Best Velvet Underground Songs
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A really good song for the time.
A happy song about how rock and roll saved his life. So underrated.
The Newcomers
My favorite is Heroin, but as Femme Fatale is my second, I can't stand seeing it so low on the list.
This is the sweetest song ever written. It should be at the top, in my humble opinion. My favorite song from the Velvets.
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!
"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.
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.
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.
One of the sweetest guitar solos ever!
No song can compare to this mastery. Maybe Heroin or Sunday Morning, but nothing is quite like this.