She's Busy Sucking on my Ding-Dong (White Light White Heat - The Velvet Underground)

Member Name: Hunting_Bears

Product:	White Light White Heat - The Velvet Underground
Date:	10/11/02 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great songs, great lyrics

Disadvantages: none

This album is a masterpiece and it is waiting to be rediscovered. It is noisy and totally punk rock. Yet it was made in 1968. The Velvet Underground are one of the greatest and most influential bands ever. Lou Reed and John Cale are perhaps the greatest musicians and songwriters ever. I adore this band because not many people have actually heard them. I was having a debate with a university pal recently and he was arguing that the Beatles were the most influential band ever. I tried to explain that whilst the Beatles may have been influential to Brit Pop music like Oasis, The Velvet's influenced most genres and created Punk Rock and alternative rock. The Velvets were singing about Heroin and Speed whilst the Beatles were singing I Want to Hold Your Hand.

White Light/White Heat is a fuzzy, noisy blast of sonic sound.

1. White Light/White Heat

The album kicks off with a fast rockin' ode to shooting methadrine. Lou sings about his feet and head being on fire and the John Cale's piano holds it all together before the song ends with all the instruments, drums, bass, paino and guitar trying to out play each other. It is a classic song.


2.The Gift


This is a very experimental song and it is spoken rather than sung. John Cale tells the story of Waldo Jeffers who mails himself in a box to his girlfriend who is at college, miles away only for her to stab him in the head when she opens the box. The music is groovy and very 1960's. It is an odd song and you can listen to it with or without music by messing with the dials on your stereo. Very experimental and very cool.


3.Lady Godivas Operation


John Cale again takes lead vocals on this classic track about Lady Godiva having surgery. I think she is a corpse, it s a very strange song.The music is harsh and rattles. Lou Reed tries to butt in on John Cale's singing but just sounds stupid because Lou's voice

is not deep like

Cale's. The guitar playing by Sterling Morrison is fantastic and I defy anybody not to groove to this song.


4. Here She Comes Now

The song is about a woman who is about to climax during sex. It's a funny number which just repeats the title of the song. The music is quite laid back compared to the rest of the album and is my least favourite song on the album. But it still rocks.


5. I Heard Her Call My Name

This is noise rock and punk music a decade before it was played. Lou Reed screams and so does the guitar. Sterling Morrison's guitar playing along with Reed's is stunning and just bloody noisy. This song sums up the album, loud, noisy and groovy. I can't really make out the lyrics because they are drowned out by the music.


6. Sister Ray


The greatest of all Velvet songs. A seventeen minute dirge about sailors, drugs, whores and a woman from Alabama. The guitar riff is bluesy and the lyrics feature the immortal line 'She's busy sucking on my ding dong'. The drums are deafened by the guitar and organ but the song is powerful and great to dance to if your stoned (not that I condon drugs). The noise at times is incredible and every member of the band plays their hearts out and try and out play each other like on White Light/White Heat. A great end to a superb album.



The album was the last to feature the remarkable talents of John Cale, this album marks the decline of the Velvets but for me this album is one of the greatest ever. It never reaches popular lists but if you listen to it you will agree. It is a very influential album if you lsiten to Nirvana, Weezer and most other rock bands they have all recorded their versions of this album. Nirvana 'In Utero' and Weezer's 'Pinkerton'.

The album rocks big time so go and buy it.

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