Velvet Revolvers

Revisionist theories: As a teenager my musical taste was formed around the Beatles and Stones records that I'd grown up with - much like most 60s teens. Top of the Pops and Ready Steady Go. Noisy guitar bands were my thing. At about age fifteen I discovered the album and so did everyone else, there was a shift in our listening world. Singles were so old hat, we needed more headroom. Cream, Led Zep, CSNY, Hendrix, Yes and Pink Floyd ruled my somewhat narrow taste in the airwaves. Then one day a friend passed me a copy of the Velvet Underground & Nico. It didn't quite fit with me, no love, no peace, strange spikey tunes and dark lyrics but I didn't give up on them. Slowly I decided I liked it and listened to more of their stuff. 

By 1975 however I was over all that, the Bowie, Roxy and Lou Reed catalogue was too arty and just wasn't relaxing enough and I was no early adopter of punk either. I listened to Little Feat, Zappa, Poco, Steely Dan and eventually drifted into full dad rock proper because I was actually a dad and late night radio, long joint-fueled listening parties, gigs and festivals were things of the past. What fun. By '78ish the Fisher-Price years had arrived. I had a cottage to renovate, a dodgy car to keep on the road and hungry mouths to feed, all on my shipyard wages.

So now 50+ years later I'm hearing and playing (Capital Models to thank for this) more Lou Reed and Velvet's tunes and I'm kinda liking them. Sweet Jane has resurfaced (see a previous post) and that riff is probably one of the best four chord guitar bashers ever. Rock and Roll is a proper gem of a song despite the weird lyrics, Perfect Day is just about the perfect ballad to reflect on down at heel reality and personal despair and Satellite of Love is just a strange, abstract, meaningless but wonderful bit of rock fluff. Nice to catch up with the past.