The Velvet Forum

Bill Bentley, the drummer for late '70s Austin group The Bizarros and then music biz publicist and A&R executive, recently published a supremely informative and insightful article on the byNWR site detailing his long friendships with both Sterling Morrison and Lou Reed. It's an important addition to...

Now we're gettin' somewhere! Thanks so much for coming up with that, although I'd always imagined Sterling as being in there somewhere as well.

It seems less likely to be the work of a person without any known photos from that period (and who seems to claim credit beyond his actual accomplishments) than of a professional photographer who was present at that show, working in just about that position, and whose style it so closely resembles. ...

That's a fantastic image, but what makes you think it was shot by Morrissey?

I don't think it's totally out of the question that it's Nico singing falsetto. She didn't tend to do that, but that doesn't necessarily mean she couldn't. It is often argued that women do not have the capability of a falsetto register. I am pretty sure that they do, but that is in contradiction to...

It's not as if there's very little evidence to judge that by. Jackson Browne and Laura Nyro are very plausible candidates.

I've long regarded Nico's debut Chelsea Girl album as, in essence, half a VU album. Of the VU-involved cuts, "It Was A Pleasure Then" is the best, and the most VUish. What I wonder is who is behind the high, wordless vocal that weaves in and out throughout the piece. It's well above Nico's normal re...

I don't know if this Warhol/Malanga/Nico "press conference" clip is widely known or not. I do know that it's a hoot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRVXH9EJkZU

The tape is long gone.