Login
Nico is an artist who doesn’t get the credit she deserves. Her albums are often too pretentious, artsy, weird and proto-punk for most people. Outside of The Velvet Underground & Nico, actually finding her material is criminally difficult. I firmly and completely believe that it is well worth the search. Her albums are pieces of art.
Yes, there is the matter of her voice. I think it works for her chamber-folk-noise rock-cabaret-pop hybrid, but it is an acquired taste. At times too deep, too strained in others, she over enunciates and tries too force the pronunciations of her words. Oddly, this leads to her cutting off her syllables (example: “I’ll be your mirror” became “I be your mirror”). She did have a knack for picking collaborators though. Jacksone Browne, Lou Reed and Bob Dylan are just a few of the songwriters credited to the album. The girl knew how to pick great material.
And, yes, the studio did tamper with the material. Upon hearing the title track, rumor has it, she broke down and cried, attributing this to the flute that added onto the record. It wasn’t just the title song, but according to Nico that was the biggest offense. I think the strings sound quite pretty, but I wonder what the material would sound like without the tampering. Her husky voice would probably sound quite beautiful with a sparse and simple arrangement. Of course, there is the noise rock song “It Was a Pleasure Then.” She nails it. That’s another great thing about a Nico album, since she was part of the Factory, a Warhol muse, and part of the Velvets for a short period of time, you can hear her influence on the alternative scene. The most obvious spiritual child would be Patti Smith – a combination of punk noise rock with a folk music foundation – but other offspring would be Kim Gordon and Leonard Cohen.
Find Chelsea Girl, it will blow your mind. It’s a companion piece to The Velvet Underground & Nico, just try your best to ignore the flute. DOWNLOAD: “It Was a Pleasure Then”
