I think the only reason I thought to post this photo was because of our topsy-turvy weather lately. I optimistically put my navy pea coat away a week or so back when it was a balmy 70 degrees,.... only to find myself gong back to the closet to retrieve said coat just two days later when it was suddenly 20 degrees again. In any case, I always think of this photograph -- taken by one Nat Finkelstein, presumably circa 1967 or so -- when I rock the pea coat (here sported manfully by the Velvet Underground's John Cale and Lou Reed). Not that the pea coast needed their help, but this photograph elevates it to the very height of coolsville for being worn by the Velvets, as far as I'm concerned.
Even beyond the pea coats, I've always been fascinated by this photograph. Flanked by "producer"/svengali Andy Warhol (also looking dead cool in black, with a black leather jacket), the Velvets are seen strangely chilling out in what looks like a lobby, probably waiting for an elevator (and curiously without drummer Moe Tucker). Guitarist Sterling Morrison (looking the least put together of the four), looks a bit sedated and disheveled. Lou's looking characteristically surly. Warhol's looking effetely foppish, well aware of the camera. Cale's just being cool, as was his wont.
Much has been made of Warhol's contributions to the Velvet Underground, although it's widely purported that he really never had anything to do with their actual music (despite getting a producer credit on the debut LP). He probably had more to do with their visual aesthetic -- their sharp threads, the preponderance of black, the shades, but I'm purely projecting, of course. While, as far as I'm concerned, the Velvet Underground never made a musical misstep (although I've never heard Squeeze, the post-Reed album helmed by Doug Yule, but no one really counts that one), I think Warhol kept them on the distinctive track, visually. With the possible exception of The Clash, I can't think of another band who look so effortlessly cool in virtually every photograph than the Warhol-era Velvets.
Citing the Warhol-era is important, as after the band and he parted ways, they started to look like they did in the photograph below (although they still sounded great). Satorially-speaking, it's hard to recognize them as the same ensemble (although, of course, they're not -- that's the afore-cited Cale-replacing Doug Yule standing to Lou's right, if you can see either of them beyond their eye-immolating paisley).
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