What can you say about this record that hasn't already been lectured by a hipster in between sardonic scoffs? Oh, I know: this is my first color vinyl. Instead of the usual black, a vibrant yellow renders the tiny grooves of the record close to invisible. The color must have something to do with the solitary banana on the cover. Sadly, I don't have an original pressing otherwise I could, upon instruction from Andy Warhol, peel the banana back slowly and see the eerie pink fruit hidden underneath.
We've also reached another one of my top ten. I love this album; it was one of the first records I bought when I got a record player. The second I got home with my turntable I drove down to Volume Records and purchased brand new, thirty-dollar copies of this and Trout Mask Replica. I don't regret a dime.
"Sunday Morning" is a deceivingly innocent misrepresentation of the rest of the album. But it's not a cheap trick. It's just evidence that, despite the high level of artistic experimentation on the record, these are talented musicians with an ear for melody.
The first Velvet Underground song I heard was "Venus in Furs" immediately followed by "Heroin." The former I liked immediately, but the latter didn't sound like a song at all. This was in high school, before I started listening to music that would make this album sound superficial. "Heroin" won me over quickly through repeated listens and the realization that this was a musical manifestation of a testimony, a love song to a drug.
The hackneyed expression "ahead of their time" never applied more aptly to another band. It's been less than three years since Meet the Beatles came out. Three years. And now today, they're still ahead of their time, and will be until the day that The Velvet Underground is as much a household name as The Rolling Stones. But they probably never will be, and in a way, that's kind of what makes them so cool.
favorite song: "Heroin"
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