The Velvet Underground

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The Velvet Underground

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Don't get me wrong, folks, The Velvet Underground is perhaps the greatest band of all time. This album, though, it just dosen't live up to The V. U. and Nico, and White Light/White Heat...

Let me put it this way

In the early days of The Velvets, there was John Cale. There was Lou Reed. It was the greatest music combo the world had to offer. Lou Reed would write elaborate, moving lyrics as John Cale composed intricate, brilliant songs. They pumped out The Velvet Underground and Nico, delivering incredible life changing classics such as "Heroin", "Venus in Furs", and "Black Angel's Death Song". They stayed strong as they released White Light/White Heat along with their excellent guitar player Sterling and a loyal drummer Maureen. It all fell apart though, this team. John left. Lou Reed, an incredible man that could do incredible things, could not perform these amazing things without Cale. It went downhill. He threw these soft instrumental riffs and whiney, un-Lou Reed-like vocals to make the self titled album. The Velvet Underground was built on noise, raging amplifaction, some-what offensive yet epic lyrics, and perfect instrument lines and melodies. This album is well done, and it has some okay songs ("What Goes On" is a wonderful track) but its just whimpey love songs that didn't appeal to me. After that Loaded was an improvment, but it was never the same when Cale left.

The Velvet Underground is a nice one to have, I can find some of the songs listenable, but The Velvet Underground and Nico is vastly greater than this. Start with that. Thanks