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Credit: Far Out \/ Record Mecca<\/p>\n
Saying that The Velvet Underground<\/a> were eclectic doesn\u2019t feel good enough. Across their discography, they weren\u2019t just trying different things, but they were straight-up morphing into different bands.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you listened blind, with no knowledge at all of the group, you\u2019d think \u2018Femme Fatale\u2019 and \u2018Rock and Roll Music\u2019 came from two different acts, and some of that can simply be chalked up to lineup changes and additions. When Andy Warhol added Nico to the group<\/a> for their debut, that was obviously going to switch things up from the band they were when they were first getting noticed around New York. Later on, when John Cale left, it changed again, and when leader Lou Reed left in 1970, it was all different thereafter.<\/p>\n But beyond the actual personnel, the variety of The Velvet Underground can simply be put down to the insane breadth and variety of their influences. For Reed especially, the artist was just as into strange sonic landscapes as he was classic rock and roll, comfortable hanging out with the likes of David Bowie<\/a> and the pop crowd as he was in the art world, and that eclecticism in his personality was reflected back into his work.<\/p>\n Clearly, they were a group that wanted to morph freely, but when it comes to a track like \u2018After Hours\u2019, it is so different that it\u2019s almost hard to align it with the group. I\u2019m sure that the first few times I heard this 1969 song, if I hadn\u2019t known, I wouldn\u2019t have realised at all that it was from The Velvet Underground. The little ditty somehow sounds so modern that it would be easily mistaken for a 2000s or early 2010s tune made for the soundtrack of some twee indie movie<\/a>. <\/p>\n It sounds like something Zooey Deschanel would sing, or Belle and Sebastian, and it certainly doesn\u2019t sound like anything else on the group\u2019s self-titled record that also houses \u2018Beginning to See the Light\u2019 and \u2018What Goes On\u2019. However, that sweetness of the track is exactly why it sounds so different.\u00a0<\/p>\n After writing the tune about a timid outsider looking in on a party, wishing they could join in, Reed tried to sing his own song like he usually would, but he quickly said the track was \u201cso innocent and pure\u201d that he couldn\u2019t make it work with his own, gruffer voice. It needed a softer touch, and so for the first time, they looked towards their drummer, Moe Tucker.<\/p>\n Tucker had joined in with vocals on a few tracks, like \u2018The Murder Mystery\u2019, but this was the first time she\u2019d ever sung lead. Again, that\u2019s what Reed wanted; he wanted her nervousness and uncertainty to come through, matching the story of the song.\u00a0<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n \u201cI was very, very nervous,\u201d Tucker recalled to Rolling Stone, perfectly suited. Too shy to even sing it in front of the band, she said, \u201cI wound up making everybody leave except for Lou, \u2019cause he was playing guitar with me, and the engineer. It took quite a few takes for me to be calmed down enough to do it OK.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was surprised that it was decent,\u201d she said of the track, but it\u2019s far more than decent. Though it stands out as an oddball in their body of work, \u2018After Hours\u2019 upholds its appeal and emotion, still sounding resonant and relatable today.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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