The Velvet Underground song inspired by Lou Reed and John Cale’s love rivalry
By the mid-1960s, American rock music had become increasingly influenced by the British invasion rock groups and the emerging hippie era. While West Coast groups like Jefferson Airplane and The Beach Boys became associated with peace and love, Lou Reed and John Cale of The Velvet Underground conjured a depraved antidote from the gloomy streets of New York City.
Initially writing and jamming as The Warlocks, Reed and Cale found stability with the addition of Maureen ‘Moe’ Tucker on drums and Sterling Morrison on guitar. This early lineup of The Velvet Underground began to frequent small backstreet venues in 1965, bringing their unique avant-garde shows to the bohemian New York scene.
In 1966, the band fell under the radar of pop artist Andy Warhol. Swiftly, the Campbell’s Soup fanatic signed the Velvets under his management, inducting them into his new multi-media entourage known as The Factory. At Warhol’s insistence, The Velvet Underground were joined by German singer Nico, who accompanied Reed on vocal duties.
The band released their first and most iconic album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, in March 1967. The album captured the eclectic essence of the band, satirically conveying their disaffection with the hippie movement in dark odes to illicit substances and salacious activity. The album is perhaps best known for ‘Heroin’, ‘Sunday Morning’, ‘Venus in Furs’ and ‘Femme Fatale’.
Of the original release’s 11 songs, Nico offered lead vocals to three songs: ‘Femme Fatale’, ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ and ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’. The last of these is one of the record’s most uncompromising and candid titles, which examines the quintessential bohemian Factory-frequent.
In the liner notes for the 1995 compilation release Peel Slowly and See, Reed described ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ as “a very apt description of certain people at the Factory at the time. … I watched Andy. I watched Andy watching everybody. I would hear people say the most astonishing things, the craziest things, the funniest things, the saddest things.”
Speaking to Uncut in 2018, John Cale revealed the more precise inspiration for the song. “The song was about a girl called Darryl, a beautiful petite blonde with three kids, two of whom were taken away from her,” he explained. “Me and Lou were both trying to win her affections. We both had our day in the sun.”
“We were at Darryl’s apartment one day, and she had this boyfriend who was a Polish hitter, a construction guy who, if you gave him 200 bucks, he’d beat the shit out of someone for you,” Cale continued, introducing a rather dicey anecdote. “So we’re over there and Darryl’s asleep and she’s got this babysitter called Pepe hanging around and the Polish guy turns up and I’m playing a recorder. He says to me, ‘If you don’t stop, I’ll shove it down your fucking throat’.”
“Lou was beside himself with fear,” Cale added. “I carried on playing and the Pole goes, ‘OK, tough guy, come outside and I’ll show you how to fight.’ He taught me a few moves, some boxing feints. Lou said as were leaving, ‘Are you fucking nuts? That guy was gonna kill us both.'”
Fortunately, Cale and Reed lived to tell the tale of their little educational scrap with the muse’s boyfriend and went on to write Warhol’s favourite Velvets song, ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’.
