The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The debut that Richard Goldstein rejected
Released in the US on 12 March 1967. The Velvet Underground & Nico arrived with Andy Warhol's banana cover and a sound that polarized critics. A contemporary hostile review, alongside chart results with their dates.
The verdict at the time
Goldstein found the group 'not an easy group to like', called some songs 'blatant copies' and 'dull and repetitive', and wrote that 'Black Angel's Death Song' and 'European Son' are 'pretentious to the point of misery.' He conceded 'Heroin' as 'seven minutes of genuine 12-tone rock 'n' roll' but the overall verdict was hostile.
Chart peaks
European positions are listed by country. Later chart entries are labelled separately.
Sources & context
One critic's opinion, summarised from Richard Goldstein's original Village Voice review of 13 April 1967. The album is now regarded as a foundational text of psychedelic and experimental rock; Rolling Stone placed it at number 23 on its 2020 reboot of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, calling it 'the most prophetic rock album ever made'.
