Nostalgia Kinky

I recently stumbled across this 1971 Dutch interview with Maureen Tucker of The Velvet Underground in Het Vrije Volk. I’m not sure if it’s been shared before on any of The Velvets tribute sites or not. It’s not in any of the many books I have on the band and I have most. Anyway, enjoy and here is a very loose translation of the text:

“In September ’63 the book The Velvet Underground was published in the USA. The journalist Michael Leigh described how he deviously explored the decadent world of partner swapping and key parties. Probably partly thanks to the cover, which features the images of a ‘whip, a huge leather boot with a ridiculously high heel, car key’ and a mask.

Debuting two years later, in New York, The Velvet Underground cultivated an atmosphere on that debut LP that could indeed only be characterized by the description “decadent”. The music was monotonous, sometimes cruel, the lyrics were of a chilly big-city drama and the singing of the beautiful German-Polish Nico in a number of songs was truly “=mind-boggling: she sang the lyrics with a freezing cold, somewhat metallic, unaffected voice, also with an extremely alienating German accent. According to eyewitnesses the group’s performances also featured light shows with a lot of hard red and bright yellow with Nico in the midst of the crowd thumping like an express train singing in leather attire with boots and a whip — the attributes of the book cover.

But despite the guidance of the avant-garde scholar Andy Warhol, posing as a discoverer and producer he did not bring the group to a larger following. When the group turned out not to be the quietly hoped-for gold mine, Warhol reverted to himself again and went with Nico making the movie Chelsea Girls. After a second angrier record White Light White Heat the genius musician John Cale was replaced by Doug Yule, who mastered as many instruments, but who did not have Cale’s urge to truly examine and get inside the music. With Yule, the group quickly became a more conventionally operating company and Loaded has received an Edison Award this year.

Meanwhile, Reed and Morrison disappeared from the group, only drummer Maureen Tucker remained, and it is this formation that recently performed in Breda and Amsterdam.

Maureen, 27, sweet face, ruddy hair, a child in cart with us in the NOS canteen after the recordings for “Toppop”.

How did the group come about?

MT: “Lou and John knew each other from school, they both played instruments. When they left school, they went to play on street corners, with a hat on the ground, you know. In New York everyone started like that, and you were always hoping that you could perform in a café for a few dollars…. When they met Sterling, they started a real group, but they didn’t have a drummer. My brother knew Lou, and he watched the group when they rehearsed. And I went with him when I had summer vacation. I actually lived in New Jersey, and I had one snare drum. Then my brother said, why don’t you take her. And the boys said, why not. And then it was a group! We got some work every now and then. Our first work was two weeks in a business in Greenwich Village. John was already working on songs like “Venus in Furs” and “Heroin”, but we had to play dance music… By the way, that club didn’t have a music license, so after two weeks they were fined and we had to get out. And so we went on for a while, on weekends and holidays and stuff. Long hair was still so taboo back then, the boys had their hair like the Beatles, me too, but we were often called out on the street. There were fights too, and I remember John being hit hard in the face. He had the longest hair. But then we met Andy. He had a kind of factory in New York where he was working on all kinds of projects, and he wanted to make a kind of theater. He had designed a complete theater with light shows and stuff, and he had seen us and he liked us. So he went to work with us. Nico came from him. She had presented herself as a singer and Andy wanted to make a film with her, and so she became the singer of the show… We were happy with Andy. His name was good enough to get publicity and work and stuff, and finally a record deal, and the show he had designed was really fantastic! There were lights, movies, dancers, and we were all dressed in black, and we did the songs of what later became our first LP. You never saw that show, of course, but it was incredible… The public didn’t understand. People looked utterly bewildered at what was happening on stage. It was still weird at the time when music was made that couldn’t be danced to… Later, countless groups started working with light shows, but we were the first. I never saw such a balanced whole again.”

What was Nico like?

“Everyone liked her, she was beautiful… But uh… I don’t know. We didn’t get along. If we exchanged three sentences in that time, it’s a lot. I think she would have liked to be the only woman in the group. By the way, she thought she could sing really well.”

Can you play drums?

“No, but I never claimed I could do it either. I can beat it in time which is everything…… I believe that I have had an important influence on the sound of the groue because I can only beat the beat monotonically, the sound got something very monotonous, and that has been the most important element in our sound for a very long time. The first album was recorded in 8 hours, even before we had a record deal. Andy had a studio for a day rented, and there we recorded everything. With the recordings, he went to the record companies, and we got a contract. That was all. Can you believe it?’”

“After that LP, Andy and Nico left?”

“Yes, they didn’t see it anymore. The four of us then moved on. We played for a long time in one club called the Electric Circus. It was ours. I believe we played there for 3 years, with only occasional gigs in other places in between. The last time we played there was last summer; There is no decent place left in New York to play. The Filmore East has also closed, the only thing left is the Madison Square Garden, and that is a large sports stadium. Loaded was made a while ago and it hasn’t sold particularly well in America.”

So that Edison Award is a surprise?

“Yes, it’s incredible! I don’t understand, that record has obviously taken on a life of its own, and people have started to respect us for that record. In America there is almost no one interested in us and an interview is something unprecedented for us. But it’s also the first time we’ve left America. In the end, John didn’t get along with Lou, but it took him 2 years to figure that out. He’s a fantastic musician, and he does a lot of his own things now. John made an LP with Nico. I’d like to hear it. John should be famous. Lou left in August ’70, he just didn’t see it anymore. He thought we were at a dead end. What he’s doing now, I don’t know. I believe he’s with his own group. Wants to get started. And Sterling finished his studies and is now teaching in Texas! But the guys who took their places are also very good. We’re going to record a new LP (this would turn out to be the notorious Squeeze, J.R.) next month in England with the new line-up. It’s mainly rock and roll that we do still. We still play old things on stage because people want to hear them from us… But we actually now have a new group.”

“Why don’t you write songs? “

“Oh, I can’t. You know what color blindness is? I’m tone-deaf. I can barely distinguish one melody from another. All I can do is feel the rhythm and drum on it. I like to perform, I like to record, to make music and to get money for it. And I’ve always wanted to go to Europe and now we have succeeded. I’m going into Amsterdam today to look around.

“Didn’t anyone ever think it was crazy to have a female drummer?”

“Yes, the reactions we have had when we started it was completely unheard of for a woman drumming. We were initially considered a bunch of losers and me a lesbian but that has gradually passed. People are used to it and nowadays groups in America consist entirely of women. I knew we were named after the title of a book, but until recently I didn’t know which one. But last year I finally got my hands on the book, and it’s horrible! In recent years an awful lot of books have been published with these kinds of reports and are very hypocritical. But, I’ll tell you something nice, a while ago we had to do a gig in Philadelphia. And the girl who sold the tickets at the entrance was the daughter of that writer!”

Songs like ‘Heroin’ gave you the reputation of being a drug group.”

“That was only an image. Or rather, it wasn’t even an image, it was something people who didn’t know us started to think of us. I’ve never used drugs myself. I didn’t like it at all. All that psychedelic rock that emerged in the late sixties. Lou worked on it for a while. He started using feedback on his guitar. I can’t stand it. I find nothing worse than seeing a dull room full of people lying hazy on the floor.”

“Is that child yours? And where do you live now?”

“Yes, she’s mine. I’m not married… It was an accident. But I’m very close to her. I took her with me because we’ve been away for two months, and I couldn’t accommodate her anywhere. I wouldn’t be able to miss her either, I guess. And I live in a suburb of New York In a house on a very quiet street, full of old ladies and everything. I hardly ever go to New York anymore. My biggest wish was to go to Europe and go around. Europe is such a concept in the USA and it doesn’t disappoint me. We’ve had a lot of fun in England. And we’ve become more famous. And very rich. And finally, I want to pick up that Edison. I want to have it myself. Our. First award!”

-Jeremy Richey, 2023-