day twenty seven
have you ever thought what a sorry state this world would be in if lou reed was never born there would have been no velvet underground and consequently no really good music well no really good unbeatles influenced music anyway and there would be no alternative music scene what so ever for good or bad because the velvet literally started it all along with the byrds and of course you all know what they say about vus first album the velvet underground and nico you do not well i will just have to tell you it it is short so do not fret they say that when the album was first released back in 1966 it only sold one thousand copies but the one thousand people who bought the album all went out and formed their own band and hence the alternative ie non commercial ie good music scene had begun and like most misunderstood sixties groups the velvet underground sell far more albums twenty years on than they ever did when they were together but getting back to the stream of consciousness i was on the beginnings of the alternative music scene was all because of lou reed it is really quite incredible what sort of influence one group can have on the whole history of music i mean the beatles and the velvet underground are easily the most influential puissant significant groups in pop uch music history and everyone should realise that because as has been said on more than one occasion there are two kinds of musicians today those influenced by the beatles and liars although more correctly that should read those influenced by the beatles those influenced by the velvet underground and liars but i will not quibble because the beatles are the most brilliant group to ever inhabit this earth and the velvet underground run a fairly close second and that must be so because as martin phillipps said to rolling stone magazine new zealand groups are largely influenced by the sixties especially groups like the velvet underground and of course you all know how good most kiwi groups are and if you do not well fuck off and take this book back to the shop because i do not need the likes of you unenlightened philistines making me rich or on second thoughts and better still rush down to your local record store and purchase the following on cd of course kaleidoscope world and submarine bells by the chills hail and melt by the straitjacket fits favours by lets planet three graces by the spirals south by shona laing the watertable by the greg johnson set any bats album its bigger than the both of us compilation album on propeller records and any flying nun and pagan records compilation albums of which there are a few and then you can not only make me rich but you can make a number of people slightly richer also i say slightly richer because currently being kiwi musicians they are all deep in debt anyway because they are largely ignored by the poor sods of the majority but will be eternally grateful for your support in buying their art but getting off this sales pitch is it not true that we currently inhabit a world where there are two gods although unfortunately one was made a martyr by the cia just as he predicted in song eleven years previous with the line one day they will crucify me these two gods are of course lou reed and john lennon although there is someone else going by the same name and it is not eric clapton it is that god fella he is exceedingly famous you know because he has got quite a few million fans and even a book in the best sellers list of all time so he must play pretty damn good but i do not think he has done any albums yet maybe he is just waiting for lou reed to approach him first but anyway would this not be a really extravagantly boring shitheap of a place to live without lou reed ps sorry about all that sales pitch stuff but it does not distract from the fact that you should indeed go out and buy the albums pps flying nun and pagan i hope the cheques are in the mail ppps sorry about any harm i may have caused but it was only meant as a joke and i am not truly being purposely blasphemous because although i do not believe in god i am not an atheist i am in fact what they call an agnostic ie a prat who sits on the fence