3. The Velvet UndergroundThe Velvet Underground & Nico
The whole New York thing was kind of like the Bowie outer space thing – you’d see it on films. And when I first went out to New York I thought how right the music was for the place. It was the antithesis of the California thing. I bought a Velvets compilation with ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’ on, and every title fascinated me. When I got Banana everything about it was cool, a different kind of cool to Bowie, just this disrespective, narky cunt, with the greatest rock & roll band in the history of time.
Technically it doesn’t matter, the chemistry between them was incredible. Every rhythm guitar part I’ve ever played I’ve just nicked from Lou Reed, even some of the punkier stuff. There were all these punky little rhythms. Not as important as Bowie in what he decided to do, but up there because it was a band with a definite front man. When I met the right people later in life I would use the Velvets model.
