Dave's Song of the Day
I’m Waiting for the Man – The Velvet Underground
Monday song of the day: Today’s song is about scoring heroin.
The oft-quoted saying about the Velvet Underground is that they didn’t sell many records, but that everyone who bought one went out and started a band. There is some truth to that, in that the Velvet Underground was hugely influential despite not being a commercial success at the time. Their music was experimental and it dealt with some dark subjects at a time when the more popular themes in music were happier in the “peace and love” hippie era.
Several of the band’s songs dealt with drugs, but not the psychedelic LSD influences that were popular in music at the time. One of their early signature songs was
Heroin, and another,
I’m Waiting for the Man, told of a junkie going to Harlem to buy heroin.
I’m Waiting for the Man went through the steps of the process: going to see your dealer with the money while feeling terrible and in bad need of a fix, waiting in a dodgy and dangerous part of town, then the actual buy, and lastly, shooting up and feeling “oh so fine”, but knowing that you’ll have to do the same thing tomorrow. The song was written by Lou Reed, who went on to a long and successful solo career after leaving the Velvet Underground in 1970.
The band had formed in 1964, and the two main creative forces were Lou Reed, who wrote most of the songs, and John Cale who brought a more experimental edge to the music. Along the way, they became associated with Andy Warhol, who promoted the Velvet Underground as part of his multi-media show The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol also added German model and “chanteuse” Nico to the band. While she was listed as a member, the reality was that she sang a few songs on the first album with them at Warhol’s insistence. That album,
The Velvet Underground and Nico, was recorded in 1966 and released in 1967. As mentioned, it did not sell well at all, but the Velvet’s music was highly influential in later years.
Included on the album was
I’m Waiting for the Man. Naturally, it did not chart at all. As a matter of fact, it was not even released as a single until 1971, after Lou Reed had left the band. Even then, it was not released in most markets – including the United States – and was credited to “Andy Warhol’s Velvet Underground” in hopes that the Warhol connection would spur sales. It didn’t. Even in 1971, the band was too far ahead of its time.
I’m Waiting for the Man was recorded a few times before the sessions for
The Velvet Underground and Nico. The first was a demo that the band recorded itself in their loft on Ludlow Street in New York. This early version from July 1965 uses a more bluesy guitar and has Lou Reed singing in a Dylanesque whine. Almost a year later, they recorded the song at Scepter Studio, engineered by Norman Dolph. By the time of this recording in April 1966, the folk/blues musical arrangement was gone, replaced by a more experimental droning music. Reed had also dropped the Dylan affectation and was singing in a more natural voice. On this version, Reed still uses the line “waiting for the man” in the first verse, then changes to the more personal “waiting for my man” in the later verses. The “my man” variant of the line would be used in the official album version that they recorded in May 1966, and in most subsequent performances. Both of these versions later turned up on bootlegs, or eventually in the Velvet Underground box set,
Peel Slowly and See.
After over two decades, The Velvet Underground re-formed for a brief reunion tour in 1993. During these live shows, John Cale provided the singing on
I’m Waiting for the Man, rather than Lou Reed. Reed sang most of the other songs, except those that had been sung by Nico on the first album. Since Nico had died five years earlier, Cale sang those songs.
From
The Velvet Underground and Nico, 1967
View: https://youtu.be/YbigVkiAe0s
Ludlow St. loft demo, July 1965
View: https://youtu.be/GIJPA8Srac8
Scepter Srudios recording, April 1966
View: https://youtu.be/4j8Uk4FbXQ8
Live, 1993
View: https://youtu.be/rZrW1ENhLsY
Tomorrow: Turn my blue heart to red