Doom & Gloom From the Tomb

The Velvet Underground: A Symphony of Sound

An hour’s worth of the Velvets (plus Nico’s adorable little son) jamming in the factory, early 1966. Until the cops shut it DOWN. Cops, right? I like how unhappy Nico looks for the duration. She was probably wondering what the hell kind of band she had joined. The VU & Nico are just grooving, no “songs” played, but they were masters of the drone, that “New York City subway sound,” as Jonathan Richman would say. Wait for Cale to pull out his “thunder machine,” or whatever that contraption is. Boom! Sidenote: My friends and I saw this film on the (relatively) big screen at LACMA, sometime in 1993(?). Our 14-year-old brains were confused! But excited. So excited.