White Light/White Heat
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| White Light/White Heat | ||
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| Studio album by The Velvet Underground | ||
| Released | January 30, 1968 | |
| Recorded | Scepter Studios, New York September 1967 | |
| Genre | Proto punk Experimental rock |
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| Length | 40:12 | |
| Label | Verve Records | |
| Producer(s) | Tom Wilson | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| The Velvet Underground chronology | ||
| The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967) |
White Light/White Heat (1968) |
The Velvet Underground (1969) |
White Light/White Heat is The Velvet Underground's second album.
The record is famous for rejecting the pop sensibilities of their first record, as well as that record's guest vocalist Nico and producer Andy Warhol. Recorded relatively rapidly in a period of 2 days in late 1967, the distorted, feedback-driven, and roughly recorded sound went onto influence countless musicians. The album became one of the prototypes for The Stooges and the punk movement.
The album consists of six tracks, each offering a different sonic challenge to the listener. The album's title track, "White Light/White Heat", explodes with a pounding rhythm and lyrics that glorify the use of heroin and amphetamines. "The Gift" features a heavy rock rhythm mixed into one stereo speaker and a Lou Reed short story — laconically narrated by John Cale — in the other. The story tells a tale of love and the perils of human mail, and was written by Reed for a project in his college days. Clips of the track were used in radio ads for the album. "Lady Godiva's Operation" features John Cale playing a distorted electric viola while singing about a sex change gone wrong. Possibly the most accessible song on the album is "Here She Comes Now", which was covered by Nirvana. "I Heard Her Call My Name" offers an energetic vocal performance by Lou Reed set to a feedback-frenzied guitar solo.
However, the record's centerpiece is the epic "Sister Ray", based on some of Reed's near-perennial concerns — drug abuse, violence, homosexuality and transvestism. "Sister Ray" is legendary for having been recorded in one take. The band agreed to accept whatever faults occurred in the single take. The song careens off in every direction for over 17 minutes as John Cale's deafening organ (which was routed through a distorted guitar amplifier) and Lou Reed's piercing guitar take turns drowning out the rest of the band. Secondary guitarist Sterling Morrison remarked that he was amazed at the volume of Cale's organ during the recording and had switched the guitar pickup on his Fender Stratocaster from the bridge position to the neck position to get "more oomph". There is a rumor that the producer, Tom Wilson walked out halfway through the song and just said "Let me know when you're done". Also notable about the song is that it features no bass guitar - John Cale, who usually plays bass, was playing his organ on the take. The band had a sponsorship from Vox amplifiers, resulting in use of top of the line amps and distortion pedals to create a very distorted and noisy sound. The title for "Sister Ray" provided the inspiration for the name of the Salem, Oregon band Sister Ray.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 292 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
One example of the album's influence on culture is White Light White Heat, an early performance art act done by Chris Burden in 1975. [1]
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
- "White Light/White Heat" (Lou Reed) – 2:47
- "The Gift" (Reed, Sterling Morrison, John Cale, Maureen Tucker) – 8:19
- "Lady Godiva's Operation" (Reed) – 4:56
- "Here She Comes Now" (Reed, Morrison, Cale, Tucker) – 2:04
- "I Heard Her Call My Name" (Reed) – 4:38
- "Sister Ray" (Reed, Morrison, Cale, Tucker) – 17:27
[edit] Personnel
[edit] The band
- Lou Reed - vocals, guitar, piano
- John Cale - vocals, electric viola, organ, bass guitar
- Sterling Morrison - vocals, guitar, bass guitar
- Maureen Tucker - percussion
[edit] Technical staff
- Tom Wilson – producer
- Gary Kellgren – engineer
| The Velvet Underground |
|---|
| John Cale | Sterling Morrison | Lou Reed | Maureen Tucker | Doug Yule |
| Willie Alexander | Angus MacLise | Walter Powers |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: The Velvet Underground and Nico | White Light/White Heat | The Velvet Underground | Loaded | Squeeze |
| Live albums: Live at Max's Kansas City | 1969 | Live MCMXCIII | Final V.U. | The Quine Tapes |
| Box sets and outtake compilations: VU | Another View | What Goes On | Peel Slowly and See |
| Selected best-of compilations: Rock and Roll | The Very Best of The Velvet Underground | Gold |
| See also |
| Chelsea Girl | Exploding Plastic Inevitable | Nico | Steve Sesnick | Songs for Drella | Andy Warhol | Billy Yule |
