Have you heard? The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat

Traditionally, pop music is supposed to originate from The Beatles and ‘alternative’ music from The Velvet Underground. But when people think of The Velvet Underground, they think of the banana album, Andy Warhol, and the strange German model Nico. And while it’s true that The Velvet Underground & Nico is a hugely influential work, it is not the only thing lurking in the Velvet Underground’s back catalogue. Far less heard, but no less influential, is their second album, White Light/White Heat.

The album was released in 1969, and is the product of a feud between the two creative lights of the band, Lou Reed and John Cale. Whereas Cale was more experimental, audacious (reports circulate of 40minute feedback sessions at gigs) Reed was more laconic, eventually paving way for guitar-orientated songs like ‘Sweet Jane’ on their fourth album, Loaded. After White Light/White Heat, Cale left the band and the whole album, in which he and Reed struggle for dominance, as the lasting legacy of their troubles. To this day neither will talk to the other, apart from one brief reunion in the 1990s that ended early due to animosity.

White Light/White Heat is an album about drugs, horror, transvestites, sex changes, hallucinations and murder. It is one long hymn to the alternative lifestyle in New York in the 60s, fermenting with civil and political unrest. Whether it venerates this lifestyle or mocks it is up for debate but it is really an album that must be experienced in full, with the sound on loud. ‘White Light/White Heat’ is the opener, aggressively physical with a loud distorted outro. It’s a reference to amphetamine and the song is suitably crazy with multiple voices, the aforementioned distortion and “strange” lyrics: “White light will tickle me down to my toes” giggles Reed. And it only gets crazier from here.

‘The Gift’ many see as the misstep within the album. A slow ponderous track with Reed telling a story he wrote in school about a man who packages himself and sends himself to his girlfriend, with gory consequences. Upon repeated goes it does become rather tedious but the first time it’s vivid and shocking and has to be heard once. ‘Lady Godiva’s Operation’ features Cale’s melodic singing brutally intercut with Reed. The result is a jarring experience, telling the story of a sex change that goes awry, complete with hospital noises from the band. ‘Here She Comes Now’ is a sweet interlude of a girl that may or not be a hallucination. After what’s come before it’s a release. ‘I Heard Her Call My Name’ is a squalling punkish song with a squealing guitar. It prefigures Reed’s Metal Machine Music and sticks two fingers up to the critics who say the Velvet Underground can’t do hard work.

The grand finale though has to be reserved for ‘Sister Ray’, a 17 minute long epic improvised in one take – no reshoots! - about a drug deal with transvestite dealers who get killed and then the police come and there’s an orgy – or something like that, the lines get repeated three times and are really secondary as Cale’s organ and Reed’s guitar fight for dominance. The sound producer walked out mid take. It speeds up, aided by Maureen Tucker’s impish guitar, slows down to the basic chugging riff and goes on and on in wonder, so much so you can hear new genres being invented.

Most of the comparisons I have used to describe White Light/White Heat are bands inspired by the Velvet Underground. David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Television, Talking Heads, Joy Division, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Killers – all are inspired by this mercurial eclectic band. Though this band can be considered an acquired taste, often held up as an indie bible, it’s still brilliant, easy to understand and, when you’ve got used to it, really listenable as well. It says a lot that nearly 50 years on we still find this album introduces ideas that can be considered unique. My advice is forget modern pop – give this classic a go and see what happens.

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