![]() ![]() ![]() That doesn't mean I can't think they were really good! Judging them through the light of a "very good" standard instead of a "greatness" standard gives me a much more favorable view of the band. Still, all this just means that I don't worship any of their albums (even if I come close with a couple of them, and like all of them), and that I don't consider them among the absolute best. In short, even if my tastes leaned strongly towards the kinds of music they influenced (and my tastes don't), I'd have trouble reconciling myself to the notion of them as belonging to the absolute cream of the crop of rock music. As far as musical experimentation goes, aside from my strange fascination with "Sister Ray" (more on that below), I find the band's instances of overt experimentation charmingly awkward at best, and for a band so reverenced for being such ahead-of-their-time trailblazers, that hurts a bit. I don't feel extremely bothered by these lyrical topics, and I generally enjoy the songs they're attached to, but I definitely don't find myself feeling any love or reverence for these lyrical topics either. I mean, it was a bold move on the part of the band to (in select songs, obviously not all songs fall under this description) sing so bluntly (not really favorably, and not always explicitly, but the band was clearly not hiding the nature of its lyrical topics) about things like heroin use and group sex and various other things, but there are times when it seems these aspects are used primarily for shock value, and this strikes me as a little bit crude and clumsy. There are some feedback experiments and a lot of noise to be found in their first couple of albums, and there are a lot of lyrics touching on topics which were taboo in the day, but it takes a very inclusive definition of proto-punk (and granted, the term is often used loosely, though sometimes so loosely that it loses cohesive meaning, but that's another topic) to consider those aspects enough to give the band this accolade.Īnother problem is that some of their experimental aspects (lyrically and sonically), as "shocking" as they may have seemed at the time, don't really hold up, even in the context of their contemporaries. The band is regularly cited as being an influence on punk music, but even within the category of 60's proto-punk, the band's musical connections with punk seem somewhat weak most of the time. In the years since the band's retroactive ascension to the ultra-elite, though, there have inevitably been pockets of backlash, and the criticisms leveled at the band in these cases have not totally been without merit. It is largely for this reason that the band has gone down in history, for a lot of people, as one of the absolute greatest bands of all time. had the credentials for claiming that title (even with so relatively few albums to their name). Plus, when the critical consensus on what constituted "quality" rock music shifted drastically towards punk (in the late 70's) and post-punk (for a while afterwards), it was inevitable that people would try to identify a band as those genres' long-lost forefather, and The V.U. Supposedly, Brian Eno once basically said that while almost nobody bought albums by The Velvet Underground when they were still together, almost everybody who bought them went out and started their own bands, and this goes a long way to explaining why the band is generally looked upon so favorably. It would be hard to think of a band that owes as much of its success to the bands influenced by it as does The Velvet Underground. "I Saw My Head Laughing, Rolling On The Ground, And Now I'm Set Free" ![]() Radio just played a little classical music for you kids,Īnd other people, (like us) they gotta workĪnd the children are the only ones who blush.The Velvet Underground Completely confused by the rating system? Go here for an explanation. Jack's in his car, says to Jane, who's in her vest,Īnd the both of them are saving up their money. Sweet Jane by The Velvet Underground on The Velvet Underground & Nico 45th Anniversary (1967), Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition (1970), Loaded (Remastered) (1970) Standin' on a corner,
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