Discord & Rhyme: An Album Podcast

Discord and Rhyme is a podcast where we discuss the albums we love, song by song.

035: The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)

“The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn’t stand the sight of the audience.”

—John Cale

In this episode, Ben leads everyone through an album nobody would have pegged him as loving (since it's not by Elvis), 1967's The Velvet Underground and Nico. Produced (sort of) by Andy Warhol and featuring singing (sort of) by German model Nico, the album's noisy, abrasive rock music - sweetened by Lou Reed's reliable pop instincts - has influenced generations of bands. But is it any fun to listen to? Ben says heck yes, Will rolls his eyes, and Amanda and Phil bring some sorely needed nuance to the table. There's definitely Discord here - probably inevitable whenever Lou Reed is involved. 

Miscellany

  • We hope that everyone who hears this episode starts their own music-discussion podcast. We'll plug it! 

  • A sad detail left out of the episode: Nico passed away in 1988 as the result of a bicycling accident.

  • Sterling Morrison - sorry, Doctor Sterling Morrison - earned a PhD in Medieval Literature in 1986 from the University of Texas at Austin. 

  • As hinted at in the episode by Will, Lou Reed eventually crossed paths with David Bowie, who was a fan of the Velvet Underground. Bowie produced Reed's 1972 commercial breakthrough album Transformer. 

  • Predictably - and gutlessly - the 1989 edition of Webster's Dictionary jumps directly from "dichotomy" to "diction." 

  • Amazingly, the angry associate who shot Andy Warhol in 1968 was not Lou Reed. Instead, it was writer Valerie Solanas. 

  • The 2010 clip of Underground drummer Moe Tucker at a Tea Party rally, speaking to a TV reporter about America's descent into socialism, can be found here, at the 2:40 mark: https://youtu.be/HEt-IaRbcVY. The Tea Party has since soldiered on with their principled stand against taxation, regardless of who has occupied the White House. 

  • Byrds founder Roger McGuinn on the origins of the guitar sound in Eight Miles High: "Eight Miles High actually came about as a tribute to John Coltrane. It was our attempt to play jazz. We were on a tour of America, and someone played us the Coltrane albums Africa/Brass and Impressions. I had just picked up a cassette recorder – it was such a new thing, you couldn’t buy any tapes to play in it. But I had some blank tapes so recorded the Coltrane albums, along with some Ravi Shankar, and took them on tour. It was the only music we had, for the whole time on the bus. By the end of the tour, Coltrane and Shankar were ingrained. There was one Coltrane track called India, where he was trying to emulate sitar music with his saxophone. It had a recurring phrase, dee da da da, which I picked up on my Rickenbacker guitar and played some jazzy stuff around it." 

Other links

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call 

  • Ben Marlin (host)

  • Chris Willie Williams (moderator)

  • Amanda Rodgers

  • Phil Maddox 

The Velvet Underground and Nico tracklist 

  1. Sunday Morning 

  2. I'm Waiting For the Man

  3. Femme Fatale

  4. Venus In Furs

  5. Run Run Run

  6. All Tomorrow's Parties

  7. Heroin

  8. There She Goes Again

  9. I'll Be Your Mirror 

  10. The Black Angel's Death Song

  11. European Son 

Other clips used 

The Velvet Underground/Nico:

  • Nico - These Days

  • The Velvet Underground - Rock and Roll

  • The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray

  • The Velvet Underground - Who Loves the Sun

  • Nico - Ari’s Song

  • Lou Reed & John Cale - Starlight 

Others:

  • Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane

  • No Doubt - Sunday Morning

  • Martin Denny - Misirlou

  • Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Sunday Morning

  • Duran Duran - Femme Fatale

  • Electric Wizard - Venus in Furs

  • The Gestures - Run, Run, Run

  • The Third Rail - Run Run Run

  • Sixpence None the Richer - There She Goes

  • Marvin Gaye - Hitch Hike

  • R.E.M. - There She Goes Again

  • Clem Snide - I’ll Be Your Mirror

  • Yo La Tengo - Moby Octopad

  • Amon Tobin - Venus in Furs/Voodoo Child

Songs we mentioned but didn’t clip

The Velvet Underground/Nico:

  • Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side

  • John Cale - Hallelujah

  • Nico - I’m Not Sayin’

  • The Velvet Underground - All Tomorrow’s Parties (Demo) 

Others:

  • Electric Light Orchestra - Do Ya

  • The Dead Milkmen - Jellyfish Heaven

  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

  • Thelonious Monk - Pannonica

  • Goblin - Suspiria

  • The Stooges - Penetration

  • Fleetwood Mac - Monday Morning

  • Peaches - Fuck the Pain Away

  • The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog

  • Sly & the Family Stone - Dance to the Music

  • The Ramones - 53rd & 3rd

  • R.E.M. - Femme Fatale

  • The Miracles - You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me

  • The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup

  • Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds

  • The Byrds - Eight Miles High

  • Bruce Springsteen - Wild Billy’s Circus Story

  • Bruce Springsteen - Spirit in the Night

  • Bruce Springsteen - Kitty’s Back

  • Bob Dylan - Maggie’s Farm

  • Joan Baez - Sweet Sir Galahad

  • Elle King - Kocaine Karolina

  • Bob Dylan - I’ll Keep it With Mine

  • The Beatles - Revolution 9

  • Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah

  • Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

  • Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

Band/album personnel 

  • Lou Reed - guitar, ostrich guitar, vocals

  • John Cale - viola, piano, bass

  • Sterling Morrison - guitar, bass

  • Moe Tucker - drums, tambourine 

  • Nico - vocals 

Credits 

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of: 

  • Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

  • The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

  • Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

  • Herbie Hancock - Hornets

  • Kraftwerk - Autobahn

  • Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

  • The Velvet Underground - Heroin (this episode only) 

You can buy or stream The Velvet Underground and Nico and other albums by the Velvet Underground at the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon [affiliate link]. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production, editing, and celestial education. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.

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