Friday, November 8, 2013

Coming Around To The Velvet Underground


When I first started to DJ at the punk club in Minneapolis around 1979 the guy who hired me, Peter Jesperson would recommend music to me at his record shop Oar Folkjokepus and one day he recommended The Velvet Underground and Nico. I liked the Warhol cover so I bought it, took it home and put it on…….I hated it, could not stand the druggy undertones of all the music and Lou Reed's voice bugged the shit out of me. I never played it again. Then about 6 years ago I was running around stores in soho with my friend Bill Arning and Pale Blue Eyes came on in the shop that we were in. I asked Bill and his then BF John who this was, they looked at me incredulously and thought I was kidding. They told me it was the Velvet Underground and I started to think how that music, like starlight, took such a long time to reach me. I guess I had to hear all the bands that were influenced by them first or something…..crazy huh?