Nico

[mayer]

Chelsea Girl[/i] liner notes"]She is beautiful. And in a world where so much can easily be possessed on a whim or for a promise, she is unpossessable. She has a clear, pure ring, a trueness, like an arrow that has hit an inner mark and can't be wedged loose.

A thought struck me at work today. Nico's first three LPs are each better than every Lou Reed or John Cale album post-VU (from the fair amount that I've got). For someone often dismissed as nothing more than a frontwoman for the art of others, be they Andy or Lou, it's quite a feat.

(Facts and trivia are from Wikipedia, Allmusic, and half remembered. The opinions are all mine I'm afraid)




Chelsea Girls was half-disowned by Nico. I remember reading an interview prior to the next LP where she as good as disowned the record. I adore it. It's got songs by Reed, Cale, S. Morrison, Dylan, Jackson Browne, with the first three playing on it along with Leonard Cohen and others, and of course, Nico's voice, which is just stunning.

The songs are gorgeous, fragile things. "Chelsea Girls" and maybe Lou's pre-VU written "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" are maybe the best known, but for me the best songs are the string-y and flute-heavy (the aspect of the LP which Nico especially despised) "Winter Song" and the tearjerking closer acoustic guitar and vocal-only "Eulogy to Lenny Bruce".

It's quite a straight album. Lots of it is folky (but without being trad), though the unsettling "It Was A Pleasure Then" perhaps gives the slightest hint of what direction the gal might take in the future. Her voice manages to elevate it above the simple collections of songs it is to something rather wonderful.

[Neil]

These Days by Browne is one of my fave ever songs.  And I want a harmonium.

[Peking O]

I like Chelsea Girl, but better than Transformer, Berlin, Fear, or Paris 1919? Nah. The Marble Index is one of those inexplicably overrated albums. It's just turgid.

[mayer]

Yeah mayer, but that's all well and good, but you said:

For someone often dismissed as nothing more than a frontwoman for the art of others, be they Andy or Lou, it's quite a feat.

And, nice as the album is, that's all it is. Her voice and other people's songs.




The Marble Index was when Nico started to matter. She worked with John on it, but wrote every track herself, and what tracks they are! Enchanting, droney (in the good way), and sometimes downright scary. The cacophonous ""Evening of Light", medieval sounding "No One Is There" the strange wavey sounds on "Frozen Warnings". It's all fantastic.

I just found out now that the last two songs on the CD version weren't on the original LP, I don't know the story behind that. The first, "Roses In The Snow" is chilling, the second is the entirely a capella "Nibelungen", and it just knocks me over. Any criticisms of her voice I've heard just don't stand up when you hear it all stripped away and sounding so majestic.

Apparently the song stuctures were radical in pop at the time, and John thought The Marble Index a massive contribution to classical music. I can't tell you about that, but it does sound so different from anything I've ever heard before, even now, so in 1969 it would've just been unbelievable. It's just stunning.

[mayer]

I like Chelsea Girl, but better than Transformer, Berlin, Fear, or Paris 1919? Nah. The Marble Index is one of those inexplicably overrated albums. It's just turgid.

:-) I think it's better than all of those, and WL/WH and Loaded too. I'd rank those four as

1. Berlin
2. Transformer
3. Paris 1919
4. Fear

With Nico's three above them all. (John's touring Black Acetate at the end of the month, incidentally, bugger, I need to get some cash together)

[Peking O]

Berlin as #1 out of those four and waxing lyrical about the Marble Index? Must be a right laugh round your gaff mayer. I dunno, I could never get into the Marble Index, perhaps I'll give it another go. It just sat on the wrong side of unlistenable for me, and I've usually got plenty of time and a comfy chair set aside for such abrasion.

[mayer]

I love all of them (Fear I think I need to give more time to mind), but Berlin is just... wow! It's depressing, but sometimes you want a bit of that no? (EDIT: Someone just suggested to me I point you in the direction of the Take That thread to prove I do know how to smile!)



Now, Chelsea Girl had some amazing melodies, and The Marble Index had the what-the-fuck factor, but my favourite is her third.



Desert Shore picks up where The Marble Index left off. The scary majesty (yeah, I'm overusing the word, but it really is the best one) of the opener "Janitors of Lunacy" is a corker and possibly my favourite track of hers.

It's less relentless than its predecessor, it's got "Le Petit Chevalier", a song, in French (duh), sung, Amazon tells me, by her son, Ari, could be respite amongst the madness, but with Cale's arrangement still manages to sound awfully sinister. That and my fear of both children and the French language. "Afraid" is a piano-led track that really does calm down the record, but the rest doesn't let you off that easy. The sinister "Mutterlien" broody "The Falconer" and almost yelled, (but always controlled) closer "All That Is My Own" maybe being the standouts, but talking about single tracks from this record seems like a crime.


Um. mp3s coming... soon.

[Peking O]

The mere thought of Take That depresses me far beyond John Cale scuffing a cacophonous racket out of his violin while Nico bawls like 10 cats in heat over the top. So mayer's gaff loses another 163 enjoyment points I'm afraid.

[mayer]

Hehehehehhe. When you come and visit I'm taking you out for a drink and back to mine to dance to a cutup of Relight My Fire and The Kids :-)

John Cale scuffing a cacophonous racket out of his violin while Nico bawls like 10 cats in heat over the top.

But for now some of that will have to do!



From Chelsea Girl

Winter Song

Eulogy To Lenny Bruce



From The Marble Index

No One Is There

Evening Of Light



From DesertShore

Janitor Of Lunacy

All That Is My Own

[TraceyQ]

This is a great book for anyone interested in Nico, it's about her last tour, but tells the reader a lot about her early life.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

I don't know much about Nico but the fingerpicking intro in These Days is one of my all time favourite things to play on the guitar. Such a great song.

[hulahoops]

John Cale scuffing a cacophonous racket out of his violin while Nico bawls like 10 cats in heat over the top.

Sorry mayer, I have to agree with Peking O, at least on The Marble Index.  There's something about Nico's voice that I find faintly irritating.  I think The Velvet Underground & Nico works so well because it's not all her singing - she makes a contrast to Lou Reed rather than overwhelming you for an entire album.  

That said, I quite like Chelsea Girl, because I can handle her voice in proper songs rather than over-the-top medieval noise.

Edit: Having listened to Desertshore, which I like more than The Marble Index, I think part of what bothers me about her voice is her accent.  I like the way she sounds in German much more than in English.   The whole thing does feel a bit sinister - it's more atmospheric and less noisy than the previous LP.

happy now?

[Partridge's Love Child]

Some mp3s

Bloody hell, they're a bit good aren't they.  I have to confess that I've come late to the Warhol party party [sic.].  I didn't even have The Velvet Underground & Nico until about a year ago, and that took some getting to grips with, so this is all pretty fresh ground to me.  It has a kind of feeling of Vashti Bunyan's evil twin.  Nico even wore a white suit with back top underneath like Garth did in Knight Rider.

[Paul's Boutique]

Like another poster said, I'd rate Chelsea Girl above all the other solo Velvets and Loaded (possibly White Light as well) – it's a real underrated classic. Some people can't dig her voice, but it suits the music perfectly: icy, Germanic, aloof, other-worldly and bloody frightening at times.

It doesn't really bother me that she didn't write much on Chelsea – she had Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Jackson Browne contributing original songs instead. All were at their creative peak and (with the exception of Dylan) their music, themes, lyrics and arrangements were all tailored for Nico and the Chelsea Girl album – everything is spot on.

Some of the lyrics are brilliantly macabre – this verse from "Wrap Your Troubles..." could almost come from a death metal band!

Excrements filters through the brain
Hatred bends the spine
Filth covers the body pores
To be cleansed by dying time

Remember this was released in 1967, with the hippies, flower power and the Summer of Love. No wonder it didn't set the charts alight!

[mayer]

Oooh, I've just downloaded Lou Reed, John Cale & Nico Live at Le Bataclan Club Paris 1972.

Apparently it got an official release a couple of years back

Limited edition numbered deluxe digipak features 16 tracks including 2 exclusive bonus tracks (both rehearsals - 'Pale Blue Eyes' & 'Candy Says'). This is the legendary show recorded at the Bataclan Club in Paris, on January 29th, 1972. Lou Reed is accompanied by John Cale & Nico, on stage for the first time since the break up of the Velvet Underground. Only 10,000 copies of the digipak edition with bonus tracks will be pressed after which it will revert to standard packaging with no bonus. Includes 16-page booklet with extensive liner notes with photos. Alchemy. 2003.

Some reviews on Amazon laying into the sound quality, source tapes and mastering, saying that most of the boots are better.

[Neil]

There's also a live album with John Cale, Brian Eno, Nico and Kevin Ayres.  I can't remember much about it other than they cover Baby's On Fire, though.  I should dig this stuff out again, but I'm borrowing money to get a nice acoustic guitar next week, and if I relisten to it before then I'll just end up blowing it on a bleedin' harmonium!  (I do want one though, they're great.)

EDIT:  Actually, I remember that it was when I was looking for other versions of Baby's On Fire that I first found that album.  And I also found a version by Marc Riley's band The Creepers.  Could never find much else by them though, very hard to track down.

[NoSleep]

This is a great book for anyone interested in Nico, it's about her last tour, but tells the reader a lot about her early life.

One of my favourite books. Loved the reading of it by the author on Radio 4 A Book At Bedtime a few years back.
I worked with Mixmaster Morris a few years back and he did a great mix of one of the tracks off Marble Index (I think) and King Tubbys Meet The Rockers Uptown by Augustus Pablo (just played both records simultaneously to beautiful effect).

[Ciarán2]

Ah I wanna stick up for "Paris 1919", it's my fave post velvets album (having heard about 75% of Lou's solos, only about 4 Cale solos, nothing by Tucker or Morrisson and all of Nico's main LPs). I'm a fan of "Chelsea Girl" and "Marble Index", but "Paris 1919" in its quiet, unassuming, not very rocka nd roll way, made my life a lot better when there was bad stuff going on. In fact i even prefer it over the Velvets' own albums! There are such simple ideas on it, and they're so effective. The strings on the tilte track, the lilting "Andalusia", the faux-reggae of "Graeme Greene".

And the best lyric of all time: "The cows that agriculture won't allow..."

[LadyDay]

EDIT:  Actually, I remember that it was when I was looking for other versions of Baby's On Fire that I first found that album.  And I also found a version by Marc Riley's band The Creepers.  Could never find much else by them though, very hard to track down.

Is that the version from the Creepers Warts 'N' All: Live in Amsterdam?

They made about 5 albums, Fancy Meeting God being my favourite.

[Neil]

Can you encode their original version of The Shadows for me then please?  EDIT:  I've never even found any reference to them doing that song though, just Shadow Figure.

[LadyDay]

Can you encode their original version of The Shadows for me then please?  EDIT:  I've never even found any reference to them doing that song though, just Shadow Figure.

Sadly it's all on vinyl and I'm rubbish at computer things! Sorry.

I've never heard of them doing it either.  Shadow Figure was an album track and single.  I bumped into him at a gig a couple of months ago, not seen him for years, what with him now being a bona fide radio superstar. Shame we hadn't had this discussion before, I could have asked him!

Actually Baby's on Fire was also on Miserable Sinners which thinking about it is a better album than Fancy Meeting God with the legendary Jon Langford producing.

[Neil]

Oh bugger, this Shadows thing has been doing me head in for years now.  Thanks anyway!  I think Jammin' Granny is the only other Creepers song I was ever able to find.

[mayer]

The Frozen Borderline: 1968-1970

Just picked this up today for a tenner in Fopp. Embarassingly when I started this thread, I never actually owned a single note of Nico's music outside of The Velvet Underground & Nico - all stolen.

Most swanky reiussues these days are an excuse to rinse you on the price for something you don't want, but a tenner (or less at Amazon, but I couldn't wait!) for these two LPs and loads of lovely bonus tracks is more than a bargain. Two of the best LPs ever, for me.

Like I said whenever, for me, those two records are every bit as good as White Light/White Heat, The Velvet Underground and Loaded. Looking at the years they came out, they certainly rank witth The Beatles, Abbey Road, Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait, The Stooges, Fun House and the rest.

John Cale is doing the odd interview, partly for this, and partly for Circus, which I've not heard, but when I saw him on that tour his band were particularly wank, I would've much rather he recorded the less guitar-heavy tour from a few years back, but you can't always get what you want, I suppose. Anyway, some interesting chatter about regarding these two records, which still manage to stun me and make me forget the rest of the world exists on every listen.

Apologies for the re-iteration, but The Marble Index and Desertshore are the sound of an supposed chanteuse and muse taking the reins and delivering a vision that can blind the supposedly shining lights of her era with its single minded brilliance.