The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground & Nico remains one of rock's most influential debut albums, despite selling poorly upon its 1967 release. Produced by Andy Warhol, who contributed the iconic banana cover art, the record fused Lou Reed's deadpan observations of New York's underbelly with John Cale's avant-garde viola drones and Nico's detached European vocals. Songs like "Heroin" and "Venus in Furs" addressed taboo subjects with unflinching directness, whilst "Sunday Morning" offered rare melodic warmth. The album's combination of garage rock primitivism, experimental noise, and literary lyrics proved too confrontational for 1960s audiences but became a blueprint for punk, art rock, and alternative music. Brian Eno famously suggested that whilst few bought the album initially, everyone who did started a band. The Velvet Underground's rejection of hippie idealism and embrace of urban decay captured a darker side of the counterculture, influencing generations of musicians who valued authenticity over commercial appeal. Their legacy persists as proof that commercial failure and artistic triumph need not be mutually exclusive.
