Saturday Morning Records: #5 — Drama of Exile by Nico

A new series for paying subscribers — celebrating favourite albums for the weekend

This is brand new to me — bought it last month as a birthday present to myself. But I had heard the album, way back. Recently, though, I went on a huge Velvet Underground kick, playing all that wonderful music, and also all of the solo albums by all of the members. And I’ve always loved the majority of the Lou Reed and John Cale catalogues — and Moe Tucker’s small, earnest selection. Sterling Morrison never made a solo record but his distinctive sound is all over Moe’s songs, and he popped up on one of the early, great Luna records.

To me the revelation this time around was Nico’s catalogue. I had heard all of the albums. I’d always taken a more sympathetic view of Nico than some. And Chelsea Girls was part of my early discovery — the songs so linked to the ‘Banana’ record, etc.