"White Light/White Heat" by The Velvet Underground (December 1967)

Dad's Take:

John Cale, who makes his last VU appearance on this album, claimed that the record was "a very rabid record...The first one had some gentility, some beauty. The second one was consciously anti-beauty" (Wikipedia). They succeeded.

Important because of the influence the distorted, feedback-ridden, rough recordings had on future musical genres, the album tanked upon release, peaking at #199 on the Billboard charts. It's not an easy album to listen to. "The Gift," for example, is kind of the dark side of a coin shared with Leonard Cohen, a dull short story set to distorted music and feedback.

Brad's going to love "Sister Ray," because I know he'll really dig a 17-minute three-chord improvisation. If they'd kept it to about three minutes, I think I might like it. Even six. It's kind of a fun little jam, but it goes on too long. "Lady Godiva's Operation" is maybe the most listenable track for me. The instrumental portions of "I Heard Her Call My Name" are some interesting bits of proto-punk, which is pretty cool. But they still sound like the guys down the street who put a band together but don't know how to play, so they just go loud and distorted and hope nobody will notice.

I'm OK with weird. I'm OK with rough. I'm OK with anti-establishment. But I have trouble getting into this record. It has its moments, and I'm glad it's around to influence records I like better, but it's not my thing.

After this album was released, John Cale left and recorded some solo stuff that I enjoy more than most of his VU work.

Brad's Take:


First off, the mixing and overall quality of the recordings on this album drive me crazy, in the worst way. Everything is so muddy and gross sounding. Even if they meant for it to sound so bad, this was a waste of someone's money. I don't get it...

Aside from all of that, there isn't really much else to say about this record. It was really hard for me to actually get through each song. Especially "I Heard Her Call My Name." That guitar mutilation was incredibly hard for me to stomach. So was the entire "Sister Ray" track.

This was one of my least favorite albums we've had to listen to, for sure. Sorry, Velvet Underground fans...