Well, it's that time of year again. The Bob Dylan Covers project I began last year will continue this year. However, the point of that project is that Dylan has become perennial and that his covers are ubiquitous. At the moment I have realized that there is something more pressing, at least to me.
Later this year will be the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Nico. It is unlikely to be observed in mass media. Although her music is widely respected by other musicians and fans of innovative music, it is not likely to ever be widely popular. I've written in this blog before about the mix of confusion and vindication I've felt watching music I had been told for years was "commercially unviable" becoming the soundtrack for actual television commercials. Ramones, Nick Drake, Joy Division, the Stooges and even Syd Barrett were licensed for ads in the last 20 years, but Nico, who was featured in a series of television ads in Europe before becoming a musician? Not so much. Wes Anderson soundtracks, maybe, but Nico wasn't going to get onto broadcast television unless it was in one of the three Velvet Underground songs she sang on or a track from her first solo album, "Chelsea Girls". Both sets of songs were released on the Verve label and the recordings would be licensed through UMC, presumably. But going through Warner Music isn't the reason TV shows and ads don't license tracks from "Marble Index". There's also the fact that however fascinating her life has been she had spent much of it as an unsympathetic figure. Heroin addicts and pathological liars are a dime a dozen on basic cable scandal shows but rarely get network retrospectives or tribute concerts.
Despite all of that, I still contend that Nico is overdue for a comprehensive career retrospective of her music. In fact, I felt that way over twenty years ago when I compiled the two-cassette, three hour overview that appears in the scans on the right. Like most of the compilations I made in the 90's it was a compilation of hits and rarities plus representative album tracks in roughly chronological order of their recording. In this case, 'hits' translates to anything released on a single or songs that became concert staples.
One should be aware that creating a compilation such as this, drawing on as many different sources held by so many different interests, for retail purposes is markedly different from me creating these tapes for my own enjoyment. Since I never sold these I never had to pay licensing fees or royalties. I also didn't have to locate the original masters from numerous points around the globe. These songs were all dubbed from standard store-bought CD's and vinyl. They were individually equalized and the volume levels had to be readjusted when changing sources, but the differences between formats of pre-recorded music are minor compared to trying to mix from one song to another from reels that have differing numbers of tracks recorded years apart on equipment sometimes separated by generations.
The expense of engaging capable engineers on top of the expenses of providing them with the original recordings in question all has to be balanced against the likelihood of the end results selling. Also, the more sophisticated and attractive the packaging, the higher the suggested retail price and the smaller the pool of potential customers despite its greater desirability.
Below are the final drafts of the notes for the compilation, handwritten on notebook paper (keepin' it classy). You should note that each side of the 90-minute cassettes are about the length of an LP and I saw fit to correspondingly give each side its own title as though it were a self-contained album. The particular selection of tracks allowed me to make a clean break between sides at points where Nico changed labels in different years.
In the coming months I hope to look at each track considered for this compilation and why they did or didn't make the cut. I'll also try to look at the releases made since these were compiled and consider how the retrospective might be expanded or improved. If I can complete these posts before the anniversary of her death in July, perhaps someone in a better position than I might assemble a fitting commemoration for her (likely) 80th birthday in October.
Later this year will be the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Nico. It is unlikely to be observed in mass media. Although her music is widely respected by other musicians and fans of innovative music, it is not likely to ever be widely popular. I've written in this blog before about the mix of confusion and vindication I've felt watching music I had been told for years was "commercially unviable" becoming the soundtrack for actual television commercials. Ramones, Nick Drake, Joy Division, the Stooges and even Syd Barrett were licensed for ads in the last 20 years, but Nico, who was featured in a series of television ads in Europe before becoming a musician? Not so much. Wes Anderson soundtracks, maybe, but Nico wasn't going to get onto broadcast television unless it was in one of the three Velvet Underground songs she sang on or a track from her first solo album, "Chelsea Girls". Both sets of songs were released on the Verve label and the recordings would be licensed through UMC, presumably. But going through Warner Music isn't the reason TV shows and ads don't license tracks from "Marble Index". There's also the fact that however fascinating her life has been she had spent much of it as an unsympathetic figure. Heroin addicts and pathological liars are a dime a dozen on basic cable scandal shows but rarely get network retrospectives or tribute concerts.
Despite all of that, I still contend that Nico is overdue for a comprehensive career retrospective of her music. In fact, I felt that way over twenty years ago when I compiled the two-cassette, three hour overview that appears in the scans on the right. Like most of the compilations I made in the 90's it was a compilation of hits and rarities plus representative album tracks in roughly chronological order of their recording. In this case, 'hits' translates to anything released on a single or songs that became concert staples.
One should be aware that creating a compilation such as this, drawing on as many different sources held by so many different interests, for retail purposes is markedly different from me creating these tapes for my own enjoyment. Since I never sold these I never had to pay licensing fees or royalties. I also didn't have to locate the original masters from numerous points around the globe. These songs were all dubbed from standard store-bought CD's and vinyl. They were individually equalized and the volume levels had to be readjusted when changing sources, but the differences between formats of pre-recorded music are minor compared to trying to mix from one song to another from reels that have differing numbers of tracks recorded years apart on equipment sometimes separated by generations.
The expense of engaging capable engineers on top of the expenses of providing them with the original recordings in question all has to be balanced against the likelihood of the end results selling. Also, the more sophisticated and attractive the packaging, the higher the suggested retail price and the smaller the pool of potential customers despite its greater desirability.
Below are the final drafts of the notes for the compilation, handwritten on notebook paper (keepin' it classy). You should note that each side of the 90-minute cassettes are about the length of an LP and I saw fit to correspondingly give each side its own title as though it were a self-contained album. The particular selection of tracks allowed me to make a clean break between sides at points where Nico changed labels in different years.
In the coming months I hope to look at each track considered for this compilation and why they did or didn't make the cut. I'll also try to look at the releases made since these were compiled and consider how the retrospective might be expanded or improved. If I can complete these posts before the anniversary of her death in July, perhaps someone in a better position than I might assemble a fitting commemoration for her (likely) 80th birthday in October.
See you soon.
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