‘I Heard Her Call My Name’ – Velvet Underground, 1968
My auntie bought me White Light/White Heat for me when I was 15 or 16. I’d gotten into the Velvet Underground through the Oliver Stone’s movie The Doors, and had worn out what’s known as ‘the banana album’. White Light/White Heat is a lot more abrasive, nowhere more so than on this slab of howling feedback and blistering guitar. This is my favourite guitar solo ever, full stop.
To call this song a cacophony doesn’t do it any justice at all. The guitar really does go wild. Whereas The Velvet Underground & Nico showcased some controversial songs (’Heroin’, ‘Venus in Furs’), White Light/White Heat ups the ante music-wise, especially on this song and the 17-minute closer ‘Sister Ray’. Never has musical dissonance and belligerence sounded so melodic.
The lyrics are fairly throwaway by Lou Reed’s standards, as he imagines a “long gone” (dead?) girl calling his name. But really it’s the two guitar solos that grab you. In fact, the guitar work at the start of the song is also top-class, with a sound like a see-saw that could do with some oil.
Guitar solo #1 comes just after Reed sings “Then I felt my mind split open”, and it really does tear a hole in the listener’s head. The drums and rhythm guitar just smash along in the background, while Reed seems to be attacking his guitar with a saw or something while feedback wails in and out. There’s no real chord progression, it could almost be a modal guitar solo, if it wasn’t so freakish.
Solo #2 starts with feedback, and just keeps going on and on. This is the solo that’s often referred to as the best in guitar, yet it’s nothing like what you’d hear Clapton or any of those journeymen play. It’s still as fresh today as it was back then. Reed holds the same note, bending it for several seconds and letting feedback seep in, before going back to attacking notes ferociously. This is the studio version of the song, with a very strange video of a bird pecking itself.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:24 am
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