While searching the web for information on the Velvet Underground came across this site which contains an article by Gerry McGovern titled "Guided by Velvet Underground".
Under this photo (right) of the group members is the quote "If Elvis is the Rosetta stone of rock 'n' roll, the Velvets are the roots of all things "alternative."
McGovern refers to the Velvets as frontier people, "who trekked out onto new territories of honesty and reality. They created great primal beats and new, feedback drenched sounds." In this respect we come to see the Velvets in the same light as the other prominent groups/movements of the 60's.
In exploring their respective fields in this case the music industry the Velvets questioned traditional assumptions and sought answers by experimenting with techniques, sound, etc. and establishing their own unique style of music that combined classical music and the blues. "What made the Velvets so profoundly different was that they didn't make any attempt to cover up. They didn't pretend. They laid it out, whatever it was, with honesty. They were themselves."
The article goes on to explain the 60's counterculture as flourishing because of the massive industrial boom in the Western World which the hippies did not acknowledge but was something Lou Reed saw and responded to.
There are links to the Velvets history, their music, and the prominent figures within the group as well as as more up to date version of music performers influenced by the Velvets including Kurt Cobain, Offspring, and Fugazi.
Lynette Erbe
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