doubt; Jaques Monod, Chance and Necessity.
@@cuebjYou are probably both right: Because....AND I am not totally sure about this...... BUT it could be, of a theology that western Atheism embraced without being able to acknowledge or even be conscious of. I know ... Theology AND Atheism, in the same sentence? Weird. But....As strange as it may be to you: THAT is the only thing I am sure of. ....I'm just not sure if sado-masochistic relationships derive from THAT theology common to western Atheists. Western Atheism is Neoplatonic and worships the ONE as the OMEGA of history, in sadomasochism there is a worship of the LOGOS ( Something like the TAOIST Ying - Yiang) but in a way that the dynamics are pushed to the extreme and embraced. These dynamics are anathema for the typical western Atheist especially of the Marxist variety. But what makes me hesitant, is that in male masochism at least, the natural dynamics are reversed, thusly confusing the Ying - Yang elements, ...making them in a sense ....ONE. Which is very Neoplatonic, deep Catholic, Hegelian, Marxist and Western Atheist.
It was the influence of their Welsh classically trained member, John Cale, that made this band different. I was a teenager when this was released, and it totally blew me away.
That whoop! sound is John Cale’s viola. Sterling Morrison (guitar) said this is the track that best shows what they were trying to do. The drone is the key, or at least the foundation. Everything comes from it and rests on it.
That hypnotic drone was to some extent inspired by Indian tinged British "raga rock", i think. Severin is a main character in Sacher-Masoch’s novel "Venus in Furs" .A dark masterpiece. In 1967, this was music from another universe. Not really your average pop song. ;-)
Except, as Cale said, Beatles got there first with Revolver. The toppermost of the poppermost did Help then Tomorrow Never Knows while still being top of the pops to destroy and reconstruct global values and art frameworks
Ooh I was so looking forward to you getting to this gem, it is incredible, so innovative. I was never fortunate to see The Velvet Underground, but I did get to see this performed live by both Lou Reed and by John Cale, he performed the eerie violin, that is the sound you are asking about and what you think is eastern guitars Sayeed it is just a musical genius playin a violin. All the music was written by John Cale and the lyrics were by Lou Reed. Spot on on it's first release it sold less than 2000 copies, but on it's reissue in the mid 70's it went on to sell millions.
@@michele-33 well funny you should ask about John's influences, I saw him at a very small venue, The Glee club in Birmingham, UK, and I was lucky enough to have a drink with him at the bar after the gig, he was amazing and got talking to us because I was with my brother in law who is also Welsh and whenever 2 Welsh people get together they have to drink and chat it's some kind of ritual. Anyway we got onto his influences and it was the poetry of Dylan Thomas and the music of Aaron Copland and an Armenian musician called Aram Khachaturian. John was taught the organ in church and later played the Viola for an orchestra in Wales he could not wait to get out of Wales as he was abused as a boy by his priest, and he said he took all his savings and bought a flight to New York, he lived in hostels and made money by playing piano in bars, this was where Andy Warhol discovered him, unfortunately that was as far as we got as the bar closed and he said it's not worth staying any longer and left us.
Cale started playing piano aged six, joined the Welsh Youth Orchestra with 14, where he would pick up the viola and also several other instruments he would learn. After finishing school he moved to London where he studied musicology at Goldsmith's Collage. He was granted a Leonard Bernstein scholarship in early 1963, which enabled him to emigrate to the US, where he would not only work with LaMonte Young, but also with Avantgarde luminaries John Cage and Iannis Xenskis. Cale combined those different influences to give the Velvets their sinister and menacing sound. He underlined Reed's nihilistic and subvesive lyrics with the necessary musical structures in arrangements and production Reed's lyrics needed, to fully blossom into those groundbreaking masterpieces. Cale, and to a certain extent also Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker should have been co-credited for the music, but Reed's enormous ego would have none of that.
Can't wait for Heroin, great song. Also, I'm too poor to donate but I hope you check out Talking Heads again at some point. Particularly Born Under Punches. Their entire discography is interesting but the Remain in Light album is nuts. Or maybe a different song from a different album.
Yes, more Talking Heads would be highly appreciated. Would love something from the Stop making sense album (preferably video extracts from the concert film), for ex Life during wartime, Psycho killer or Once in a lifetime… Or the whole concert, it is totally awesome 😅
As you all mention Talking Heads, listen to John Cale's Leaving It Up To You from his 1975 album Helen Of Troy, there's the blueprint for the Talking Heads: ua-cam.com/video/8dL6BgOEIbc/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
Never used more drums than absolutely necessary - sometimes just a tom tom and a cymbal. Cam Forrester has foerensically ananlysed the music - and in this link broken down Mo's drumming. ua-cam.com/video/26Y-qPglJQ0/v-deo.html
Waiting for you to get back to this one:) It should be compared it with the Beach Boys Pet Sounds, Sgt Pepper's and maybe Astral Weeks. Lou didn't really think the Beatles were shit, he liked being a wind-up merchant. John Cale (from Wales) is responsible for the advant-garde sound.
This song was used to great effect on a tyre ad during the 90's in the UK. With S and M type visuals. I first started listening to this album around the age of 10:) on cassette tape and it remains in my all time top 10!
There’s a weird concordance between VU and Fairport Convention, who were in their own way bucking the English blues traditions by going several centuries back to traditional folk that they then electrified and goosed up. But both had a tendency to elevate the drone sound, a repetitive tempo and rhythm under very lyrical, story-based librettos. And of course John Cale was Welsh and classically trained so perhaps that’s where some of that similar flavor came from.
I can’t wait until you hear the song “Heroin.” To me, in so many ways, it’s combinations of dissonance, joy, dreams and resignation all cycling and all at once, is the culmination of the entire album. Can’t wait for that
Yeah man I love this song. Its just exactly what I want in music, it's got discord and melody, it's dark and edgy. It leaves a massive impression when you first hear it too. Sunday Morning and Wait for my Man are also very very good.
Lyrics were written by Lou Reed, perhaps one of the best lyrics writers ever. He studied poetry at Syracuse University under Delmore Schwartz. He said that his work should be taken as part of a whole narrative. Lou was basically a writer that sang his books.
This is a song that really set the Velvets apart from other bands. The sound you asked about is John Cale's viola. This is indeed as far from the Beatles in '67 as a band could get at the time.
I love this track. This is the kind of track I enjoy listening to in the dark before going to sleep. 😊 I was a dj in an alternative student «disco» in the late 80’s - early 90’s, and this was one of my regular last-song-of-the-night tracks.
The music reminds me of Eastern European, may Northern Caucasus......can't place it right now, but I know it from somewhere. Yes, weird and wonderful from the Velvet Underground. Lyrics are the star here.
The instrumentation on this song is John Cale on electric viola, Lou Reed on his Ostrich-tuned guitar (all six strings tuned to a G over three octaves), Sterling Morrison on bass, and Maureen Tucker playing just a kick drum and a tambourine.
This sounds like it's subconsciously inspired by The Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows. However, while Tomorrow Never Knows was recorded first, it wasn't released before two months after the recording of Venus In Furs🤔
Love them. Cale especially, know a lotbof his stuff by heart. Reed an empty doll when I saw him live. Yes, I do feel cool listening to them but have to acknowledge it's not mentally healthy (and not supposed to be - the idea is to get you down then look deep to end up looking up, otherwise it's just destructive for the 'in' group to feel special)
Around 1967 Velvets played Vulcan Gas Co in Austin. They didn't quite what make of it but bass player John Cale and lead guitarist Sterling Morrison kept returning on their own time. When Velvets realigned at their end Morrison relocated and acquired. a phd in medieval philosophy.
Lou was a freak. He settled down later in life after experiencing every drug and pleasure that existed. He could be a real... jerk for no real reason. Really cool to hear this again after so many years I hope you react to *Walk on Wild Side* - a Lou Reed track. I remember hearing it in grocery stores and restaurants... I doubt most people knew the subject matter of the song.
Shiny shiny, shiny boots of leather, whiplash girl child in the dark.... no, these guys weren't hippies, and it was quite startling back then to hear songs like this, and hard to get people to listen to it... like reading Hubert Selby Jr's novel "Last Exit To Brooklyn" put to distorted punky music... except punk didn't exist yet... but we had the Velvet Underground!
Nor was Zappa - LA freaks vs SF hippies. Also Beefheart. And George Harrison extremely unimpressed with what he saw of hippiedom in SF. And, a bit later, Townshend's teenage wasteland was about rubbish left by the crowds at Isle of Wight. Punk in UK was more about undefined rage at socio-economic situation of the time. In US, it was musical, skilful, and centred on CBGBs - good stuff but very pallid compared with Beatles in Hamburg Indra Club or Sister Rosetta Tharpe whom Ringo had seen in England
If you think this is weird, not long after this Bowie did a song called Toy Soldier which was basically his sort of music hall-influenced style he had around this time but with big chunks of this song incorporated wholesale, very jarring!
Several things: 1 - Lou Reed used to do all sorts of weird tunings on his guitar, such as having all the strings tuned to the same note 2 - the "whoop" sound is quite possibly John Cale's violin 3 - the Andy Warhol album was probably VU's most inventive album - but my favourite is Velvet Underground Live (I think it was issued in 1969)
The drone and the weird shrieks come from John Cale's viola, plugged into the mains and strung with bass guitar strings. An incredible sound! Have you tried 'I Heard Her Call My Name' or 'Sister Ray' from the album 'White Light, White Heat'? They are something else. Actually, Venus in Furs was inspired by the novel of the same name. Severin was one of the characters.
As someone from the punk generation I was a teenager in 1976 My friends at university were mostly into Velvet Underground and Lou Reed. A woman friend of mine even was in a band called "Venus in Furs" They never recorded anything but gigged a few times locally but they took their name from this song and the Sacher-Masoch novella. BTW Masochism comes from Sacher-Masoch's name.
You should listen to some La Monte Young the avant-garde composer who influenced John Cale Though his pieces tend to be very long well outside the 3 minute pop song model
This is a song that just, well, it just sticks, at least, for me it did. My childhood and most of my adolescence took place in the 1980s, so I suppose it was likely early in that decade that I would have first taken a peculiar notice to this peculiar song. Yes, that's it, it is peculiar. This song's distinction perhaps owes much to it's peculiarity. I don't know, but to me this seems correct and it is mostly due to that particular quality of composition. I find it to be just a wonderfully weird track, your hon, I freely admit this. ;) It seems to have just planted itself so firmly within what I'll hastily label as my own psyche going way back from an early stage in my development. Anyways, good selection, good analysis, and all around a good job on this one.
Belle du Jour, a movie from early 1967 with Catherine Deneuve playing the role of Severine, and based on a 1928 novel, has always seemed at least related to this song, too. Almost the only song on this album that people want to hear at a party is I'm Waiting for the Man. Another weird, but heavy hitting track is Nico's version of Das Lied der Deutschen, singing even the problematic verses (but appropriately) and accompanying herself on a harmonium. It's like Venus in Furs in the sense that once you have heard it, you will never forget that you heard it.
So classic. The viola was so noisy. A NYC club owner was mortified by Black Angel Death Song, which has brutal electric viola. And offered to book them as long as they never play that again. They were so noisy. I think they could have been in utter obscurity if not for Warhol. But of course Lou evolved into a great solo artist (and so did John Cale)
love this album though. And still think Sunday morning is the strangest track for that time, you've may never heard before. That's dream pop before dream pop.
Well, you do not have to imagine the potential fans for an album like this with the idea of the concept that today's people use to listen to music. Back then was surely different... new generation people felt the pressure of the past ideas and concepts and were expecting for something different and new... (and they didn't have mobiles or computers to distract wit ;) )
Reeds' New York junkie poet persona coupled with Cales' interest in avant garde "drone" sonics was a strange brew, all with the Andy Warhol stamp of "too cool for normal people" approval... It's a good thing they were actually talented.
That whooping sound is John Cale's viola. Great song, even if Lou wrote it partly tongue-in-cheek (you can hear him suppress a giggle at one point). That droning guitar and viola plus Mo's bass-heavy drumming makes for a haunting sound, with the melodic line carried almost entirely by Stirling's bass. Very inventive, and very memorable. And no, the album didn't sell well, but as Brian Eno once said, everyone who bought it went out and started a band.
now go down the rabbit hole of "Cardiacs" (start with the album: A little man and a house, and the whole world window) if you want groundbreaking music that slept unederground ;)
This is one of those songs that’s very very difficult to like immediately on the first listen - or even the first dozen listens or so. It’s not immediately pleasing to the ear, and to me it almost feels like an *assault* of sorts on the listener. And music like that simply didn’t exist in 1967 - even the most experimental pop music out there at the time wasn’t attacking and challenging the listener quite like this was.
John Cale classically trained, horribly abused as a child, a big follower of atonal classical music and more extreme versions, eg John Cage. The drone was his idea. Except - Cale, Reed, and rest of VU admired the Beatles, especially Revolver, for getting there first
As it was Cale's thing, its roots were really classical music of that era. Tony Blackburn had a valid point that John Peel belonged on Radio 3 rather than Radio 1... except that Peel had the highest listener rating among under 20s (like me back then)
If you like this album, check out Songs For Drella, made with John Cale as a tribute or story about Andy Warhol. 'Drella was their name for Andy Warhol, a diminutive version of Cinderella!!!
Here's a cover for those who are interested: ua-cam.com/video/My6BuSiW4j4/v-deo.html&ab_channel=al3c3la Can I imagine putting this song on just for listening? Hell, yeah! It's one of those songs I'll play on repeat because I like the mood so much and I don't want it to end. But...can I imagine OTHER PEOPLE doing that? Hell no! For me, the song's beauty lies in the processional feel of the drums and repetitive viola (?) which give it a ritualistic feel, and the ecstasy verging on mystical. It's transcendental. "Strike! dear mistress and cure his heart." This album just took a left turn. And to think this was happening in New York at the same time as the whole hippy thing was going on in San Francisco... And as for the Beatles: well, of course Lou Reed didn't like them.
Well it may not have sold as well at first but it sold a lot in the long time. Besides it was associated with Andy Warhol. It was about the scene. This is everything about punk music and later postpunk which is something I wish you would explore more. I can tell that's what you're wanting. It's just that Evolution from the traditional that came before. But the whole thing is that this would not have been even remotely possible had it not been for the Beatles setting the stage. The Beatles have stuff that pushes into this territory but even John Lennon by the time they broke up in 1970 was just really upset with this idea of celebrity and fandom. But yeah man Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground took it to another level for sure.
The weird note structure embodies hunger, yearning. It's like pagan music for some kind of mysterious ritual. Very intriguing even without the story context.
The complete antithesis to the music that was happening on the west coast at the time. New York, where this was produced in the 60's was a much more sinister, dark and dangerous place or thats the way it seemed on my side of the Atlantic.
Syed, when you first started this album you said you didn't think it lived up to all the hype you had heard. I commented at the time wait until you hear Venus In Furs. Now you know!
Never take anything Lou Reed said to an interviewer seriously. In the vein of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed loved to screw with interviewers, saying things just to get reactions.
Good video, but you appear to think VU was Lou's band. Not true, John Cale was at least equally responsible for the music, and should be given the respect due.
Well, it’s a bit complicated. It was certainly a pretty equal partnership between the two of them for this album and White Light/White Heat. And of course it really shows on a song like this where I assume Cale is solely responsible the violin part which is like… everything in this song. But if I recall correctly Cale left the band after that album and the self titled album and Loaded sound a lot like Lou’s solo stuff and even overlaps a bit into it (Sweet Jane for instance).
@@isaacgraham5727 but that's my point. What made VU stand out was the tension between Reed's more traditional (r&r, doo-wop) tendencies, and Cale's Avant Garde approach. When Cale left after WLWH, the band became more 'commercial', but less distinctive IMO. The solo careers of both Reed & Cale tend to throw into focus their individual approach to the art; tending to the traditional for Reed, and veering all over the shop for Cale.
The third album is as great as anything that was done with Cale. It’s just different. & Sweet Jane is as great a song as has ever been written. People think that experimental stuff is somehow better, sometimes yes, not always, often it’s just indulgent.
My favourite performance of this in Lou's later years ... Highlighting an inspired Cello solo by Jane Scarp (replacing Cale) ua-cam.com/video/Y8fe4hfmiUo/v-deo.html
Weird, dark, great song - David Bowie style or vice versa. Who else was singing about stuff like this before 67? Not many and not in earnest like the way the baby boomer generation started to do. Contrast this to something like jailhouse rock from the 50s!
Can I see myself "casually" listening to this? Absolutely! And "lack of melody" - by Lou's general standards this is McCartney territory! No-one's mentioned the infamous David Bowie outtake Toy Soldier which is a parody of this song, quoting the "taste the whip" lines. If you haven't heard it - let's just say, when the protagonist is beaten to death there's a very unexpected sonic depiction
i put it on at a dinner party once , no one thanked me :)
@@rillibeeme you should have come round ;)
Not a swinging party, then?
@@cuebj it was in switzerland so even the clubs were tame :)
HEATHENS!
😂😂😂
I love this song. I don’t know why. It’s just satisfying on some level.
That jazz chord before "different colors made of tears" is 👌
@@alexbutler9343 that is sweet and different.
because is one of the best songs of all time
That "whoop" sound is made by John Cale playing an electric viola of dubious tunage. ;-)
One of Lou's guitars is tuned in an interesting fashion, as well. Each string is tuned to the same note, which gives it that "Eastern" drone.
Incredible music
He doesn't do that in this song. It's a non-standard tuning but not an ostrich.
This is the Velvet Underground's most perfect fusion of Cale and Reed's different gifts and backgrounds. Musically, Cale brought to Venus In Furs the stuff he'd learned from working with the American composer and musician LaMonte Young - in particular the use of drone. As you say, no one had ever done this in pop music previously - one of the many reasons why the first Velvet Underground album was so influential for so long. It only sold about 30,000 copies on release, but as Brian Eno famously remarked, everyone who did buy it went out and started a band! This track still sounds as disturbingly different as it did over half a century ago.
Thanks.
Simply not true. Beatles went in that direction on Revolver, as acknowledged by Cale. Btw, I was more into Cale than Beatles, whom I didn't appreciate till age 44 when 12-year-old daughter heard Pepper in 1999
This whole album still sounds modern. The new documentary covers everything you spoke about in your post.
@@cuebj Despite what Cale may have uttered once in a interview that's nonsense. The first Velvet Underground album was recorded before Revolver was even released. You might need to avail yourself of Cale's background in LaMonte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music of which he was a core member up until 1964 when the Beatles were still doing "A Hard Day's Night".
@@cuebj load of bollox, sick and tired of all these never ending Beatles wank fests.
The songs on The Velvet Underground & Nico were recorded at the Scepter Studios/NYC in April 1966, and at the TTG Studios in Hollywood May 1966! Revolver wasn't released until August 1966, so no, that album by the suposedly fab4 had no influence on the Velvets debut whatsoever.
How about checking your facts before posting such drivel.
This song is inspired from a novella of the same name.written by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. It tells the story of a man
who wishes to be dominated and treated as a slave by the woman he loves. Hence the word "masochism." Dominance
and submission and the works of Marquis De Sade.. John Cale's electric viola is haunting.
Always loved how cales viola & tuckers tambourine is like the whip striking absolute genius. They all geniuses. Haunting!
Glad you are continuing on your journey through this album. This record ranks very high in my personal pantheon, and it is one that I return to again and again, because of its power and unique intensity.
This song is so spiritual and ahead of its time that's impossible
Absolutely not spiritual, whatever that means. Atheism to music and good for that. Try reading Hans Rookmaaker, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture; Francis Schaeffer; Os Guinness, eg Doubt; Jaques Monod, Chance and Necessity.
@@cuebjYou are probably both right: Because....AND I am not totally sure about this...... BUT it could be, of a theology that western Atheism embraced without being able to acknowledge or even be conscious of. I know ... Theology AND Atheism, in the same sentence? Weird. But....As strange as it may be to you: THAT is the only thing I am sure of. ....I'm just not sure if sado-masochistic relationships derive from THAT theology common to western Atheists. Western Atheism is Neoplatonic and worships the ONE as the OMEGA of history, in sadomasochism there is a worship of the LOGOS ( Something like the TAOIST Ying - Yiang) but in a way that the dynamics are pushed to the extreme and embraced. These dynamics are anathema for the typical western Atheist especially of the Marxist variety. But what makes me hesitant, is that in male masochism at least, the natural dynamics are reversed, thusly confusing the Ying - Yang elements, ...making them in a sense ....ONE. Which is very Neoplatonic, deep Catholic, Hegelian, Marxist and Western Atheist.
It was the influence of their Welsh classically trained member, John Cale, that made this band different. I was a teenager when this was released, and it totally blew me away.
That whoop! sound is John Cale’s viola. Sterling Morrison (guitar) said this is the track that best shows what they were trying to do. The drone is the key, or at least the foundation. Everything comes from it and rests on it.
That hypnotic drone was to some extent inspired by Indian tinged British "raga rock", i think. Severin is a main character in Sacher-Masoch’s novel "Venus in Furs" .A dark masterpiece. In 1967, this was music from another universe. Not really your average pop song. ;-)
Except, as Cale said, Beatles got there first with Revolver. The toppermost of the poppermost did Help then Tomorrow Never Knows while still being top of the pops to destroy and reconstruct global values and art frameworks
The sound you were wondering about is John Cale on the viola.
Ooh I was so looking forward to you getting to this gem, it is incredible, so innovative. I was never fortunate to see The Velvet Underground, but I did get to see this performed live by both Lou Reed and by John Cale, he performed the eerie violin, that is the sound you are asking about and what you think is eastern guitars Sayeed it is just a musical genius playin a violin. All the music was written by John Cale and the lyrics were by Lou Reed. Spot on on it's first release it sold less than 2000 copies, but on it's reissue in the mid 70's it went on to sell millions.
Wow. You were lucky to have seen them both.
I wonder who influenced John Cale...what musicians and writers he read and listened to.
@@michele-33 well funny you should ask about John's influences, I saw him at a very small venue, The Glee club in Birmingham, UK, and I was lucky enough to have a drink with him at the bar after the gig, he was amazing and got talking to us because I was with my brother in law who is also Welsh and whenever 2 Welsh people get together they have to drink and chat it's some kind of ritual. Anyway we got onto his influences and it was the poetry of Dylan Thomas and the music of Aaron Copland and an Armenian musician called Aram Khachaturian. John was taught the organ in church and later played the Viola for an orchestra in Wales he could not wait to get out of Wales as he was abused as a boy by his priest, and he said he took all his savings and bought a flight to New York, he lived in hostels and made money by playing piano in bars, this was where Andy Warhol discovered him, unfortunately that was as far as we got as the bar closed and he said it's not worth staying any longer and left us.
Cale started playing piano aged six, joined the Welsh Youth Orchestra with 14, where he would pick up the viola and also several other instruments he would learn. After finishing school he moved to London where he studied musicology at Goldsmith's Collage. He was granted a Leonard Bernstein scholarship in early 1963, which enabled him to emigrate to the US, where he would not only work with LaMonte Young, but also with Avantgarde luminaries John Cage and Iannis Xenskis.
Cale combined those different influences to give the Velvets their sinister and menacing sound. He underlined Reed's nihilistic and subvesive lyrics with the necessary musical structures in arrangements and production Reed's lyrics needed, to fully blossom into those groundbreaking masterpieces.
Cale, and to a certain extent also Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker should have been co-credited for the music, but Reed's enormous ego would have none of that.
Can't wait for Heroin, great song.
Also, I'm too poor to donate but I hope you check out Talking Heads again at some point. Particularly Born Under Punches. Their entire discography is interesting but the Remain in Light album is nuts. Or maybe a different song from a different album.
The best song on the album imo
I think it is the one he will enjoy the most
Yes, more Talking Heads would be highly appreciated. Would love something from the Stop making sense album (preferably video extracts from the concert film), for ex Life during wartime, Psycho killer or Once in a lifetime… Or the whole concert, it is totally awesome 😅
As you all mention Talking Heads, listen to John Cale's Leaving It Up To You from his 1975 album Helen Of Troy, there's the blueprint for the Talking Heads: ua-cam.com/video/8dL6BgOEIbc/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
I love your reactions. The look on your face at the start was priceless. Glad you liked the weirdness.
My favorite off this album!
My exgf used to listen to that song on repeat.
I introduced her to the VU.
No regrets, sincerely love that song.
Maureen Tucker is underrated, highly creative drummer.
Never used more drums than absolutely necessary - sometimes just a tom tom and a cymbal.
Cam Forrester has foerensically ananlysed the music - and in this link broken down Mo's drumming.
ua-cam.com/video/26Y-qPglJQ0/v-deo.html
“Love not given lightly” I love the journey in to the urban underworld that VU, and later Lou Reed solo, takes the listener on.
Waiting for you to get back to this one:) It should be compared it with the Beach Boys Pet Sounds, Sgt Pepper's and maybe Astral Weeks. Lou didn't really think the Beatles were shit, he liked being a wind-up merchant. John Cale (from Wales) is responsible for the advant-garde sound.
This song was used to great effect on a tyre ad during the 90's in the UK. With S and M type visuals. I first started listening to this album around the age of 10:) on cassette tape and it remains in my all time top 10!
This song is a absolute masterpiece
You put this record on on Sunday morning.
Vanis in furs is one of my favorite song ever :)
There’s a weird concordance between VU and Fairport Convention, who were in their own way bucking the English blues traditions by going several centuries back to traditional folk that they then electrified and goosed up. But both had a tendency to elevate the drone sound, a repetitive tempo and rhythm under very lyrical, story-based librettos. And of course John Cale was Welsh and classically trained so perhaps that’s where some of that similar flavor came from.
Now that is a fascinating comparison! Wow! An eye and ear opener. Something to look into. Thanks
I can’t wait until you hear the song “Heroin.” To me, in so many ways, it’s combinations of dissonance, joy, dreams and resignation all cycling and all at once, is the culmination of the entire album. Can’t wait for that
More than any other song, this sounds like VELVET.. underground. I'm glad you picked up on the cave aspect too.
Yeah man I love this song. Its just exactly what I want in music, it's got discord and melody, it's dark and edgy. It leaves a massive impression when you first hear it too. Sunday Morning and Wait for my Man are also very very good.
Lyrics were written by Lou Reed, perhaps one of the best lyrics writers ever. He studied poetry at Syracuse University under Delmore Schwartz. He said that his work should be taken as part of a whole narrative. Lou was basically a writer that sang his books.
This is a song that really set the Velvets apart from other bands. The sound you asked about is John Cale's viola. This is indeed as far from the Beatles in '67 as a band could get at the time.
Revolver, Tomorrow Never Knows, 1966, as Cale has said
thanks for reacting to this, this is one of my fave songs, it blew mind as a 14 year old schoolboy!
I love this track. This is the kind of track I enjoy listening to in the dark before going to sleep. 😊
I was a dj in an alternative student «disco» in the late 80’s - early 90’s, and this was one of my regular last-song-of-the-night tracks.
The music reminds me of Eastern European, may Northern Caucasus......can't place it right now, but I know it from somewhere. Yes, weird and wonderful from the Velvet Underground. Lyrics are the star here.
The instrumentation on this song is John Cale on electric viola, Lou Reed on his Ostrich-tuned guitar (all six strings tuned to a G over three octaves), Sterling Morrison on bass, and Maureen Tucker playing just a kick drum and a tambourine.
This sounds like it's subconsciously inspired by The Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows. However, while Tomorrow Never Knows was recorded first, it wasn't released before two months after the recording of Venus In Furs🤔
they did and still do inspire many.. alternative/ grunge/ goth etc...and wearing black and shades is damn cool..😎
I always feel cool when I’m playing my velvet underground albums and Lou Reed. Not to mention John Cale.
Love them. Cale especially, know a lotbof his stuff by heart. Reed an empty doll when I saw him live. Yes, I do feel cool listening to them but have to acknowledge it's not mentally healthy (and not supposed to be - the idea is to get you down then look deep to end up looking up, otherwise it's just destructive for the 'in' group to feel special)
Fresh out of the corn fields at eighteen when this came out, my roommate and I caught a lot of grief for playing this album in the dorm.....
Around 1967 Velvets played Vulcan Gas Co in Austin. They didn't quite what make of it but bass player John Cale and lead guitarist Sterling Morrison kept returning on their own time. When Velvets realigned at their end Morrison relocated and acquired. a phd in medieval philosophy.
Mediaeval Literature.
Lou was a freak. He settled down later in life after experiencing every drug and pleasure that existed.
He could be a real...
jerk for no real reason.
Really cool to hear this again after so many years
I hope you react to *Walk on Wild Side* - a Lou Reed track. I remember hearing it in grocery stores and restaurants...
I doubt most people knew the subject matter of the song.
This is my favourite VU album. the whippp sound comes from John Cale's electric violin.
Shiny shiny, shiny boots of leather, whiplash girl child in the dark.... no, these guys weren't hippies, and it was quite startling back then to hear songs like this, and hard to get people to listen to it... like reading Hubert Selby Jr's novel "Last Exit To Brooklyn" put to distorted punky music... except punk didn't exist yet... but we had the Velvet Underground!
Nor was Zappa - LA freaks vs SF hippies. Also Beefheart. And George Harrison extremely unimpressed with what he saw of hippiedom in SF. And, a bit later, Townshend's teenage wasteland was about rubbish left by the crowds at Isle of Wight.
Punk in UK was more about undefined rage at socio-economic situation of the time. In US, it was musical, skilful, and centred on CBGBs - good stuff but very pallid compared with Beatles in Hamburg Indra Club or Sister Rosetta Tharpe whom Ringo had seen in England
Love your responses. Thanks 😊.
That "Wooop" sound is John Cale's electric viola.
one of my favourite tracks on the album, that weird feel is what I like about it.
In america, this is considered one of the top ten best albums of all time
it is the all time best
If you think this is weird, not long after this Bowie did a song called Toy Soldier which was basically his sort of music hall-influenced style he had around this time but with big chunks of this song incorporated wholesale, very jarring!
This song has a beautiful melody.
Honestly man if you’ve ever gotten stoned then it totally makes sense. This is an amazing track to get high too and ride that beautiful weird wave.
Several things:
1 - Lou Reed used to do all sorts of weird tunings on his guitar, such as having all the strings tuned to the same note
2 - the "whoop" sound is quite possibly John Cale's violin
3 - the Andy Warhol album was probably VU's most inventive album - but my favourite is Velvet Underground Live (I think it was issued in 1969)
The drone and the weird shrieks come from John Cale's viola, plugged into the mains and strung with bass guitar strings. An incredible sound! Have you tried 'I Heard Her Call My Name' or 'Sister Ray' from the album 'White Light, White Heat'? They are something else. Actually, Venus in Furs was inspired by the novel of the same name. Severin was one of the characters.
As someone from the punk generation
I was a teenager in 1976
My friends at university
were mostly into Velvet Underground
and Lou Reed.
A woman friend of mine even was in a band called
"Venus in Furs"
They never recorded anything but gigged a few times locally
but they took their name from this song
and the Sacher-Masoch novella.
BTW Masochism comes from Sacher-Masoch's name.
You should listen to some
La Monte Young
the avant-garde composer
who influenced John Cale
Though his pieces tend to be very long
well outside the 3 minute pop song model
This is a song that just, well, it just sticks, at least, for me it did. My childhood and most of my adolescence took place in the 1980s, so I suppose it was likely early in that decade that I would have first taken a peculiar notice to this peculiar song. Yes, that's it, it is peculiar. This song's distinction perhaps owes much to it's peculiarity. I don't know, but to me this seems correct and it is mostly due to that particular quality of composition. I find it to be just a wonderfully weird track, your hon, I freely admit this. ;)
It seems to have just planted itself so firmly within what I'll hastily label as my own psyche going way back from an early stage in my development. Anyways, good selection, good analysis, and all around a good job on this one.
Belle du Jour, a movie from early 1967 with Catherine Deneuve playing the role of Severine, and based on a 1928 novel, has always seemed at least related to this song, too. Almost the only song on this album that people want to hear at a party is I'm Waiting for the Man. Another weird, but heavy hitting track is Nico's version of Das Lied der Deutschen, singing even the problematic verses (but appropriately) and accompanying herself on a harmonium. It's like Venus in Furs in the sense that once you have heard it, you will never forget that you heard it.
The sound you wondered about is John Cale on viola.
One the best most underrated guitar solos is in Brian Eno “Baby’s on fire” Robert Fripp of King Crimson killed it. You’ll love it 😍 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
So classic. The viola was so noisy. A NYC club owner was mortified by Black Angel Death Song, which has brutal electric viola. And offered to book them as long as they never play that again. They were so noisy. I think they could have been in utter obscurity if not for Warhol. But of course Lou evolved into a great solo artist (and so did John Cale)
This song is so good, I love it so much.
Never heard this before and it's absolutely a track i would throw on the loudspeakers in the backyard.
love this album though.
And still think Sunday morning is the strangest track for that time, you've may never heard before. That's dream pop before dream pop.
Lou Reed is the Stephen Sondheim of the underground. He’s the poet laureate of NYC’s disenfranchised.
Well, you do not have to imagine the potential fans for an album like this with the idea of the concept that today's people use to listen to music. Back then was surely different... new generation people felt the pressure of the past ideas and concepts and were expecting for something different and new... (and they didn't have mobiles or computers to distract wit ;) )
Reeds' New York junkie poet persona coupled with Cales' interest in avant garde "drone" sonics was a strange brew, all with the Andy Warhol stamp of "too cool for normal people" approval... It's a good thing they were actually talented.
This is a great song to listen to while you’re stoned!
You're in for a banger with the next track, 'Run Run Run'. This one's great, especially if you're in a certain mindset.
That whooping sound is John Cale's viola. Great song, even if Lou wrote it partly tongue-in-cheek (you can hear him suppress a giggle at one point). That droning guitar and viola plus Mo's bass-heavy drumming makes for a haunting sound, with the melodic line carried almost entirely by Stirling's bass. Very inventive, and very memorable. And no, the album didn't sell well, but as Brian Eno once said, everyone who bought it went out and started a band.
First heard this song in the doors movie!! Love it
Saw them in 1968 and 1969, changed my my tastes in music. Underground fan tell my last breath.
now go down the rabbit hole of "Cardiacs" (start with the album: A little man and a house, and the whole world window) if you want groundbreaking music that slept unederground ;)
This is one of those songs that’s very very difficult to like immediately on the first listen - or even the first dozen listens or so. It’s not immediately pleasing to the ear, and to me it almost feels like an *assault* of sorts on the listener. And music like that simply didn’t exist in 1967 - even the most experimental pop music out there at the time wasn’t attacking and challenging the listener quite like this was.
John Cale classically trained, horribly abused as a child, a big follower of atonal classical music and more extreme versions, eg John Cage. The drone was his idea. Except - Cale, Reed, and rest of VU admired the Beatles, especially Revolver, for getting there first
As it was Cale's thing, its roots were really classical music of that era. Tony Blackburn had a valid point that John Peel belonged on Radio 3 rather than Radio 1... except that Peel had the highest listener rating among under 20s (like me back then)
If you like this album, check out Songs For Drella, made with John Cale as a tribute or story about Andy Warhol. 'Drella was their name for Andy Warhol, a diminutive version of Cinderella!!!
Here's a cover for those who are interested:
ua-cam.com/video/My6BuSiW4j4/v-deo.html&ab_channel=al3c3la
Can I imagine putting this song on just for listening? Hell, yeah! It's one of those songs I'll play on repeat because I like the mood so much and I don't want it to end. But...can I imagine OTHER PEOPLE doing that? Hell no!
For me, the song's beauty lies in the processional feel of the drums and repetitive viola (?) which give it a ritualistic feel, and the ecstasy verging on mystical. It's transcendental. "Strike! dear mistress and cure his heart." This album just took a left turn.
And to think this was happening in New York at the same time as the whole hippy thing was going on in San Francisco... And as for the Beatles: well, of course Lou Reed didn't like them.
Well it may not have sold as well at first but it sold a lot in the long time. Besides it was associated with Andy Warhol. It was about the scene. This is everything about punk music and later postpunk which is something I wish you would explore more. I can tell that's what you're wanting. It's just that Evolution from the traditional that came before. But the whole thing is that this would not have been even remotely possible had it not been for the Beatles setting the stage. The Beatles have stuff that pushes into this territory but even John Lennon by the time they broke up in 1970 was just really upset with this idea of celebrity and fandom. But yeah man Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground took it to another level for sure.
Great song. I have to be in the mood for this type of Indian droning, but it’s nonetheless a great track.
The weird note structure embodies hunger, yearning. It's like pagan music for some kind of mysterious ritual. Very intriguing even without the story context.
Might have worked in The Wicker Man. Saw that when it came out with Don't Look Now
The complete antithesis to the music that was happening on the west coast at the time. New York, where this was produced in the 60's was a much more sinister, dark and dangerous place or thats the way it seemed on my side of the Atlantic.
Syed, when you first started this album you said you didn't think it lived up to all the hype you had heard. I commented at the time wait until you hear Venus In Furs. Now you know!
But as for listenability, surprisingly these songs hold up very well in repeated listens, and just putting the album on.
love the song the beat alone just has this demonic sounds to it crazy sound coming outta the 60s lol
Now listen to a live version with Jane Scarpantoni on cello.
One word to describe the sound. Heroin.
❤IT thx😊
Reminds me of the doors and the end
Never take anything Lou Reed said to an interviewer seriously. In the vein of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed loved to screw with interviewers, saying things just to get reactions.
02:40 - he's enjoying
Good video, but you appear to think VU was Lou's band. Not true, John Cale was at least equally responsible for the music, and should be given the respect due.
Well, it’s a bit complicated. It was certainly a pretty equal partnership between the two of them for this album and White Light/White Heat. And of course it really shows on a song like this where I assume Cale is solely responsible the violin part which is like… everything in this song.
But if I recall correctly Cale left the band after that album and the self titled album and Loaded sound a lot like Lou’s solo stuff and even overlaps a bit into it (Sweet Jane for instance).
@@isaacgraham5727 but that's my point. What made VU stand out was the tension between Reed's more traditional (r&r, doo-wop) tendencies, and Cale's Avant Garde approach. When Cale left after WLWH, the band became more 'commercial', but less distinctive IMO. The solo careers of both Reed & Cale tend to throw into focus their individual approach to the art; tending to the traditional for Reed, and veering all over the shop for Cale.
The third album is as great as anything that was done with Cale. It’s just different. & Sweet Jane is as great a song as has ever been written. People think that experimental stuff is somehow better, sometimes yes, not always, often it’s just indulgent.
I love the little laugh Lou does after he says now plead for me…. It’s his phrasing that always gets me.
@@idiotdrummer60This!
It is in a book. In fact the title is actually,"Venus In Furs."
The cliche is only a few thousand people bought this album, but every single one of them started their own band.
It is from a book about BDSM
My favourite performance of this in Lou's later years ...
Highlighting an inspired Cello solo by Jane Scarp (replacing Cale)
ua-cam.com/video/Y8fe4hfmiUo/v-deo.html
More Velvets, please!
Bass Viola is making that sound. John Cale child prodigy
Victim of abuse. Echoes of misery
Smashing pumpkins made an interesting cover of this, the atmosphere in that is the total opposite of this. Both really good.
should listen to Cale's version of heartbreak hotel
It just about S&M
This and "Super Freak," by Rick James 👍
Weird, dark, great song - David Bowie style or vice versa. Who else was singing about stuff like this before 67? Not many and not in earnest like the way the baby boomer generation started to do. Contrast this to something like jailhouse rock from the 50s!
Love Velvet, love Lou Reed - you should check his solo career later
Not great. Especially live - very awkward doll like
Can I see myself "casually" listening to this? Absolutely! And "lack of melody" - by Lou's general standards this is McCartney territory!
No-one's mentioned the infamous David Bowie outtake Toy Soldier which is a parody of this song, quoting the "taste the whip" lines. If you haven't heard it - let's just say, when the protagonist is beaten to death there's a very unexpected sonic depiction
And if this sounds strange nowadays just imagine how strange this must have sounded in 1967.
"Venus In Furs"
was written
by a guy named Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch.
This is where we get
the term
masochism.
Dig.
Peace on earth.