“I was talking to Lou Reed the other day, and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold only 30,000 copies in its first five years. Yet, that was an enormously important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!“

— Brian Eno

Let’s take a look at some of the important figures in the 1970’s who were inspired by the Velvet Underground.

Iggy and the Stooges

After leaving the Velvet Underground, John Cale found an interest and a career first in production. His first work was producing the sophomore solo album from VU compatriot Nico (more on that later). Then in 1969 he was called in to produce a very different kind of artist.

“I got a call from him saying […] the persident [of Elektra records] wants to take me to Michigan to this concert, he thinks that you’d like this band” — John Cale

The band Cale went to witness live was The Stooges, led by the awe-inspiring maverick James Osterberg, known publicly as Iggy Pop.

Inspired by The Kinks, by fellow Detroiters MC5 and by the Velvet Underground, Iggy and his band created a rough and aggressive Rock’n’Roll sound to an extent never before achieved.

Their uncompromosingly intense music found its match in Iggy’s wild, confrontational live performance style.

And Cale loved it. He went on to produce their debut LP.

John Cale realised he wants to work with the Stooges upon hearing “I Wanna Be Your Dog” – or so the story goes.

The Stooges would soon become a seminal influence in the early punk scene in both New York and the UK. To this day Iggy Pop is sometimes hailed as the ‘godfather of Punk’, even though for a time he used to resent the association and didn’t like the label.

David Bowie

“I taught him to play the viola” — John Cale on David Bowie

“A former manager of mine […] had done some kind of work […] that had brought him into contact with the Factory. Warhol had given him this coverless test pressing [of the Velvet Underground and Nico LP] and said, “You like weird stuff—see what you think of this.” What I “thought of this” was here was the best band in the world. […] that year, my band Buzz broke up, but not without my demanding we play “I’m Waiting for the Man” […] at our last gig. Amusingly, not only was I to cover Velvet’s song before anyone else […], I actually did it before the album came out.”

— David Bowie

Born David Robert Jones in 1947 in Brixton, London, David Bowie had a mammoth of a musical career.

Bowie Grew up on a myriad of musical styles, including Rock’n’Roll and modern Jazz (Mingus and Coltrane were among his favourites) and learned to play the saxophone and the guitar as an adolescent.

In the 1960’s he was involved in a number of fruitless musical endeavors, playing and singing in blues and rock bands without much success. Some of them released singles but none ever charted.

Here’s Riot Squad, another of Bowie’s 60’s bands, covering the VU’s “Waiting For The Man”:

By 1967 Bowie had adopted the stage name Bowie and released a single and an album under that name – but they failed to chart as well.

Two years passed and he finally made a hit with “Space Oddity”, released 5 days before the Appolo landing on the moon which no doubt helped its appeal.

The single was a big success but the sophomore album including it again failed to chart.

In 1970 Bowie assembled a new backing band featuring Tony Visconti on bass and Mick Ronson on guitar, sporting a much tougher, harder rocking sound then he had before. He then recorded his 3rd album, “The Man Who Sold The World” which featured his new sound prominently.

During a U.S. tour to promote his 3rd album Bowie used the opportunity to see Lou Reed live. He also met Iggy Pop and saw his live performance. And in his mind began to form new ideas about a stage persona that would combine the aloofness of Reed with the theatricality of Pop.

But before all this could come to fruition he made his 4th album, “Hunky Dory”, in 1971.

“Hunky Dory” had a variety of styles; both of Bowie earlier poppy sound and his newer rocker sound had good representative songs.

The album had a few explicit tributes to some of the artists that inspired and influenced Bowie: “Andy Warhol”, “A Song For Bob Dylan” and “Queen Bitch” which was a direct hommage to the Velvet Underground.

By early 1972 Bowie was in a dire predicament. All of his albums to date and all but one single have failed to chart and he was beginning to look like a one hit wonder. Clearly something drastic had to be done. Anything, really. Even dressing up as a gender-ambiguous alien from Mars and releasing a glam-rock concept album. But we’ll get to that a little later…

The Modern Lovers

In 1972 John Cale employed his talents as producer for another young band that was influenced by the Velvet Underground – The Modern Lovers, led by Jonathan Richman.

Richman had been enamoureed by the Velvets since he was a high school student. After moving to New York in 1969 he got to know them personally and on one occasion opened the bill for them.

After coming back from a tour to Europe and Israel Richman started a band modeled after the Velvets with a friend of his. Named The Modern Lovers, other members included keyboardist Jerry Harrison, who would later be a member of the Talking Heads.

In 1972 John Cale produced the sessions where 6 of the songs on the Modern Lovers’ self-titled debut album were recorded. Due to troubles with the record company and other production difficulties the album was shelved for a few years and was only released in 1976. When it came out it was hailed by critics and to this day it’s considered one of the best rock’n’roll albums of all times.

Though the album was released late, The Modern Lovers had been known by many in the embryonic New-York punk scene of the 1970’s through their live performances and they influenced many this way.

1972

Also in 1972, earlier that year, Lou Reed released his self-titled, solo debut LP… which failed to chart.

But his luck would soon change as he would find help coming from an unexpected direction.
You see, around the same time, across the pond, David Bowie finally found his winning card.

For the past few years Bowie had entertained the idea of writing about a fictional rock star. By the time ‘Hunky Dory’ was released he had already written an LP-worth of material and, using the stage personae of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop as inspiration, he set about making it happen.

‘The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars’ was a colossal success. Britain hadn’t experienced something like that since the days of Beatlemania.

The Velvet Underground influence was obvious in several of the songs on Ziggy Stardust. Check out ‘Suffragette City’ for example:

Now that he was succesful he re-released his previous albums. This time around they sold well and finally got the recognition they deserve.

Next Bowie decided to use his newly gained fame to help some of the artists that have inspired him. First on the list: Lou Reed.
David Bowie had his mind set on making Reed a star. So he produced his sophomore album, ‘Transformer’. Bowie’s right hand man, guitarist and arranger Mick Ronson, was recruited to arrange Reed’s songs and (and play some guitar on the recording sessions).

Asked about his working relationship with David Bowie, Reed once said “When he gets drunk he thinks he’s Ziggy”.

With some of the best writing of Reed’s career and Ronson’s brilliant arrangements and of course, helped by Bowie’s publicity, ‘Transformer’ was a stellar success.

The first single, ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ became an international hit despite controversially risqué lyrics inspired by various personalities from the Factory (notice how Candy from ‘Candy Says’ is brought back).

Next on Bowie’s aim was Iggy Pop. The Stooges had by then released two excellent albums but in 1972 they were on the verge of breaking up. Still, they had enough material in them to make another great album before that happens. If only they had a producer who could keep them in working order in the studio for long enough to get it done.

Enter David Bowie.

Recorded in late 1972 and released in 1973, ‘Raw Power’ is considered to this day one of the best and most powerful rock albums of all times.

Roxy Music and Brian Eno

Also in 1972, Roxy Music released their debut album. But who were Roxy Music? Let’s go back a little bit.

“Within the first few moments [of hearing the Velvet Underground on John Peel’s radio show], I thought, “Okay, this is important.” […] So I bought that album [The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967] which not many other people did at the time. […] they were a big influence on Roxy Music. Bryan [Ferry] liked them as well and we both knew about their connection with Andy Warhol, which gave them a sort of cultural position.”

— Brian Eno

Roxy Music was formed in 1970 by a group of friends from art school. They too, like the early Velvet, had two creative centres: lead singer and sole songwriter Brian Ferry and keyboardist and technician Brian Eno.

Their music was glam-rock with an experimental edge, thanks in large part to Eno’s exploration of technologies like the synthesizer and various techniques of sound manipulation.

In June of 1972 they released their debut album. Due to Eno’s treatment of the instruments, it was sometimes hard for the casual listener to even decipher what they were hearing – which instruments were played?

Many of Roxy Music’s songs had whimsy, humourous lyrics to them, like this one, a love song about an entity called “CPL593H” – referred to as a queen though it’s not clear exactly what it or (s)he is.

In 1973 Roxy Music released their 2nd album, ‘For Your Pleasure’. On this one Brian Eno gained even more influence on the band’s sound and brought in influence from German ‘krautrock’ groups that were little known at the time.

However the equilibrium between Ferry and Eno could not be sustained for long. After the release of ‘For Your Pleasure’ the two creative centres found themselves pulling in different directions. To top it all, Ferry was getting tired of flamboyant Eno stealing all the limelight. When the time came to record the 3rd album, Eno was no longer in the band.

And so, in mid 1973 Brian Eno was on his own and, never having written songs before, he now had to prove he could go it solo.

What would he do? What kind of music would he make? Nobody knew what to expect.

Before making his first proper album he made a collaborative experimental record with Robert Fripp of King Crimson where he used tape manipulation techniques to loop, delay, stretch, twist and otherwise treat Fripp’s guitar lines.

Then at last, in January 1974, Eno’s debut album ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ was released. And right off the bat one could sense the spirit of the Velvet Underground hovering over it.

Eno’s lyrics tended towards sarcasm, dark humour and the macabre. His music on some tracks sounds like Cale-era Velvets with added electronic effects. Listen to the classic ‘Baby On Fire’ to get a good sense of that.

‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ was a considerable success, entering the top 30 albums and getting generally favourable reviews. Eno’s next album, ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)’ was released in late 1974. It did not succeed commercially but it was praised by critics.

On songs like ‘Third Uncle’ Eno prefigured much of what would become post-punk a few years in advance.

In 1975 came a wild departure for Eno and for popular music as a whole as he released his revolutionary 3rd album, ‘Another Green World’.

Mostly abandonning standard song formats altogether, Eno opted instead to focus on sound textures, stitching together electronically treated layers of instrumentation, always with a melodic sensibility underpinning it all.

Later in the 70’s Eno continued on this path and eventually invented (though there had been definite precursors) Ambient, the first genre of electronic popular music.

CBGB and the birth of Punk

In 1973 a small club was opened in New York City. It was named “CBGB & OMFUG” – initials for “Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers”. However its character was quickly changed and the ‘Other Music’ part became the dominant form of entertainment as two locals convinced the owner to let them book concerts and the club saw its designation change – from Country, Bluegrass and Poetry reading evenings, to original Rock groups.

It was very easy to get booked in the CBGB – there was hardly any gatekeeping. the only rule was: you had to have original songs. No cover bands!

Due to the open and lax environment many bands that could not garner support elsewhere (either because they were too weird or different or because they barely knew how to play) would perform mostly or exclusively in CBGB.

Over the next few years a community grew of CBGB-oriented acts who would get to know and influence each other. Though there was much variety between them, some common musical tropes began to emerge and became associated with the scene. And these laid the foundation for what became the genres of Punk and New Wave.

Meanwhile, Lou Reed and John Cale were taking notice and it makes sense that they were since after all, The Velvet Underground were a source of inspiration for so many in the scene.

Lou Reed in particualr made a habit of going to the CBGB to check out new bands. This way he discovered Patti Smith, a poet and singer-songwriter whose prior connection with Rock music consisted of penning a few songs for hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult. Influenced by Beat literature (e.g. Burroughs) and Frensh poets like Rimbaud, Smith would write provocative and thoughtful lyrics which she wedded to hard-hitting Rock and Roll performed with exuberant passion.

Watch her mesmerising performance of ‘Gloria’ – originally a Van Morrison song which she had added a couple of verses to, subtly changing its meaning as a result:

In 1975 Smith (who has since come to be known as the ‘godmother of Punk’) scored a contract with a record company – on the strength of Lou Reed’s recommendation.

That year she was the first of the CBGB artists to release a record, with the magnificent debut album ‘Horses’ that was produced by none other than John Cale.

With this she opened the floodgates and one by one most of the leading bands of the CBGB scene would be picked by record companies and released their own debut records within the next 2 years.

In 1976 The Ramones released their debut and became the most influential punk group, inspiring the Sex Pistols in Britain and countless other groups. Lou Reed was also impressed as you can hear in this recording of phone conversation:

Brian Eno’s interest was also picked by the New York punk scene and he flew over to take a closer look. Upon hearing The Talking Heads both he and John Cale wanted to produce their debut and competed over who would get the honour. It was famously Eno who did.

If you want to know where the velvets are today and read some of my conclusions – read the last segment of this book, the epilogue.

If you want to see a picture from 1976 of Lou Reed, John Cale, Patti Smith and David Byrne jamming together on stage – flip the page.

You can do both if you’re undecided.