The First Two Velvet Underground Records-part 4: European Son and Live Improvisation

While “Heroin” exemplifies all this about the aesthetics of The Velvet Underground and Nico, “European Son” explains the direction of the band in terms of loose song structure and lack of precise mimicry between performances.

This track serves as a culmination of all the ideas throughout the record. There is plenty of interplay between instruments, primitive drums, etc. “European Son” also addresses the question about the relationship between music as live performance and a recorded document. It is a departure from the notions of pop music found in the other songs on the album, and has avant-garde leanings. For example, “there’s a chair being scraped across the room by Cale, at which point he stops in front of Lou, who drops a glass… The engineer, he’s saying, ‘My God, What are you doing?’… It was tremendous, because it is in time, and the music starts right up. I don’t know how we timed it like that… [but ‘European Son’] was just different every time. There was no structure, we just did it,” (Heylin, “Velvets to the Voidoids” 20). The choice to abandon pop sensibilities and structure was very ambitious in 1966. Even the Beatles would throw in their versions of John Cage in their pop records in a few years. On the other hand, the Beatles did their avant-garde leaning work in the studio exclusively. They never presented it in live concert for whatever reason. The Velvet Underground not only played “European Son” live, but did not value the aesthetic of perfect reproduction. Instead, they decided to embrace how different they could make their songs, avoiding the jukebox feeling of playing the same songs over and over ad nauseam until something snapped. The Velvets allowed for songs to be interpreted differently every time and made their sets more interesting for them and more engaging for the audience. At the same time, they captured only one possible performance of a song like “European Son” on record. Instead of just mass reproduction, they recorded a unique version of their song that could not be reproduced by the band note for note. This addresses the theory of aura put forward by Benjamin. This song maintains its aura and authenticity even though it has been mass reproduced because it was a unique performance. If Benjamin was worried about classical music being mass produced instead of being seen live, he might be comforted by music that was not notated or written down to be preserved, but just recorded one time. This song also helps to push the record past the point of music as entertainment and moves it toward the world of art. This is another statement against pure mass production for the sake of mass consumption. It does not pander to the audience but rather speaks for itself in terms of artistic quality. This trend would not disappear during the second album, but instead was explored in a different way.

Fight for Every Losing Cause

Memory fades and blurs but the past remains as events that transpire before the moment we currently find ourselves experiencing. Regardless of what we can remember, something has happened. I was born in an area of northern Maine called Aroostook County. The climate taunts the citizenry to stay warm and sane with nine months of harsh winter and enough snow/ice to keep anyone down. The Air Force base closed before I was halfway through grade school and the economy imploded without a forced citizenry. Businesses closed, schools were shut down and the population simply decreased. My father was a chiropractor, and he fought against public opinion/stereotypes, insurance companies and the standard medical profession for 25 years. Aroostook County continued to limp on without a lifeline, but growth and stability were fading memories. I grew up thinking that I could make a difference because so many people around me were appreciative of my patronage. Born to support lost causes and failing ideas, I naturally thought my experience represented the status quo. As everything around me crumbled and began to deteriorate, I remained defiant by maintaining faith in the natural course of events, and optimism guided my decisions to support local business and independent thought.

As I write this, Aroostook County is dead. My hometown, Presque Isle, was once the artery of a vast logging and potato industry. Now, boarded up cinemas and businesses fester while jobs scamper away like fleeing mice from a flaming building. Amazingly, I refuse discouragement. I still fight for lost causes everyday and attempt conversions to my point of view. Post modernism sucked this fight out of most of the populace and entertainment keeps the rest occupied, but I suffered Aroostook County salvation. Nothing discourages me to the point of quitting because I personally witnessed the destruction of an entire community. I will not be the savior by any means, but nor will I relent in my discourse against the apathetic quicksand that demoralizes our youth and justifies our elders. Impossibilities inherent in the words "lost cause" construct mentalities that destroy confidence in dramatic change and support apathy in every way. If hope means naivete and conviction means pipe dream, then we are lost. Dreaming about a future free from boundaries on thought and discussion should not be seen as dangerous or taboo, but embraced as a treasure to the collective human experience.

The First Two Velvet Underground Records-part 3: Heroin

Leaving behind all shock value and taboo of the title, “Heroin” is a very infamous song. It has been regarded as one of the best Rock n’ Roll songs ever written by some and frivolous garbage by others. Basically, two guitar chords alternate with a droning viola and some primitive, Bo Diddley inspired out of time drums filling out the track. There is a gradual build up of the music and tension until a release of noisy improvisation. The repetition of the two chord song is destroyed by this departure because the guitars start playing really fast, sloppy lead and the viola turns from a drone to a screeching wail. This interaction is possible through the live instruments and the build up and release adds an immediacy that could not be replicated by separate studio recordings. By the time of the crescendo, the tempo is very fast. The aesthetic of speed supports the immediacy of the live performance as well. The droning and belching of the electric viola do not fit the aesthetic of catchy pop music. It encompasses the backdrop of the melody and remains stubborn and not catchy for the whole track. The live interplay creates competition between the droning electric viola and the biting two chords of the clean guitar, but the separate tones do not clash or overpower one another. Instead, the instruments spar and create some very interesting sonic connections. This relationship makes the music sound like a complete statement because there is nothing that has been left out, and every note, whether it’s in key, strummed properly or not, is necessary to the overall picture.

The drumming on “Heroin” is the best example of favoring mistakes rather than vying for perfection. The three other instruments were “plugged directly into the board,” (Hamelman, 79). Since Maureen Tucker (the drummer) could not hear the output of the instruments and could not see Lou Reed’s lips as he sang, “throughout the original track, Tucker’s drums [were] out of synch with the other instruments. She [battered] her two tom-toms at a tempo either behind or ahead of the guitars and vocals… at one point she stopped thumping altogether,” (Hamelman, 79). The funniest part of the recording was that for Tucker “They didn’t have their amps up loud in the studio, so of course I couldn’t hear anything… And when we got to the part where you speed up... it just became this mountain of drum noise in front of me. I couldn’t hear shit… So I stopped, and being a little wacky, they just kept going, and that’s the one we took,” (Heylin, “Velvets to the Voidoids” 23). This incident exemplifies the recording style of the first Velvet Underground record. On first listening to “Heroin”, it could be inferred that the drumming inequalities could have been done on purpose, for the sake of art. It could also be conjectured that the drummer could have been completely inept and possessed no skills of timing at all. In fact, neither of these myths is true. Since the recording was live and the choices were made to keep the take with the most glaring mistake on it, i.e. the entire drumming track, the song represents the Velvets desire to take the music as it came.

Sound Collage and Fighter Jets

Tampa drowns itself out with noise from highways, fighter jets, construction equipment and motor vehicles. It is not different from any other city in that regard, but it seemed very concentrated last night while I was sitting on the trunk of my car outside of Transitions Art Gallery. Bands came and went (as did huge trucks careening over us on the interstate) but Hal Mcgee and Ironing referenced and destroyed these tendencies of collaged sound throughout the evening. Textual noise ripped apart shards of prerecorded spoken word while two men dressed in black hovered over electronic apparatus and tape machines. Sound filled the room and attacked my ears with an ocean of textures and waves of frequencies not common to the human register. All at once, tapes began twirling through the air at break neck speed, while the music continued to howl and a voice was caught between screeches and repeated "the song...the song...the song." The tapes vacated into the audience and the sound began to fade... the means of creation had been dispersed and broken up so that the collage could never be duplicated in the same way ever again.

The First Two Velvet Underground Records-part 2: Banana Banana

The Velvet Underground recorded as live as they could in the studio, while favoring influences from the American minimalist and avant-garde movements rather than just ordinary Rock n’ Roll or Blues. This also challenged conventional notions concerning the relationship between entertainment and art in Rock records and performance. Their decision to record live rather than embrace the tendency of contemporaries was a statement about the authenticity of recording values. The Velvet’s aesthetic favored creating sounds on record that were produced by four people in a room together. The most interesting point of this scenario is that the first two Velvet Underground records sound much more freakish and experimental than anything done by the Beatles.

The Velvet Underground and Nico was released in 1966. This record changed the boundaries of Rock n’ Roll records by creating exciting new sounds through live interaction, repetition and the electric viola. The aesthetic that was exemplified by this record was not one of precise replication, but rather just playing the songs the way they came out. Further, they chose not to fix mistakes or discrepancies in the recordings in any way. These notions can be best explained through two tracks, "Heroin" and "European Son."

When playing live directly the motherboard of a recording studio, it is very difficult to distinguish between different sounds. The Velvets consciously set up each instrument to fill a different pitch of music. There is a twangy, “ostrich guitar” (Hamelman, 79), droning or screeching electric viola, bass and drums. The drums are focused on tribal thumps and use very few symbol or crash noises. This dynamic separated the music and recorded every sound in a very specific realm.

Indie Rock and other Marketing Terms

Indie rock dwindles and staggers without moving forward. I am becoming more and more ashamed of liking bands donning this title at one time or another. I'm tired of gimmicks and full to the brim of this moderate rock nonsense without any conviction or soul. Amazingly, the term indie now applies to a barrage of major label music, not just independent. I am not against bands with record contracts with major labels as a whole or anything so one sided, I am just confused concerning our use of the English language. Maybe I'm just naive, but I always thought that indie meant independent. Corporations have stolen this word to splash their Wilcos and Modest Mouses with the authenticity of Fugazi. That does not make one better or the other, but it is essential for survival in this post-modern culture to define our terms accurately. Isn't it important that Fugazi worked really hard to manage a record label and charge reasonable prices for their shows without corporate sponsorship? Bands like the Killers are cashing in on this sentiment by writing songs about "Indie Rock n Roll"- and we are letting it happen! Let's start with sacred ground: Sonic Youth is not an indie band, and they haven't been since before 1990. They were independent before they signed to Geffen Records, but now they are not. That does not diminish from what they have accomplished, but they are not allowed to keep that label. The musicians still involve themselves with their own labels and projects that are independent, but that does not transfer to the band. Does anyone call Pearl Jam indie because Eddie Vedder played a few shows with Mike Watt? I hope not. This may sound like inconsequential drivel, but think about it... there are "independent" movies being distributed by Warner Brothers as we speak! Doesn't anyone see a problem with this!? If we let them have this label like we allowed them to steal punk and shit out new wave on us, then we gained nothing since Nevermind. Major label albums can be moving and relevant and punk rock can sell albums and still retain vitality. It is very important to understand that independent is to indie as punk is to new wave. The powers in control are so quick to figure out how our counterculture works and exploit it that we do not stand a chance; especially if we allow them to steal the fervor for resistance.

Complaining will not get me anywhere, so allow me to address the positives of this debacle. More and more, the enemy is revealing itself to us. We do not need to fear bands that are on major labels- that is a business decision. If they are making music that is thought provoking or challenging the lowest common denominator in any way, then the manufacturer is irrelevant. I fear bands that sign major record contracts and still label themselves indie. This music is just another clique that stubbornly retains the high school herd mentality into early to late 20 something culture. Increasingly, understanding whether a band is honest or full of beans can be measured by emphasis on labels like indie, punk or whatever in a corporate setting. The battle is not independent versus major anymore- rather, the line rips between us at the point of real or fake.

The First Two Velvet Underground Records-part 1: The Psychedelic Recording Trends of the Late 1960s

Music production values in the rock and pop world of the 1960s were increasingly based on fidelity and clarity of reproduction. Multiple track recording allowed these intense layers of music to be piled on top of each other. Also, the instruments and sounds could be recorded at different times or places. This pushed the music toward the aesthetic of being more layered and combining sounds that could not necessarily be reproduced by a group in real time. The recording history of the Beatles is the best measure of aesthetic value during this period. In the beginning of their career, the Beatles’ records were representations of their live sets. As the decade continued, their production became more complicated and disjointed. The albums Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour were the pinnacle of this path. These recordings emphasized a big sound created by studio production and new recording techniques bred out of the use of multiple tracks to record. However, this aesthetic did not occur in a vacuum. Their Satanic Majesties Request by the Rolling Stones is another record that manifests this trend. The myth surrounding this album is that the band recorded everything in separate rooms and put it together afterwards because they were not getting along at the time. These albums came to be titled psychedelic, but more appropriately represented the attitudes and practices of late ‘60s recording techniques. While these efforts to become trickier in the studio were culminating in 1967, the trend had already been addressed and completely ignored by the Velvet Underground in 1966.