Though the most famous incarnation of the Velvet Underground was only around from 1965-1968, its influence on the direction of rock music is incalculable.
Founded in New York by Long Island-born Lou Reed and Welshman John Cale, and soon joined by Sterling Morrison and Maureen “Moe” Tucker, the quartet and its beguiling sometimes-singer, Nico, served as the house band at Andy Warhol’s art space the Factory, where their glorious, drone-heavy din and wild Warhol-created light shows were a magnet for a cross-disciplinary posse of experimental filmmakers, painters, models, musicians and hangers-on.
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