Why did Nico hate the classic Velvet Underground song ‘Femme Fatale’?
German model/singer Nico had a tenuous standing in The Velvet Underground. Technically speaking, she wasn’t a full-time member. Originally formed by guitarist/songwriter Lou Reed, bassist/violist John Cale, and guitarist Sterling Morrison in 1964, the lineup had been solidified with the arrival of drummer Maureen Tucker the following year. Not long after, artist Andy Warhol integrated the band into the scene at his art studio, The Factory.
Warhol’s position as band manager led to him insisting that they take on Nico as an additional member. Nico was already a part of Warhol’s scene of superstars, but her abilities as a singer had yet to fully develop. Likewise, the Velvets were reluctant to take on Nico, considering her an outsider who was being forced on them. The relationship was varied, and Nico only lasted as long as Warhol stayed on as manager, but the group recorded a number of classic songs in a relatively short period of time.
Nico was the lead vocalist on a grand total of three songs during her stint with the Velvets: ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’, ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’, and ‘Femme Fatale’, all of which appeared on 1967’s The Velvet Underground and Nico. The latter of the three proved to be Nico’s signature track on the album, but the singer herself had a notable gripe with the track.
“[Nico] always hated that,” Sterling Morrison claimed, later quoted in the 33 1/3 book on The Velvet Underground and Nico. “Nico, whose native language is minority French, would say, ‘The name of this song is ‘Fahm Fatahl’.’ Lou and I would sing it our way. Nico hated that. I said, ‘Nico, hey, it’s my title, I’ll pronounce it my way.'”
Proper pronunciations aside, it’s interesting that Morrison claims the title as his own, considering how Reed is alone in the songwriting credits for ‘Femme Fatale’. Morrison helped write the partly-improvised ‘European Son’, along with later songs like ‘The Gift’, ‘Sister Ray’, ‘Here She Comes Now’, and ‘Chelsae Girls’, the last of which would later be recorded by Nico for her debut album of the same name.
By the time the Velvet Underground began work on their second album, 1968’s White Light/White Heat, Reed had already fired Warhol as the band’s manager. Nico was the next to go, although her departure was contested as a direct firing. According to the singer herself, Reed made sure she was out as well. “Everybody wanted to be the star,” Nico said at the time, later quoted in Victor Bockris’ Lou Reed: The Biography. “Of course, Lou always was. But the newspapers came to me all the time. That’s how I got fired – he couldn’t take that anymore. He fired me.”
