Art and Art: Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground

Isn't it amazing how one form of art leads to -- or runs smack into -- another? And how the two forms can amplify each other to the point where their influence is compounded? That's exactly what happened when successful Pop artist Andy Warhol turned the Velvet Underground into one of the greatest house bands the world has ever known.

In "Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol," Tony Scherman and David Dalton set out to peel back the layers of Warhol, The Factory artist loft and NYC 1960s hot spot, its "superstars," and dispel myths and correct rumors along the way. Nice job, too. Warhol was a leading force in the Pop Art movement, and there has always been the question: Did he know what he was doing or was it all just a put on? There's no question where Scherman and Dalton stand: Genius, with a little luck, hard work, and good timing. Warhol had visions of what he wanted to challenge and change, and when he succeeded with one idea he got bored and moved on to another (before he became enthralled with his own celebrity.

Warhol started with painting (really silk screening) and soon moved on to making films with unintelligible dialogue -- conversation was either recorded too quiet or overlapped with other conversations. It became as much texture as real conversation, almost like a rhythm track or music overlayed onto the film (and it was unimportant anyway because the movies had little to no plot to develop) and that overlapped conversation opened the door for the Velvet Underground.



Eventually Warhol moved on from movies to "live" events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (EPI) and that's where the Velvet Underground comes in. The band, known originally as the Warlocks, was playing around the Lower East Side of New York City and were brought into Warhol's circle. There couldn't have been a better match.

Warhol added Christa Paffgen, a German chanteuse he rechristened Nico, and the EPI had its band. And just like his movies the EPI was directionless, without focus, but with activity ongoing beneath strobe lights and blacklights and in the shadows...and The Velvets played under and over the top of everything. They played noisy electric music (check out the rare video below of a performance of "Venus in Furs" at the factory with Edie Sedgwick dancing and Gerard Malanga with the whip), soft melodic acoustic pop, and hard driving rock (listen to and watch a Warhol video of the band performing "Waiting for the Man") -- all in the dark and all with little guidance or direction -- Warhol let them create on their own.



Eventually he helped get them a record contract and designed one of the most recognized LP covers in rock history -- the banana cover, which in its original version could be peeled. Eventually Lou Reed, leader of the Velvets, and Warhol had a falling out. But at this point in their artistic lives their working together was a perfect storm for both artists. And what Warhol offered the Velvets -- opportunity -- and what they offered him -- loud, barely controlled, edgy, sometimes melodic sound -- was exactly what each needed.