The Marble Index

by

Nico

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I've had this recording since I can remember, having picked it up on Vinyl, in the early 80s. It was love at first hearing, and I still love it. At the time, I was just discovering the Velvet Underground. After getting to know the first 3 Velvets albums, this is actually a logical advancement. Apparently, John Cale told Lou, after Lou heard this album and was apparently very impressed, that if Lou and Nico had not left the Velvet Underground, this is where the band could have gone. Those are bitter words, to a man that was just screwed over by his manager, and was putting out poprock music. (The 4th VU LP). So, is this something like an overlooked part of the VU legend, the way NICO's first album, Chelsea Girls is? Well, maybe part of it is, and yet, obviously, this is NOT rock, and is a giant step forward from Chelsea Girls. Nico and Cale both came out of the European tradition, of cathedrials, classical music, and opera. Altho not immediately evident, due to the spooky harmonium drones and post modern string arrangements by John Cale, I'd say that the european classical tradition, along with Fluxus drone experiments, would be the best way to say where this LP came out of, instead of the rock, folk and pop influences that you hear in Nico's first album. (which was almost part two of the first Velvet Underground LP). The connection between her first album, and MARBLE INDEX, is definately "It Was a Pleasure Then". Now, imagine that song, with surreal lyrics of utterly astonishing beauty, harmonium playing that was the sketch pad, upon which Cale based his arty string arrangements, and you have the place were MARBLE INDEX might have started. AMAZING. It creates a world seldom ever created by artists, working in the SONG style. One which is timeless, and totallly unique. The next album, DESERT SHORE, could almost be the continuation of this album, but with a little less crystal lattice work on the mediaval poppy arrangements. So, will you enjoy this LP? More than likely, and if you do, you will live with it in your soul. Maybe you'll fall madly in love with it, or just become friends, but one thing is certain, this album will remain a part of your life, long after so many other friendships and lovers have long left. It's music that lives that deeply in the soul, and apparently, came from such a deep place. Nico was a woman who's beauty was as apparent inside as out, and who gladly sacrificed first that beauty, and then her life, on the ultimate journey of uncompromised vision for her art. (Well, Ok she was a junky that fell off a bike, but hey, legend transcends the person, you know?) As for the delectible surprise that lives inside the CD/LP? I refuse to define or discribe music this ineffably lovely. Maybe the best praise I can give it, is to say, that it hasn't aged a day, and is as beautiful as when I first heard it in 1983. Like a gothic stained glass window, it's eternal beauty. Addictive as heroin to some, to others heady as a poem by Holderlin, or Rainer Marie Rilke, or the songs of Satie. Go on, give it a little taste.