DOWNLOAD Death & the Maiden, by Nico, HERE
Nico – “I’m Not Sayin” MP3/download
[View complete tracklist with notes/credits below]
This was too cherry to pass up. A Nico comp? On colored vinyl (ended up being black)? In limited number (also probably not the case)? AND COMPILED BY HENRY CHINASKI (better known as Gumshoe God no. 1 Charles Bukowski)?
The only problem with the purchase of the Death & the Maiden LP is that I’ve always hated Nico’s voice with the heat of a million Phoenix suns and the passion of a dozen Willem Dafoes circa The Last Temptation of Christ. Her pipes register somewhere between a Canadian yak and a 300-pound Norseman with balls the size of eagle eggs. I genuinely feel that people who claim to appreciate her voice are secretly laughing at all of you, and THEY ARE — there’s no other explanation. And let me tell you, there are instances of total shit tucked unlovingly within this record, jams that sound how I imagine that comedy-music duo John Phillips had with his wife sounded like: Guiness Book of World Records-wrong.
But HOLD ON: What doesn’t disappoint about this extremely Germanic woman’s oeuvre is the many detours and experiments she undertook on her way to getting clean and subsequently dying by dint of a bike accident, of all things. As Death & the Maiden attests, she was a shapeshifter in the underground world of leather-faced weirdos, ex models, used-up junkies, skeleton people, hangers-on and contenders for the throne of horse-humping SHIT that was rock ‘n’ roll in the 1970s and ’80s.
I’ll also give her this: Her cover of “I’m Not Sayin,” of Gordon Lightfoot origin, is insanely good, flashing a potential I’ve yet to hear fulfilled, save possibly when she goes all drone-mode and fucks shit up on the low end.
I read a great novel by a drummer of hers. It was full of lines you’d expect from someone who spent time with the notorious Nico: “heroin this,” “tour-van that,” “Bob Dylan won’t call Nico back-this” and “the manager just spent the band fund on costumes-that.” Great stuff, yet dude made it clear the music was awful on the worst nights, mildly acceptable on the best. She was a walking burnout in the ’80s; most of her cache derives from the work she did as a member of The Velvet Underground and, lesser so, the solo records she cut — produced by members of The Velvet Underground — much earlier in her drug-addled descent into middling fame and faux-glamorous living.
Death & the Maiden, for better or worse, covers a wide swathe of time. There’s a throwaway improv number from 1966, a meditative — if you can call new age narrated by “schhhhprockets” relaxing — raga rag care of Michel Huygen, a fairly enchanting duet with John Cale from 1970, a Peel session from ’81 … as you can see from the tracklisting included below, we see Nico in many forms, from husky-dark to lighter, higher-pitched stretches where it seems she might have been able to get on the radio, under the right circumstances. Don’t forget, radio stations used to play decent shit back in the day.
I must admit, a few of the cuts she does solo on the harmonium carry a big stick. One can’t help feel beaten down by life when her music is playing. The weight of her strange life reverberates through everything, a process through which, at times, a great deal of beauty is allowed to emerge. She’s singing rather than talking (only Lou Reed can do that and make it stick), birthing emotion rather than bawling her way through a drug-induced haze.
At these points her obvious artsiness intersects with her vague vocal skills and oneness is attained, and attained like a motherfucker. These moments have always been too far between; I can’t join the club just yet. However, I have a distinct feeling Nico’s music will get better with every decade I’m alive. I should probably go find a copy of that book, too (true story: it’s the only book I borrowed but never returned. A friend entrusted me with it and I screwed up, and she knew I was going to, which made the whole thing worse. And I can’t even remember her name. Hey!).
Tracklist + notes/credits
Side 1
1. Improvisation (cale/morrison/nico/reed/tucker), with the velvet undergound at e.p.i. show, columbus, ohio, november 1966
2. Vuelo Quimico (michel huygen) with neuronium, 1978
3. Secret Side / The Extension Of The Eye (nico), cbgb’s, new york, 19/2/1979
4. No One Is There (nico), live 1970 with john cale
Side 2
1. Saeta (nico/quilichini), john peel 9/1981
2. Purple Lips (+interview) (nico), french tv, 26/4/1975
3. Child’s Christmas In Wales (cale), live with john cale in new york, 16/6/1979
4. New York, New York (f. ebb/j. kander), live in new york, 12/8/1981
5. Chelsea Girls (+interview) (morrison/reed), hotel room demo
6. I’m Not Sayin’ (lightfoot), immediate single, 1965
7. The Last Mile (oldham/page), immediate single, 1965
8. Purple Lips (nico), live bremen, 5/11/1987
