White Light/White Heat

Album: White Light/White Heat

Artist: The Velvet Underground

Release Year: 1968

1) White Light/White Heat; 2) The Gift; 3) Lady Godiva's Operation; 4) Here She Comes Now; 5) I Heard Her Call My Name; 6) Sister Ray.

DIMMEL

Best Song: I Heard Her Call My Name

 Good: Lady Godiva’s Operation                                         

            I Heard Her Call My Name

Bad: The Gift

This album is a little surprising to the unsuspecting listener.  On first listen I was confused; then irritated; then found myself actually enjoying the album only to have that ripped away the next song.  The Velvet Underground obviously have the talent they need to write good songs, “I Heard Her Call My Name” is a great tune and succeeds at balancing tonality and the experimental elements they seem to love, but that is where most of the rest of the album fails.  “The Gift” throws away song quality by distracting the listener with an overlong story that, albeit engrossing, is tiresome and downright dumb.  Who thinks that the best way to open a box is to stab it in the center with a knife?  He deserved to die for having such a stupid girlfriend.  “Here She Comes Again” decides that lyrics aren’t important, that the listener should have to sit through the dull background chords and repetitive drumming just to here that “she” is “coming now”.  The album then closes on “Sister Ray”.  My biggest complaints about the song are that it is overlong and the lyrics are dumb and childish.  It spans almost 17 ½ minutes but it doesn’t have to content to do so enjoyably.  “Sister Ray” tends to get drone-y  between verses.  The lyrics sound like a poor attempt to be vague and cryptic similar to Dylan’s style but in the long run lines like “She's busy sucking on my ding-dong” just come off as childish.  If you cut the song down 10 minutes it might be a rather enjoyable song.  Overall impression is that White Light /White Heat is a pretty good album.  The Velvet Underground were breaking new ground at the time and sometimes it works out good and sometimes you get “The Gift”

7/10

JAKE

Best Song:  White Light/White Heat

Good: White Light/White Heat

Bad: I Heard Her Call My Name

The Velvet Underground and Nico may have been a tough act to follow, but the band probably could have managed better than this.  This is not an album.  This is a pastiche, a cut-and-paste of oddities that didn't fit in on the debut; and as such it cannot be reviewed as a single unit like I prefer to do.  We'll have to consider it song by song.

The title track is a nice straightforward rock number with a cool call-and-response hook, and since it's actually catchy, it receives the "best song" label.  "The Gift" is totally out of place anywhere that isn't an outtakes collection, but here it is: a story Lou Reed wrote in college, backed by a dark, laid-back jam.  Sure, the story is great-- a wimpy college student mailing himself to his not-so-faithful girlfriend--and the buildup to the conclusion is positively nail-biting,  but it completely breaks whatever flow the album has left, and I get the feeling most will bored by it after a listen or two.

"Lady Godiva's Operation" is a minor highlight, with an unsettling melody and creepy effects (how did they get that bonesaw sound, anyway?) that really cause a sense of dread as the operation proceeds.  "Here She Comes Now" is pretty but short--you do the auditory equivalent of blinking and you miss it.  "I Heard Her Call My Name" is even more of a mess than the album itself: there is almost no melody, just five minutes of messy, distorted soloing with no direction and nothing to support it.  Sounds cool at times, but compositionally it's a wreck.

But let's talk about "Sister Ray" (face it, it's the reason we're all here).  To start with the obvious, it's a loud, dirty, caucophonous behemoth; it's a seventeen minute assault of grinding riffs, piercing atonality, and debauchery.  It's the song they used to drag out for over an hour when they played it live.  It's the song the recording engineer walked out on.  Some worship it, some spit on it.  Me?  I like it (yeah, I'll listen to the whole thing), but I'm a professional VU fan, and I still have no trouble whatsoever understanding those who despise this song with every fiber in their being.  I mean, the first six minutes are incredible--probably some of the best work the band ever did, and a summary of the band's image and contribution to music--but why, why, WHY is it seventeen minutes?  After the first six it just drags and drags, losing steam all the time, while Lou Reed rambles on about girls sucking on his ding-dong (his words, not mine), and the subpar production means the sharp, tinny organ and guitar riffs eventually drill in enough to give you a headache.  It's exhausting, and that's coming from a guy who usually loves long songs. 

But seriously, who says "ding-dong" once they're old enough to talk?  There are so many other, much more streetwise euphemisms for "penis."  Now, if they'd had John Cale cut in like Reed does in "Lady Godiva's Operation" and say "todger" in his impeccable Welsh accent, maybe that would be true entertainment.

6/10