![\"Lou](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lou-Reed-1997-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Sony Music Entertainment<\/p>\n
Wed 26 August 2026 23:00, UK <\/p>\n
There are a lot of underground bands, especially from around New York, who owe their free-flowing nature to The Velvet Underground<\/a>. <\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting looking back on their music now, given they were getting their start during a time when music was at its peak, but bands who were experimenting with different styles weren\u2019t quite hitting the mark. This was no one\u2019s fault: the entire music industry was in pretty uncharted territory, and as the early days of psychedelic and prog rock were rolling by, a lot of the albums being made showed the potential the genre had \u2013 but very few would be remembered as classics. <\/p>\n Take Pink Floyd, for example. Many of their albums that fans call \u2018classics\u2019 came out in the 1970s. Towards the end of the 1960s, with Syd Barrett at the helm, is when they were experimenting with different approaches to music \u2013 this is when they produced Piper at the Gates of Dawn. It\u2019s a cult classic in their discography, sure, but it reflects a time when the band didn\u2019t have as much direction as they did in their prime.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to go back to those times at all<\/a>,\u201d said Roger Waters when talking about the album. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t anything \u2018grand\u2019 about it. We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn\u2019t play at all, so we had to do something stupid and \u2018experimental\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n With bands attempting to carve out how these new experimental forms of music should sound, it\u2019s impressive then just how fully fleshed out The Velvet Underground were when it came to writing adventurous music. They didn\u2019t have a lot of consistency when it came to exploring different themes, but they leaned into that chaos, and the result was a band who showed other budding musicians that you didn\u2019t need to fit into a box. <\/p>\n It didn\u2019t matter what kind of genre they were tapping into with their music; they threw caution to the wind and fully went for it. Through the albums they released, the band members were testing out plenty of exciting styles of music, whether that was sweet, pop-infused, noisy, or all things in between. Ask every fan what style they think suits these artists best, and they\u2019ll all give you different answers, and that\u2019s because they excelled in every single one they pursued.\u00a0<\/p>\n When John Cale was talking about Lou Reed\u2019s vocals, he focused specifically on the song \u2018I\u2019m Waiting for the Man\u2019, and said that he felt as though it perfectly captured what Reed was capable of. Of all the styles that The Velvet Underground attempted to cover, this was one of their more rock \u2018n\u2019 roll-centric songs<\/a>, and Cale said every band member pulled out all the stops.\u00a0<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n \u201cI liked it because it was rock \u2019n\u2019 roll,\u201d said Cale. \u201cI hammered the piano, smacking it with fists, and there was no backbeat for Maureen\u2019s drums. It\u2019s very British-sounding, mid-1960s pop like The Honeycombs\u2019 \u2018Have I The Right?\u2019. Lou came up with the riff, and his solos were crazy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Cale said he didn\u2019t know about how the vocals were actually captured, but Reed singing them and taking the listener through the narrative that surrounded a trip to Harlem was one of the best performances he ever gave in The Velvet Underground. He has a style that lends itself to that abrasive rock \u2018n\u2019 roll pretty beautifully, and you can hear it perfectly on \u2018I\u2019m Waiting for the Man\u2019. <\/p>\n Concluding, \u201cIt captures Lou\u2019s voice perfectly, and it\u2019s got a body, which Tom Wilson achieved when we re-recorded it at TTG [AKA Sunset-Highland Studios in Hollywood].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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