A lesson in production

Chelsea Girl. Five Stars.

In 1967, Nico was no longer with the Velvet Underground. She'd moved on, interestingly enough, to being a sort of folk chanteuse in New York City coffeehouses. Her act was solo, backed by a variety of guitarists, among them both Tim Hardin and Jackson Browne, both of whom donated songs to her.

With a roster of songs, only one of which did she help write, Nico set up to make this, her first record album. However, her producer, Tom Wilson, tampered with the recordings, overdubbing flute and strings without her consent. (Actually, he'd done a similar thing to Simon and Garfunkel, overdubbing electric instruments onto The Sounds of Silence and releasing it as a single without bothering to get their permission)

I don't think Nico herself liked this record.

Jackson Browne had a hand in writing The Fairest of the Seasons. It is quite nice, but Nico's voice is a slap in the face. You'll either get used to it or bail out. She was tone deaf and emotionally stilted, but if you let go of that, there is an extraordinary beauty hidden beneath. Musically it's very much chamber pop, lots of strings and an elegant, stately melody.

These Days is a straight pop song from Browne's pen. If you're still here after The Fairest, this one is easier to get into and Chelsea Girls is probably your cup of tea. It's got a sad, beautiful lyric. She was lucky to get such excellent material.

Little Sister is a Cale/Reed offering with a hypnotic, drawn out and gently haggard quality. It flows over you and into the distance.

Winter Song is somewhat fiercer. John Cale's imagistic lyric is a bit of a mouthful at times and makes no real sense.

It Was a Pleasure Then feels like a Velvet Underground outtake. She cowrote it with Reed/Cale (the latter provides his memorable demon-possessed feedback). A morose, eight minute epic of avant-gardeness. The wordless chanting comes right from the ancient world and Nico and the band sound like they're jamming full across the room. It's the most difficult cut; also the eeriest.

Side two comes up with Chelsea Girls (Sterling Morrison was on board for this one). Flute pretty much defines this one. It is very repetitive, problematic at seven minutes. Lyrically, the most Velvet of the whole set. It's snapshots of denizens in the Chelsea Hotel, for God's sake. The mood of urbane decay fits perfectly onto the rest of the album.

I'll Keep It With Mine is a Bob Dylan song. He never got around to releasing his own version, but Judy Collins had sung it, and later on Sandy Denny with Fairport Convention wound up with it. It's extraordinarily upbeat for Nico, and she does sing it with sincerity. I did say she was emotionally stilted, yet a strange degree still gets through that incredibly flawed German voice.

Somewhere There's a Feather is Browne's work and another lovely, good sentiment. With Dylan it forms a nice couplet of sunshine and hope on what is quite an ominous album.

Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams, a Lou Reed song, starts spiralling back into darkness. Highly poetic and very appropriate.

Finally, there is Tim Hardin's Eulogy to Lenny Bruce. Lenny was a stand-up comic who make obscenity his trademark. He died via drugs. Nico sings dispassionately in one ear while a guitar plays a waltzing tune quietly in the other. The starkest moment, and a strong finale to an album whose atmosphere is simply astonishing. Even with that damn flute.

I personally do not mind it, or her voice. And I think the cover art ought to be on a list of 100 Greatest Album Covers. She looks like a dark Joni Mitchell and it perfectly encapsulates the sound of the record.