8. “Sister Ray”

The Velvet Underground: White Light/White Heat (Verve, 1968);
composed by John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, and Maureen Tucker

One thing the Velvet Underground did not invent was heavy metal. Although John Cale’s prior experience with LaMonte Young suggests that they could have, this ugly classic demonstrates why they did not. On “Sister Ray,” two guitars, one organ, one very peculiar drum set – and no bass – flail away at excruciating volume for seventeen minutes on one two-bar figure, while Lou Reed bellows about a speed-fueled orgy with sailors, one of whom ends up shot dead on the floor. By definition, this music was too loud to record. There is no bottom to speak of and the waveforms are so constricted that probably 70 percent of what occurred in the studio could not register on tape. This is not heavy metal, which is not defined by volume (on recordings, anyway) so much as the illusion of volume conveyed by the manipulation of virtual otic space and only possible when studios had enough tracks to displace the listener sufficiently. Just before Reed scuttled their reunion, Sterling Morrison reported that they had recently played a version of “Sister Ray” that lasted just two minutes. “It kicked ass,” he said. I believe him, and I will always regret never hearing it.


Note: 25 secular essays (each one exactly 200 words long) about 25 songs, to appear one per day during Advent (or so) from Nov. 27 through Dec. 21.