Top 10 Best Velvet Underground Songs

You don't just listen to The Velvet Underground. You absorb them, like ink bleeding into your skin. Lou Reed snarls through your headphones. John Cale's viola screeches like a subway derailment. Moe Tucker hammers her drums like she's chasing demons. Sterling Morrison glues it all together without ever making a fuss. And somehow, it works. It more than works. It changed everything.

Back in the mid-60s, while the rest of the world was dreaming of peace, love, and flower crowns, The Velvet Underground were writing songs about heroin, whips, and the numbness that comes from seeing too much of the real world. They teamed up with Andy Warhol, recorded an album with a banana on the cover, and sold almost nothing. Critics yawned. Radio stations passed. Yet decades later, musicians line up to name them as the reason they picked up a guitar. Brian Eno once quipped that only a few thousand people bought their first album, but every one of them started a band.

This list is your chance to help sort through their discography, which can swing from dreamlike to nightmarish in the span of a single track. Vote for the songs that deserve to be heard at full volume, windows down, conscience off. Maybe it's the one that first made you stop and stare into the void. Or the one that still sounds like it was recorded by time travelers.

1. Heroin

   

   This song, along with Lennon's Cold Turkey, is one of the two most harrowing songs about smack.

   With Reed's guitar and Mo Tucker's drums perfectly encapsulating the junkie's trip, from the initial junkie nod as the music solemnly and quietly begins its steady progression to the full-on rush of the smack.

   Jerking the addict from his drug-induced stupor to the final frenzied rush of the addict realizing death is virtually seconds away.

   Every time I hear this song, I always feel compelled to take the needle away from the addict.

   Music that is more powerful than it has the right to be.

   VU's greatest piece of music.

   It's so different from any song ever. It perfectly describes a concept and makes you feel so many emotions with only two chords. Lou's singing is way more awesome in this song with that rushing-dragging feel.

   In conclusion, why would you do heroin if you can listen to this song?

2. Sunday Morning

   

   Really the best song, I think. It's the perfect song to listen to when you're in your bed, awake, just feeling good. I LOVE IT!

   Should be first. A calm and relaxing song.

   Perfect as an opening track or could have been a perfect closer. Either way, it is Nico's high point with VU.

3. Sweet Jane

   

   A brilliant snapshot of what could have been.

   The Velvets were never more radio-accessible than on Sweet Jane and Rock and Roll.

   VU music is brilliant, as usual, but there is a transcendent majesty that lies beneath these two songs.

   I don't understand why this is not the number one! Awesome song! The best of the Velvet by far! Amazing guitar solo.

4. Venus in Furs

   

   One of the sexiest rock songs I have ever heard. Lou Reed sounds so sexy when he says:

   "Her mind furs, adorn, imperious."

   And when he says:

   "Taste the whip in love not given lightly. Taste the whip now plead for me."

   A disturbing musical tapestry of the dark underground realities of fetishes and S&M.

5. Pale Blue Eyes

   

   How can this song not be on the top?

   I mean, it's the best song in the world to date.

   Lou Reed is a musical genius!

   This song may not be the "best," but it is simply beautiful, and that's all that should matter.

   Beautiful, beautiful. Such a sweet melody, but it made me bawl my eyes out.

6. I'm Waiting for My Man

   

7. Sister Ray

   

   Pushed the limits of rock and roll as a genre, walking the fine line at most times between a long rock epic and a simple noise rock jam.

   Lou and Sterling's guitar licks are strong, almost as if competing for the spotlight in the song. Cale's organ keeps things interesting and freaky, and Moe Tucker's drums keep everything from descending into pure chaos.

   The best 17-minute song you'll find. The mini version is best.

   Perfect. Changed my mind 180 degrees about what I thought was rock and roll.

   It's different from everything I've heard before. It's Velvet's craziest song.

8. Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

   

   Probably my favorite. I love Waiting for the Man (and many others) too, but I can't listen to it on repeat like I can with this.

9. White Light / White Heat

   

   A really good song for the time.

10. Femme Fatale

    

    My favorite is Heroin, but as Femme Fatale is my second, I can't stand seeing it so low on the list.

The Newcomers
11. ?

    I Can't Stand It

    
12. ?

    Temptation Inside Your Heart

    
The Contenders

13. Rock and Roll

    

    A happy song about how rock and roll saved his life. So underrated.

14. I'll Be Your Mirror

    

15. Candy Says

    

    This is the sweetest song ever written. It should be at the top, in my humble opinion. My favorite song from the Velvets.

16. There She Goes Again

    

17. All Tomorrow's Parties

    

18. Who Loves the Sun

    

    Come on, this is the best Velvet Underground song! It has got a whole new level of mysticism and beauty. It makes me want to listen to it again and again!

19. After Hours

    

    This song feels like an entity of its own. It's unlike any Velvet Underground song ever recorded. It's like a dark, twisted nursery rhyme.

    I can't even describe how I feel during this song, as it makes me both blissfully happy and utterly depressed.

    It's their most beautiful song and one of the best closing tracks of all time.

    This is the most ahead-of-its-time song of all time.

20. Lady Godiva's Operation

    

    "I'm Waiting for the Man" is my favorite VU song, but this comes close.

    John Cale said "White Light/White Heat" was anti-beauty, but I think this is about as beautiful as VU, or many other bands, get.

    Although the lyrics are somewhat disturbing, the music, the singing, and the melody, which has echoes of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," are amazing.

21. I'm Waiting for the Man

    

22. I'm Sticking with You

    

23. What Goes On

    

    This song is definitely deserving of being among their best. It's a travesty that it's not even in the top 10!

    In my opinion, it deserves to be in the top 10 for sure! Please listen to this if you haven't.

24. Run Run Run

    

25. I'm Set Free

    

    One of the sweetest guitar solos ever!

26. Here She Comes Now

    

27. The Gift

    

    This'll always be my first-place pick. I can't believe it's so damn low. This is art.