The Velvet Underground song Andy Warhol wanted to sabotage
In a world dominated by the sounds of psychedelic rock and flower power, The Velvet Underground were anything but mainstream. While living in the art rock underground of New York City, Lou Reed set out to make music that was reflective of the world that he saw every day rather than the insipid songs about spreading peace everywhere he went. Even though the band featured veterans of the avant-garde scene, one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle didn’t even need to play an instrument.
While assembling their first songs, the group got one of their biggest strengths from producer Andy Warhol. Known for being the iconic artist known for minimalism, Warhol was famously hands-off as a producer, choosing to leave all of the authentic pieces of the song in the final track, which made for abrasive sounds on the final recording.
Aside from Warhol’s sonic influence, he was also responsible for pairing the group with German singer Nico. While Reed’s voice may have suited the album well on tracks like ‘Venus In Furs’, the booming voice of Nico on tracks like ‘Femme Fatale’ and ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ is dripping with emotion from the minute it comes on, showcasing both the light and the dark of the rock scene.
For an album that indicated what art rock should be, it made sense that the packaging would be equally artistic. In the vein of what Warhol had done with his portraits of a soup can, the album would feature a barebone drawing of a banana, which mirrored the pure sounds of the music within.
Even though Warhol had worked similar magic on albums for artists like The Rolling Stones on Sticky Fingers, there was much more to the vinyl release than just the drawing. Containing different pieces that could come off the packaging, Warhol put pieces on the sleeve that could seriously harm the album before it was out of the casing.
When overseeing the mastering sessions, Reed remembered Warhol suggesting putting an intentional crack in the vinyl right in the middle of the vinyl. While making the song ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’, Warhol had the idea of putting damage on the record so that the song would play without stopping.
While Reed was open to the idea, he ultimately talked Warhol down, recalling in the book Uptight, “We would have the record fixed with a built-in crack so it would go, ‘I’ll be your mirror, I’ll be your mirror, I’ll be your mirror,’ so that it would never reject. It would just play and play until you came over and took the arm off”.
That didn’t stop Warhol from putting his artistic spin on various pieces of the artwork, including versions of the album released later on featuring a texture to the banana that the listener could peel away. Even though Warhol never claimed to be one of the most musically gifted figures in the music industry, every move he made was about getting each band’s artistic identity fully realised.
