Today's Lesson 4/30/15 - The NYC Underground

This lesson considers New York City and the cross currents that run between the worlds of music-making and the arts in a broad sense, particularly the visual and literary arts. The epigraphs above provide a launching point for a discussion about one example of such cross currents. Lou Reed, a member of the Velvet Underground, a group Rolling Stone's David Fricke described in 1989 as, "arguably the most influential band of rock's last quarter century," describes becoming multiples of himself so that he can tour frequently. While Reed associates that with the Drifters, a vocal group that purportedly performed in latter-day incarnations that included no original members, But the more obvious line of influence for Reed's thinking goes back to Andy Warhol, the New York art world's most celebrated figure and onetime producer of the Velvet Underground.

As this lesson will describe, Andy Warhol was interested in the meeting place of "high" art and commercial art. Where the paintings of Rembrandt and Leonardo Da Vinci are single pieces, with museums across the world fighting to get one of these originals, Warhol created multiples. Much of his work was done using a silkscreening process that allowed him to create a "run" of paintings rather than just one. As a process, it was, at least to the fine-art world, shocking. When Warhol went one step further and sent a "copy" of himself to give a lecture at a college in Utah, he further offended the sensibilities of his patrons. Lou Reed, who described Warhol as the Velvet Underground's "catalyst," slyly picks up Warhol's line of thinking when asked about his active schedule: "There are five of me."

This flow of ideas between Andy Warhol and Lou Reed, illustrated in their actual or purported play with multiples, is representative of a New York experience. Surveying the city from the vantage point of 1976, Nick Kent, in an article from the Rock's Backpages archive, describes the scene thus: "Getting down to basics again, I'd confidently state that out of this current plethora of new N.Y. groups, at least five are capable of exceptional contributions to rock. It should be dutifully noted that at least four of those bands bear obvious heavy debts inspiration-wise to Lou Reed's work specifically within the framework of the [Velvet Underground]." The bands/artists he's referring to include Television, the Talking Heads, the Heartbreakers, and Patti Smith. But what did they draw from Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground? As this lesson will suggest, the answer wasn't always in the music itself. The example of Lou Reed was an example of the cross current described above, that movement of influence between the art world and the music scene.

Procedure: 

1. Read the handout of the article mentioned above from the Daily Utah Chronicle. Answer the following questions.
   • Do you think what Andy Warhol did when he sent an impersonator in his place, after booking himself to deliver a lecture, was right or wrong?
   • What do you think his point was?
   • Do you think there is artistic value in his act?
   • How do you think the art world reacted?
   • How do you think this is or is not an artistic act?
2. Andy Warhol was involved as producer with the New York Rock and Roll band the Velvet Underground. Watch an excerpt from an interview with Lou Reed, the former singer for the Velvet Underground, done in 1975 on a solo tour.  After watching the clip, answer the following:

• In what ways do you think Warhol might have influenced Reed?
• What in particular makes Reed seem a product of Warhol's thinking?
• What kind of presence is Reed?
• Would you want to be the interviewer? Why or why not?

3. Reflect on the ways in which an artist who is not a musician can affect a group of musicians or an individual performer.

• Could an artist affect a band's look?
• Could an artist or writer affect their songwriting?
• Could a filmmaker affect a band's visual appearance?