‘Facing The Wind’: Did Nico invent goth rock?
Musical genres are often hard to define derisively. The origins of styles like punk, hardcore, and even disco are endlessly disputed, and the dark, moody landscape of goth rock is certainly no different. Ask anybody to pinpoint the origins of goth rock, and they will invariably cite the post-punk scene of the late 1970s when groups like Bauhaus, The Cure, and Siouxsie and the Banshees began to explore darker influences within their music. However, the sounds adopted by these pioneering artists had to originate somewhere. Arguably, that somewhere was New York City.
As a city, New York boasts a much more vibrant musical history than most, having fostered the early origins of jazz, punk rock, new wave, and hip-hop, among various other genres. Goth rock, on the other hand, is rarely associated with the skyscrapers and bright lights of NYC. Thematically, the genre has far more in common with the damp and dreary post-industrialism of late 1970s Britain, which is likely why groups like Bauhaus are so often cited as the progenitors of the genre. In terms of sound, however, goth might owe itself to the distinctive tones of a New York legend: Nico.
Although born in Cologne, Germany, Nico earned her artistic stripes in Greenwich Village, New York City. As a collaborator of the iconic pop art pioneer Andy Warhol, Nico rose to prominence as a vocalist through her work with The Velvet Underground before making waves as a solo artist in her own right. With The Velvet Underground & Nico and her solo follow-up, Chelsea Girls, Nico influenced virtually every alternative artist that followed. However, her second solo record, The Marble Index, is where Nico embraced her darker influences.
Released in 1968, The Marble Index offered a departure both from the folk influence of Chelsea Girls and the proto-punk experimentalism of The Velvet Underground & Nico. Generally regarded as one of the finest avant-garde records of the period, the album had a colossal influence over later scenes of punk, post-punk, and experimental rock.
Following the 1968 album, multiple other prominent rock and alternative artists of the era – the likes of The Doors or John Cale – began to adopt a much darker, moodier sound, too. No revolution is completed alone, but the effect that this album had upon the wider rock scene inarguably paved the way for the emergence of goth later down the line. Indeed, if you look at the sombre themes, lyricism, and performance on the album, you can draw multiple parallels from Nico to artists like Siouxsie Sioux.
This is particularly true for the song ‘Facing the Wind’, which laid the groundwork for the inherent sound of early goth rock. Introducing a much darker, more unsettling sound to Nico’s repertoire, the song was a definite standout from the record and arguably might have been the first-ever goth rock track.
In fact, ‘Facing the Wind’ arguably goes further into dark and sombre theming than many early goth and post-punk bands. Its dark, almost frightening, avant-garde instrumentation, coupled with the distinctively atonal vocals of Nico, come together to create a largely uncomfortable song, as infectious as it is uneasy. Listen to the song back to back with goth anthems like ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, ‘Pure’, or even ‘One Hundred Years’, and you will find that they are pretty close together in terms of that dark, uncomfortable soundscape.
Of course, Nico never leaned into the goth angle of her work, as that angle had not really been defined yet. Furthermore, the look of goth has always been an intrinsic part of the subculture, yet Nico was rarely found bedecked in black, with backcombed hair or black eyeliner on pale skin. In terms of the inherent sound and genre conventions of goth rock, however, the origins of the genre all seem to lead back to one album, The Marble Index, and one song, ‘Facing the Wind’.
