Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Venus in Furs and Venus in Furs

You wouldn't think you'd need an entire article explaining that the name of the book that inspired the amazing Velvet Underground's classic Venus in Furs was in fact Venus in Furs, but here we go:

Lou Reed and his bandmate John Cale were inspired to match the sultry tone of the book with their own sonic equivalent. Scoring the lyrics of “Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather,” with the haunting repetition of Cale’s darkly screeching viola and Reed’s droning guitar. The result is a dark transposition of the novel, that proved that the old musical cliché of calling something “ahead of its time” has more than a grain of truth to it. 

Of course this is just a blatant excuse to listen to a mind-blowingly great song fro what may be the single-greatest debut album of all time. You're welcome!

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