Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story (11 page)

Chicago Daily News:
“Warhol has indeed put together a total environment but it is an assemblage that actually vibrates with menace, cynicism and perversion. To experience it is to be brutalized, helpless – you’re in any kind of horror you want to imagine, from police state to madhouse. Eventually the reverberations in your ears stop. But what do you do with what you still hear in your brain? The flowers of evil are in full bloom with The Exploding Plastic Inevitable.”

One night Angus arrived half an hour late for the show so he made up for it by continuing to drum for half an hour after the set was over. “This show is a new phase for Andy,”
Malanga explained to a reporter from the
Chicago Tribune
between sets. “It has no message. It’s just entertainment. Yes, the films, the lights, the music are all parts, but the main thing is the music. Andy is the catalyst for this, but he has no part in the show itself.”

Was Warhol beginning to lose interest in The EPI as its personalities continued to fragment and become increasingly difficult to conduct? “Andy was reportedly ‘uptight’ with nerves in New York,” said the
Chicago Daily News
. “A condition one would expect to be normal judging by the corners of himself he reveals in The Exploding Plastic Inevitable.”

The Velvets played part of the gig with their backs to the audience, a practice they would increasingly use as they played to less and less acceptance. “Let’s hope it’s killed before it spreads,” the
Daily News
concluded their lengthy put-down. Ron Nemeth filmed one of the shows. The Velvets hardly appear in it, but the film does have an unreleased soundtrack. Two young kids called Susan Pile and Ed Walsh attached themselves to the group in Chicago and later followed them to New York where they ended up working for Warhol.

INGRID SUPERSTAR:
“I remember when I was in Chicago there was one last song they did in the show, and they had the feedback from the guitars which sounded like 12 million guitars going at one time with these amplified, intensified screeches that really hurt the eardrums, and it was nothing but a chaotic confusion of noise. You couldn’t even make out any distinction or hesitation between the notes. I wouldn’t call it beautiful and I don’t know what I’d call it. It’s different. And I’m sure the audience readily would agree with me.

“And, like we seldom got any applause, maybe one or two claps here and there and when the audience walked out they just walked out struck in a daze and a trance because they were just so shocked and amazed they didn’t know what to think. They didn’t know whether they were being put on or being put out or being put in or whatever you want to call it.

“I must say the band did quite well without Lou Reed and Nico in Chicago, and they created their own little variations on ‘Heroin’ and ‘Waiting For The Man’ and ‘Venus In Furs’. Well, some of their sounds I must say, like that … those last two real, real fast songs are sort of like, I wouldn’t call them music Louis, I just call them noise. I hope I … did I hurt your feelings on that? Well is it supposed to be that, I mean are you doing that intentionally?”

REED:
(indistinct)

INGRID:
“You know, making all those noises and feedbacks and everything.”

REED:
(indistinct)

INGRID:
“Well, it’s something different to everybody. Everybody has their own opinion, but most of the people I’ve talked to at the shows, you know, I’ve asked them what do you think of the show, what did you think of the music? And they just scratched their heads, shook their heads and … in awe … and shock, and said I don’t know, I can’t describe it, it’s just different psychedelic music. It’s associated to sort of like a very intensified LSD trip.”

REED:
(indistinct)

INGRID:
“Oh, well, it is. A lot of people have told me that it does sound like that. It’s very fast and speeded up and intensified and hypertensial and hypersensitive …”

REED:
(indistinct)

INGRID:
“I think those last two songs are very psychedelic. The other songs they all tell a story, like ‘Venus In Furs’, and ‘Waiting For The Man’, and ‘Cast Your Troubles And Dreams Away’, to which I often get misty. And one thing I must say, Louis is a very good songwriter. Like when we were in Chicago, we gave a reading, Gerard, me and Angus MacLise, who was like their fill-in drummer, and John Cale. And when John Cale read off ‘Venus In Furs’, ‘Heroin’ and ‘Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams’, which is a very, very sentimental song. Well, Nico usually sings that song. And she usually sings it sitting down, while Louis has one leg perched
up on a chair playing the guitar. And there are low lights, well there’s hardly any lights, and like there’s a big spotlight projected on Louis and Nico.”

REED:
(indistinct)

In July Delmore Schwartz died in New York. Gerard took Lou to the open casket wake held at Sigmund Schwartz Funeral Home, 152 Second Avenue. They arrived in the middle of a eulogy being delivered by Dwight MacDonald. A few heads turned, including that of M.L. Rosenthal, upon their stumbling in and finding places to sit in the rear of the room. Gerard wore a black tie for the occasion, although they were both wearing black denim jeans. Lou was silent throughout the entire series of eulogies and prayers. Upon departing a former female classmate and student of Schwartz recognized Lou in the crowd and hustled him into one of the limos and off they went to the burial service, leaving Gerard to return to the Factory. At the end of July Bob Dylan had a motorcycle accident in Woodstock and broke his neck.

MORRISON:
“Dylan was always lurking around, giving Nico songs. There was one film Andy made with Paul Caruso called
The Bob Dylan Story
. I don’t think Andy has ever shown it. It was hysterical. They got Marlowe Dupont to play Al Grossman. Paul Caruso not only looks like Bob Dylan but as a super caricature he makes even Hendrix look pale by comparison. This was around 1966 when the film was made and his hair was way out here. When he was walking down the street you had to step out of his way. On the eve of the filming, Paul had a change of heart and got his hair cut off – close to his head and he must have removed about a foot so everyone was upset about that. Then Dylan had his accident and that was why the film was never shown.

“By August the album was ready and we all went crazy
wondering what was happening with the tapes. Some recordings got lost. I know that Zappa and his manager wanted to be first with their release on Verve. And we were totally naive. We didn’t have a manager who would go to the record company every day and just drag the whole thing through the mud.”

At the beginning of September The EPI entourage travelled to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Steve Sesnick had arranged for them to play on two consecutive days at Walter Chrysler’s Chrysler Art Museum. Apart from Mo, John, Lou, Sterling, Paul, Andy, Gerard, Ronnie, Mary and Faison, the troupe now also included Susan Bottomly (aka International Velvet) and her boyfriend, fashion illustrator David Croland, as well as Eric Emerson, a dancer and actor Andy and Paul had discovered at the Dom, who began living with Nico in Provincetown. These excerpts from the previously unpublished Secret Diaries of Gerard Malanga serve to illustrate the atmosphere within which The EPI was working.

Everyone is uptight for amphetamine. It’s great to see everybody frantic when you can work on your own juice and not have to think about where the next source of supply is going to come from. We’re all waiting in front of the museum to go to the beach.

Early in the evening we did three shows at the Chrysler Art Museum. We wore mod fashions, got free flower print shirts, I adjusted the strobes to reflect on the body of a girl wearing a bikini. I inquire about her. Elena. She lives three quarters of
the year at Florida, and spends her summers at Provincetown. I made it with her last night … 15 people stayed overnight. Wall to wall mattresses. I was just handed a letter Mary (Woronov) wrote to me when I was at Chicago three months ago. The letter travelled thousands of miles, passed through many hands and came to me still sealed. Got into an argument with Andy that was triggered by the accusation made that I didn’t clean up the dirty dishes, when in fact I hadn’t made anything for myself to eat, nor was I anywhere near the house when the mess was made, nor was I aware of the fact that there was a mess. The friends gathered tonight in the small room. Andy was acting very peculiar and seemed quite comfortable and happy, which seems peculiar.

Lou went to bed with “X”. This morning I made it with Elena under the sheets in the living room, and for the second time. I don’t know whether George was uptight, but everybody who was awake must have known what we were doing. Eric is living with Nico and her son Ari. Eric resembles Ari as a big brother and people who see them walking on the street with Ari on Eric’s shoulders probably think that Eric is Ari’s father. Ronnie made a full-colour magic-marker-and-ink portrait of me for my trip book. It’s the first time I ever really paid any attention to Ronnie. Maybe it’s because we’re both very shy of one another. And I hope it will become a genuine relationship, although I’m never really certain of myself and my attitudes when it comes to getting involved with other people. Andy went to a small gathering with Nico and Paul. Andy told me earlier that he liked my trip book very much because of the way I record events and news of the day, which, in a sense, is a taking in or a review of the day’s happenings. I don’t remember what I wrote in my book earlier in the day and I hope I haven’t said anything that would make Andy uptight.

George gets uptight because I tell him I’ll be back in half an hour but I return a half hour late.

The last show of The Exploding Plastic Inevitable Eric proves to be a visual-physical freak-out, Susan refuses to dance on the panel board in front of the projectors. During the ‘Heroin’ number in the last show I get on the dance floor to go thru my mime motions and Eric gets on my platform and his friends come on stage and start dancing around me. I begin to feel both internal and external suffocation and really wonder if I am not just hallucinating on my own circumstance which is unknown. Susan blocks the spotlight and Alan and Roger pick up the strobes and aim them not at me but at Susan. I’m in almost total darkness. Mary is also in total darkness, except for occasional sequences where I am able to aim my own flashlight on her or project one of the hand-strobes behind me. Andy seems oblivious to the situation and to my personal feelings, I wonder if he realizes that my status as a spotlight star in The Exploding Plastic Inevitable has been reduced considerably by the intrusion of too many people and the lighting assistants who can’t follow directions. I think I’ll write a letter to Andy for him to read, but I’ll write it in my book.

Dear Andy:

It seems I’m always writing you letters to explain myself, my feelings, what’s bothering me as you find it easy to say nothing, sometimes, when you know what you’re thinking you shouldn’t say or it is explained without words or without vibrations.

I thought the Provincetown show got off to a rough but very good start, until you were so kind enough as to let Susan and everyone else not directly connected with the show get involved with Mary and I on stage. Also, it was unfortunate that Mary had to be dancing above me and not with me.

I want to make it clear to you that (1) I was dancing with The Velvets long before you signed them into a corporation
empire, and even before you knew them; (2) that my dancing is an integral part of the music and the show as is your movies; (3) I do not represent a “go go” dancer in the show but an interpretative-visual happening. You are slowly taking this away from me by allowing outside elements to interfere with my dance routines. Also Larry was supposed to have the spotlight on me when not projected on The Velvets. Instead, that spotlight wandered away from what was supposed to be seen happening on stage. On more than one occasion I found my flashlight missing and then discovered that Roger was dancing with it somewhere near the end of the show.

On more than one occasion I also discovered other people handling the strobes which were inconveniently placed on the stage. All this led up to Mary and me dancing in total darkness, at times. The only way this can be rectified for future shows is not to have troupe dancing but two people at a time. I am willing to take turns. From my vantage point on stage to have more than two dancers the show becomes a Mothers of Invention freak-out. I feel that you will do nothing in your almost absolute power to correct the mess you are responsible for, in which case I will if you won’t.

Faithfully, Gerard

Everybody was going out of their minds trying to find a place to stay and looking for amphetamine. The pale bodies of The EPI dressed in silver and black leather didn’t jell too well with the healthy tans of the Boston Irish natives. There was also some trouble in a leather store when the proprietor discovered a number of belts and whips missing which resulted in the police interrupting that night’s performance and untying Eric from a post, where he was strapped in preparation for being whipped by Mary, so they could retrieve the stolen goods. There was trouble with the landlord when the toilets in the house Andy’s entourage rented stopped up and they solved the problem by chucking handfuls of shit out the
window. And there was trouble again when Eric Emerson stole a priceless work of art from the Museum just to see if he could get away with it. Paul Morrissey had to act as a liaison between Eric and the Museum, restoring the painting in order to avoid having charges pressed.

CUTRONE:
“Everybody was feeling very cocky and they didn’t like anybody. The general attitude was fuck you which was very punk but nobody knew what punk was. The Velvets hated everything. The whole idea was to take a stab at everything. Before The Velvet Underground almost without exception all groups came out and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have a good time, let’s get involved!’, faced the audience, said, ‘This is a time of love, peace, happiness and sexual liberation and we’re gonna have a great wonderful time.’ The Velvets on the other hand came out and turned their backs to the audience. I remember one review said this is musical masturbation. Who do they think they are? They’re jerking off on stage.