"Sunday Morning" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by the Velvet Underground | ||||
from the album The Velvet Underground & Nico | ||||
B-side | "Femme Fatale" | |||
Released | 1966 | |||
Recorded | November 1966 | |||
Studio | Mayfair Recording, New York City | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 2:53 | |||
Label | Verve | |||
Songwriter(s) | Lou Reed • John Cale | |||
Producer(s) | Tom Wilson | |||
The Velvet Underground singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Audio sample | ||||
"Sunday Morning" is a song by the Velvet Underground. It is the opening track on their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico . It was first released as a single in December 1966. The song is written in the key of F major. [1]
["Sunday Morning" is] about how you feel when you've been up all Saturday night and you're crawling home while people are going to church. The sun is up and you're like Dracula, hiding your eyes. [2]
In late 1966, "Sunday Morning" was the final song to be recorded for The Velvet Underground & Nico . It was requested by Tom Wilson, who thought the album needed another song with lead vocals by Nico with the potential to be a successful single. The final master tape of side one of the album shows "Sunday Morning" only penciled in before "I'm Waiting for the Man".
In November 1966, Wilson brought the band into Mayfair Recording Studios in Manhattan. The song was written with Nico's voice in mind by Lou Reed and John Cale on a Sunday morning. The band previously performed it live with Nico singing lead, but when it came time to record it, Lou Reed sang the lead vocal. Nico would instead sing backing vocals on the song. [3]
Aiming to create a hit for the album, "Sunday Morning" features noticeably more lush and professional production than the rest of the songs on the album. The song's prominent use of celesta was the idea of John Cale, who noticed the instrument in the studio and decided to use it for the song. He also played viola and piano via overdubs and Sterling Morrison, normally the secondary guitarist, played bass, despite his dislike of playing the instrument. [4] [5]
According to Reed, the song's theme was suggested by Andy Warhol. "Andy said, 'Why don't you just make it a song about paranoia?' I thought that was great so I came up with 'Watch out, the world's behind you, there's always someone around you who will call... It's nothing at all' which I feel is the ultimate paranoid statement in that the world cares enough to watch you." [6]
AllMusic's Mark Deming wrote that the song is "dreamy pop", the only song of that sort on the album. [7] Cash Box said the single is a "haunting, lyrical emotion stirring chant." [8]
"Sunday Morning" has been covered by various bands, including Rusty, Villagers, Bettie Serveert, Beck, Chris Coco & Nick Cave, Nina Hagen, James, Oh-OK, Elizabeth Cook, NY Loose, the Feelies, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the Queers, Strawberry Switchblade, Wally Pleasant, and Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs. [9] Japanese rock duo the Flare, composed of Sugizo and Yuna Katsuki, included a cover on their 2004 single "Uetico". The alternative rock Japanese band the Teenage Kissers made a cover and released it on their first full album Virgin Field . The song has also been covered by Belle & Sebastian during live shows.
In 2009, Northern Irish pop punk/new wave band, The Undertones covered "Sunday Morning" for Onder Invloed, a project by Dutch journalist Matthijs van der Ven which showcases various musicians from all over the world covering their favorite songs.
A cover of the song by the Doug Anthony All Stars was used in a season 1 episode of DAAS Kapital , but did not appear on the DVD set of the sci-fi sitcom due to "contractual reasons... and because we never paid to use it in the first place," according to Paul McDermott.
The chord progression is used in Kramer's "Don't Come Around", which includes the lyric, "I love this song," presumably referring to the Velvet Underground song rather than the Kramer song [ original research? ].
In 2015, the song was covered by Børns and Petite Meller as a duet and was released as a single. [10]
Billy Bragg and Courtney Barnett covered the song on the Australian television live music trivia quiz show, RocKwiz. [11]
In 2016, a version was recorded by Richard Barone for his Sorrows & Promises: Greenwich Village in the 1960s album, as a duet with Jenni Muldaur, who frequently sang background vocals for both Lou Reed and John Cale on their solo work.
In 2017, Phish covered the song on Night 3 of their "Bakers Dozen" run at Madison Square Garden, which was a theme night concert celebrating Red Velvet doughnuts.
Also in 2017, Flo Morrissey and Matthew E. White covered the song on their album Gentlewoman, Ruby Man , a collection of covers.
The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut studio album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground and the German singer Nico, released in March 1967 through Verve Records. It was recorded in 1966 while the band were featured on Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable tour. The album features experimental performance sensibilities and explicit lyrical topics, including drug abuse, prostitution, sadomasochism and sexual deviancy.
White Light/White Heat is the second studio album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Released on January 30, 1968, by Verve Records, it was the band's last studio album with multi-instrumentalist and founding member John Cale. Recorded after band leader Lou Reed fired Andy Warhol, who had produced their debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico, they hired Steve Sesnick as a manager and hired producer Tom Wilson, who had worked on the band's debut. White Light/White Heat was engineered by Gary Kellgren.
Peel Slowly and See is a five-disc box set of material by the Velvet Underground. It was released in September 1995 by Polydor.
Holmes Sterling Morrison Jr. was an American guitarist, best known as one of the founding members of the rock band the Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, and singing backing vocals.
Chelsea Girl is the debut solo album and second studio album by German singer Nico. It was released in October 1967 by Verve Records and was recorded following Nico's collaboration with the Velvet Underground on their 1967 debut studio album. It was produced by Tom Wilson, who added string and flute arrangements against the wishes of Nico. The title is a reference to Andy Warhol's 1966 film Chelsea Girls, in which Nico starred.
The Very Best of The Velvet Underground is a compilation album by The Velvet Underground. It was released in Europe on March 31, 2003, by Polydor, the record label that oversees the band's Universal Music Group back catalog.
Gold is a two-CD compilation album by the Velvet Underground. It was released for the North American market on June 14, 2005, by Polydor, the record label that oversees the band's Universal Music Group back catalogue.
"Femme Fatale" is a song by American rock band the Velvet Underground from their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico, with lead vocals by Nico.
"Heroin" is a song by American rock band the Velvet Underground, released on their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. Written by Lou Reed in 1964, the song, which overtly depicts heroin usage and its effects, is one of the band's most celebrated compositions. Critic Mark Deming of Allmusic writes, "While 'Heroin' hardly endorses drug use, it doesn't clearly condemn it, either, which made it all the more troubling in the eyes of many listeners." In 2004, it was ranked at number 448 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and was re-ranked at number 455 in 2010.
"I'm Waiting for the Man" is a song by American rock band the Velvet Underground. Written by Lou Reed, it was first released on their 1967 debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. The lyrics describe a man's efforts to obtain heroin in Harlem.
"The Black Angel's Death Song" is a song by the Velvet Underground, from their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. It was written by Lou Reed and John Cale. In a footnote to the lyrics, Lou Reed wrote: "The idea here was to string words together for the sheer fun of their sound, not any particular meaning."
The ostrich guitar or ostrich tuning is a type of trivial tuning. It assigns one note to all strings, e.g. E-E-e-e-e'-e' or D-D-D-D-d'-d'. The term "ostrich guitar" was coined by the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed after the pre-Velvet Underground song "The Ostrich" by Lou Reed and the Primitives, on which he first recorded using this tuning, the first known commercial composition to make use of a trivial guitar tuning.
"All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released on the group's 1967 debut studio album, The Velvet Underground & Nico.
"I'll Be Your Mirror" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico. It appeared on their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. It also surfaced as a single a year earlier with "All Tomorrow's Parties" in 1966.
"There She Goes Again" is a song by American rock band the Velvet Underground. It first appeared on their debut studio album, The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967). The syncopated guitar riff is taken from the 1962 Marvin Gaye song "Hitch Hike". Guitarist Sterling Morrison has stated:
Metronomically, we were a pretty accurate band. If we were speeding up or slowing down, it was by design. If you listen to the solo break on "There She Goes Again," it slows down—slower and slower and slower. And then when it comes back into the "bye-bye-byes" it's double the original tempo, a tremendous leap to twice the speed.
"Venus in Furs" is a song by the Velvet Underground, written by Lou Reed and originally released on the band's 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. Inspired by the book of the same name by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the song includes sexual themes of sadomasochism and bondage.
"Here She Comes Now" is a song released by the American rock band the Velvet Underground in January 1968, from their second studio album White Light/White Heat. As the shortest song on the album, the performance and mix of the song are both considered simple and traditional, making it somewhat distinct from the other five songs on the album, all of which contain some degree of experimental or avant-garde elements in terms of sound.
The discography of the American rock band the Velvet Underground consists of five studio albums, six live albums, 14 compilation albums, six box sets and eleven singles.
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. It originally comprised singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. In 1965, MacLise was replaced by Moe Tucker, who played on most of the band's recordings. Though their integration of rock and the avant-garde resulted in little commercial success, they became one of the most influential bands in rock, underground, experimental, and alternative music. Their provocative subject matter, musical experiments, and nihilistic attitude was also instrumental in the development of punk rock, new wave and several other genres.
The Velvet Underground and Nico: A Symphony of Sound is a 1966 American film by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The film was made at The Factory on January 3, 1966. It is 67 minutes long and was filmed in 16mm black and white.
When I had to play viola, Sterling had to play bass, which he hated.According to the website, the quote is from John Cale's autobiography, What's Welsh for Zen (NY: St. Martin's Press (2000).