White Light/White Heat



White Light/White Heat is the second studio album by American rock band the Velvet Underground, released in 1968 by record label Verve. It was the band's last studio recording of new material with bassist and founding member John Cale.

In 2003, the album was placed number 293 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Background
After the disappointing sales of the Velvet Underground's first album, The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), the band's relationship with Andy Warhol deteriorated. They toured throughout most of 1967. Many of their live performances featured noisy improvisations that would become key elements on White Light/White Heat. The band eventually fired Warhol and parted ways with Nico; and ultimately went on to record their second album with Tom Wilson credited as producer.

Recording
The album was recorded in just two days, and with a noticeably different style than The Velvet Underground & Nico. John Cale described White Light/White Heat as "a very rabid record... The first one had some gentility, some beauty. The second one was consciously anti-beauty." Sterling Morrison said: "We were all pulling in the same direction. We may have been dragging each other off a cliff, but we were all definitely going in the same direction. In the White Light/White Heat era, our lives were chaos. That's what's reflected in the record."

Themes and composition
Nearly every song on the album contains some sort of experimental or avant-garde quality. "The Gift", for example, contains a recital of a short story and a loud instrumental rock song playing simultaneously, with the former on the left speaker channel and the latter on the right on the stereo version. "I Heard Her Call My Name" is distinguishable for its distorted guitar solos and prominent use of feedback.

The record's lyrics vary from themes of drug use and sexual references (such as fellatio and orgies), including the song "Lady Godiva's Operation", about a transsexual woman's botched lobotomy, and the title track "White Light/White Heat", which describes the use of amphetamine.

"Here She Comes Now" is built around a double-entendre. On the album's last track, "Sister Ray", Lou Reed tells a tale of debauchery involving drag queens having a failed orgy, while the band plays an improvised seventeen-minute jam around three chords.

Cover
The album cover to White Light/White Heat is a faint image of a tattoo of a skull. The tattoo was that of Joe Spencer, who played the lead role in Warhol's 1967 film Bike Boy. Spencer starred as a hustler in a motorcycle gang and is seen taking a shower in the movie. Although he wasn't credited for the cover design as with their debut album, it was Warhol's idea to use a black-on-black picture of the tattoo. Reed selected the image from the negatives from the film, and it was enlarged and distorted by Billy Name, one of the members of the Factory. It is difficult to distinguish the tattoo, as the image is black, printed on a slightly lighter black background. On this cover, the album name, the Verve logo, and the band name are all on one line.

An alternative cover was used for Polydor's mid-1980s reissues. This cover had a completely black background, without the arm in the background. On this version, the album name, Verve logo, and band name are printed on three separate lines.

There also exists a unique MGM Records UK cover, produced from 1976 until the early '80s, featuring a white background and abstract toy soldiers.

In 1974, the album was reissued by MGM under the title "Archetypes". The cover of this version features two men wearing helmets standing in front of a Woolworth's.

Reception
Like other releases by the group, the album's socially transgressive lyrical themes and avant-garde instrumentation challenged the popular music sensibilities at the time, creating a muted reception. The album briefly appeared on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 199. The album has been described as experimental rock, noise rock, proto-punk and art rock by writers and critics.

Legacy
Despite its poor sales, the distorted, feedback-driven, and roughly recorded sound on White Light/White Heat became a notable influence on punk music and experimental rock. As an example of the album's influence on punk music, British rock band Buzzcocks formed loosely after members followed an advertisement looking for musicians who could collaborate on a "Sister Ray" cover. Joy Division, and later New Order, covered the song on stage.

Personnel

 * The Velvet Underground


 * Lou Reed – lead vocals, lead guitar (tracks 2, 3, 5 and 6), rhythm guitar (tracks 1 and 4)
 * John Cale – lead vocals (track 3), backing vocals (tracks 1 and 5), spoken word (track 2), electric viola (tracks 3 and 4), Vox Continental organ (track 6), piano (tracks 1 and 4), bass guitar (tracks 1, 2, 4 and 5), medical sound effects (track 3)
 * Sterling Morrison – lead guitar (tracks 1, 2, 4 and 6), rhythm guitar (track 5), bass guitar (track 3), backing vocals (tracks 1, 3 and 5), medical sound effects (track 3)
 * Maureen Tucker – percussion (tracks 1–5), drums (track 6)


 * Technical personnel


 * Gary Kellgren – recording engineer
 * Bob Ludwig – mastering
 * Val Valentin – director of engineering
 * Tom Wilson – production