Velvet Underground & Nico

March 1967, The Velvet Underground decides to release their first album "The Velvet Underground and Nico. This album was not the popular to the masses but a select few who took the time to actually listen to the song. Lou Reed and John Cale were the songwriters for the band.They both were inspired by each others style of music. This inspiration was the beginning of a great friendship between the two. Reed was impressed my Cale's style of play on the violin and Cale was inspired by Reeds style of play on the guitar. Where these two artist came from played a major role in how they developed there sound as a band. Reed had a background in English Composition. He studied english at The University of Syracuse and this is also where he was introduced to drugs and lyric writing, Cale background was in classical music he studied at London's Goldsmith College he received the Bernstein Scholarship and traveld to the United States. Next they added Sterling Morrison and Agus MacLise and another important piece of the creation of The Velvet Underground was Pop artist Andy Warhol who became fascinated with their music he became the band's manager in 1965. The band would play in Warhol's studio "The Factory" this helped the band gain some exposure he also was the person who suggested they let Nico sing some vocals on a few tracks. They also gave him producer credits for his work. The music that The Velvet Underground was completely left field from the music that was popular during this time. This album takes you on quite a journey and the music is so moving. It also can seem somewhat dark at times. They really pushed the envelope when it came to lyrics during this time. They spent a lot of time tapping into the drug world and other topics that weren't talked about. This album was said the be the start of the punk movement. Any the beginning this album didn't have a lot of commercial success over the years people began to realize how important this album was to the punk culture and music in general.