Moe Tucker

It was good to have Nico on those three songs on the first album, but she can't sing a lot of the songs that we're doing.

What do we do with Nico? And when she is not singing, unlike Maureen Tucker or Sterling Morrison or everyone else in the group, she didn't play an instrument at that time.

She would play harmonium a lot in her solo career.

So what does she do? She can play a tambourine.

I think Sister Ray in particular reflected what the whole group wanted to do because in some ways everybody took a prominent instrumental part certainly.

Lou Reed as the singer, the lyric writer, of course he had a very important part.

But a great story, it wasn't one that I unearthed but it's in some interviews, is that Not so much Maureen Tucker, but the other three wanted to be the loudest.

They wanted to outplay the other instruments.

You've never seen the monks and he's just making me the video.

And the thing I'll, I'll never forget about it is at the time, the woman who played Natalie on, uh, Facts of Life was on some sitcom and her name on the sitcom was Mo Tucker and since he was in the Velvet Underground fan club he had to videotape her death because she had a desk plate that said Mo Tucker like she was in an office and it said Mo Tucker on the desk plate and he was going to tape this but then he was just heartbroken that I'd never seen Kitty Go Go or The Monk so he just makes me a videotape of that instead and foregoes you know, this, I'm sure that sitcom was canceled the next week and he never got, never got, but then he, so he, um, you know, obviously the Kitty A Go-Go footage of these children in the sixties in Chicago dancing to, you know, just sixties dance songs and, you know, sixties dance songs are great for kids to dance to because they have instructions, you know, the Popeye is a based cartoon, right? So, um, And then he tracks down the Kirigogo people.

They live in the suburbs of Chicago.

And he's like, Jake, can you just go out there and get some information from me and pick up all these photos? You know, there's no scanning there.

After graduating, he worked as a staff songwriter for Pickwick Records, a low budget label where he honed his ability to churn out commercial music while secretly developing a stark avant-garde style that would define his later work.

In 1965, he co-founded the Velvet Underground alongside John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Maureen Tucker.

Under the temporary management of pop art icon Mr. Andy Warhol, The band integrated dark literary themes of urban alienation and isolation into their feedback-heavy sound.

And although the band achieved minimal commercial success during its initial run, their debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, eventually became recognized as being one of the most influential records in rock history.

And a lot of ways too, like we, you know, there's one song that was on a new record, which was just a drum machine.

It was you know, upbeat, right? But we slowed it down and we started calling it like the Mo Tucker song.

So like the Velvet Underground kind of style drumming just came up totally different.

And it was actually probably in a lot of ways better.

He did immediately upgrade their equipment, give them some money to sustain themselves.

They were probably not Maureen Tucker still living at home, but almost literally starving.

also gave them a place to rehearse, the factory.

What better place to rehearse? And not like all certain hours when no one else is there, you can have an hour.

Uh, um, John Cale's playing in that record.

I mean, it's just the whole thing, Moe Tucker, all of it is just-

Yeah

... sensational.

They do also cite Jonathan Richman and The Velvet Underground as major influences.

Velvet Underground especially, uh, I believe the band goes on to play with Moe Tucker of The Velvet Underground at some point.

So the band released a self-released cassette called Not Fade Away in 1974.

I'm not entirely sure what's on it.

There are five current members of the band.

Several of them are dead.

[laughs] Uh, but if you count them, there's 12 ex-members, and one is Moe Tucker of Velvet Underground.

That wasn't gonna be a long-term thing anyway.

They served as the house band at Warhol's studio called The Factory.

Um, besides Lou Reed, there was Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionist Moe Tucker.

Um, let's see what else I have.

Uh, th- I think because they were so avant-garde and different from what was popular back then, what was even known back then, is, um, they, they didn't get commercial success really because their music was so different, and it wasn't the stuff you normally played on the radio back then.

And I just know that you know a lot more about them than I do for a number of reasons.

[laughs]

Oh, and, and you mentioned the drummer Moe Tucker.

Well-