,5 W. /.

November 13,1970

THE SCARLET AND BLACK" , '

PAGE 3

Velvet Underground Getting Better With Age

by Chris Decker

Opinions about the Velvet
Underground tend to be scat‘
tered: “Black Romantics"
(Time); "Latent lmagists"
(Ernie Lundquist); or inconr
sequential: “Aging darlings
of the avantrgarde" (Rolling
Stone.) It is even possible to
get the impression that John
Gale and Lou Reed are pri-
marily interested in scaring
sixteensyear- old girls.
However, the Velvet Under-
ground have shown themsel-
ves to be much more inter-
esting than that. Their first
album is held together by a
thematic obsession with dualr
ism and chance. “BlackAngel
Death Song" is the clearest
presentation of the concepts:
the Black Angel and Lou Reed
play dice, with Reed’s life at
stake. Underlying the scene
are religious references and
imagery WI’IId’I prefigure the
barren landscapes of Nico's
The Marble Index:
And if Epiphany’s terror
reduced you to shame
Have your head barbed and
wreathed

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After a first selfrconscious
burSt of terror, the album
becomes too remote and pre-
dictable to be really frightenr
ing. Nico performs with her
customary inevitability; "All
Tomorrow's Parties” has st-
rong hints of “lawns of
Dawns," the scariest cut on
The Marble Index.

With Light/White Heat con-
tains little new material. The
title song sounds like ”I'm
waiting for my man", and
”lady Godiva‘s Qweration"
is similar in mood and theme
0 “Venus in furs." The real
impact of "Lady Godiva” is
‘in the vocal arrangement:
Reed interrupts Cale‘s lead
in a strident tone which fore-
shadows the doubles tra ck narr
rative of the third album's
”Murder Mystery." "SiSter
Ray" is held back by 3 mon-
otonous concern with fellatio,
but it introduces several mo-
tifs which appear in a more
mature form in the third ale
burn. For example,

You lmow you shouldn't do

that

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Don't you know you'll stain
the carpet
becomes an obsessive refrain

n ”Murder Mystery.” ”Sisr
ter Ray" also makes effective
use of stuttering, though this
technique is unfortunately not
carried through in the third
albumt
The third album is curiously
relaxing. In a way, everysong
on the album is an attempt to
explain the change which took
place between White Light/
White Heat and this one. On
side one, this comes through
in the organization; on side
two, in the content.

Side one is about love. It is
intractably Cartesian inspir
rit, progressing from the dis-
enchantment with the flesh of
“Candy Says":

Candy says
I've come to hate my body
And all that it requires
In this world
to a simple, direct prayer in
"Jesus"
Jesus
Help me find my proper
place
Help me in my weakness
'Cause I'm falling out of
grace

The attraction of “Jesus" is
that there is no hint of the
"Are You Running With Me,
Jesus" approach whichseems

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so popular today. TheJesus of
this song is the carpenterwho
spoke Aramaic and went down
to Jerusalem to get killed, and
was'also God. He is not in
hiding in Argentina, or in the
east village.
The second side is funny as
hell. “Beginning to see the
ight" is like "Rainy Day
omen #12 8t 35: you can’t
listen to it without laughing.
There is a great selfrmock-

ing allusion to the dualism of,

“Black Angel Death Song":
Here comes two of you
Which one will you choose
Che is black, and one is blue
Don't know just what to do
All right

“I‘m Set Free" and “Story
of my Life" are more rest
trained than the first cut.
They are similar in atmosphr
ere to Dylan on John Wesley
Harding: moderate, literate,
and vaguely melancholy.

"Murder Mystery" is anas-
tonishing piece of self-parody.
There is some interesting
conceptual trickery centering
around the words “obverse,
converse, reverse, perverse,
inverse." The general effect
of this technique is a vague
impression thatmirrors, Pla-
tonic Forms, and Edward Al~
bee are involved in a curious
ly banal kind of conspiracy to
mystify the listener. The last
few minutes of the track are
the best: two narratives are
read, simultaneously, one of
them a kind of cutting, lead—
guitar sequence, and the other
a softer counterpoint, like a

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bass player. Some of the lines
are interesting:

Set the wsket flaming

Do net go gentle blazing

These lines are attractive
because of, rather than in
spite of, the obvious plagiar-
ism of the second line. Agood
example of John Cale's feel
for sound placement is the
line,

Neural anaesthesia and al-
arm.

Curiously enough, Cale and
Reed-rthe two principal for-
ces behind the band , have both
written songs which sum up
their work extremely well:
Cale, ”Winter Song" on Nico's
Chelsea Girls, and Reed, the
title song on the same album.
Neither of them has anything
to do with thealbum other than
writing the songs. Reed sums
himself up in three lines:

Her perfect loves don’t last

Her future died

In someone's past

For Cale, it takes only six
words from Winter Song:

Classical sensitive failure
and

Avaricious young lovers.

Blocks And Wright

(continued from page 1)

diate efforts at Grinnell, Wr-
ight urged creation ofa “white
caucus" so white students can
begin to ”confrontyourwhite-
nessrand you can’t do it in
front of blackpeoplef'A num-
ber ofstudents stayedafter the
meeting indicating interest in
such a group; To date, no ac
tion has been taken.

Wright’ s confrontation re
ceived almost universal sup-
port from black students and
strong response if somewhat ‘
less wholesale acceptance
among white students. What‘
ever the specific opinion ab-
out Wright, he stimulated ev-
eryone to one of the hottest
days of discussion at Grinnell
this fall.

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