THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

BY: PROVOKR Editors

The Velvet Underground documentary is helmed by none other than Todd Haynes. It is well over due and we can expect the best from Todd Haynes and his off kilter sensibility and acute sensitivity. Todd Haynes and The Velvet Underground are kind of a perfect match. “That weirdness shouldn’t have existed in this space,” said John Cale a founding member of the times. The talking heads on the documentary are amazing. Girl drummer for The Velvet Underground, Moe Tucker said, “we began to get a following but radio would not play us.” Yet we still follow them today and their influence is tremendous.

Lou Reed and John Cale were magic together. Lou wrote the lyrics mostly from his life experiences at the time. He was in the speed crowd and hung out with an incredibly decorative trans crowd. It was a drama a minute. I heard at an AA meeting he said he liked the meetings and would like to keep coming but he did not understand why he couldn’t shoot speed into his veins.

 

 

 

When The Velvet Underground would play and end a song and the audience was silent, stunned. They were that good, that fresh, that mesmerizing. It was another stroke of luck for Andy Warhol to “sponsor” the band. Warhol was at the time, trying so hard to be famous through film, art and now he added music. The funny thing is I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t know who Andy Warhol is today. He wanted to be in on the inside or catch whatever he perceived as the golden ring. He did. He used The Velvet Underground and Nico and made all kinds of promises while they played his factory parties. He did anything he could to cling onto anything that could possibly bring him more fame.

 

 

Today The Velvet Underground are considered to be among the very best ever and the covers they keep getting and radio time only prove their genius. An album The Velvet Underground & Nico All Star Tribute comes out September 24th with Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett, Michael Stipe, Iggy Pop and King Princess doing individual covers with 6 other artists appearing on different covers form the original album by The Velvet Underground & Nico. The album comes out September 24th. Todd Haynes’ documentary The Velvet Underground premieres on October 15th on Apple TV+.

We will be there for both so we too can be mesmerized and assaulted by their sound and words. We have provided below the trailer and the Cannes teaser for the film and Courtney Barnett’s rendition of “I’ll Be Your Mirror”, “Run Run Run” by Kurt Vile and “Waiting for the Man” by Matt Berninger.