1966-January   or   1966_Summer-Fall  *


The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground And Nico  (aka A Symphony Of Sound)
The Factory	New York, NY


Disc 1
1	Untitled Jam		67.00



* There is some discrepancy concerning the date of this performance.
  Some list it as being from January 1966, while others list it as 
  being from Summer/Fall 1966.  Either way, it's definitely from their
  very early days (pre 1967).


Notes about this recording:

Andy Warhol, sound, b&w, 16 mm, 67 minutes, Summer/Fall 1966

Featuring: The Velvet Underground & Nico, Ari Boulogne (Nico's son); 
appearances by Gerard Malanga, Billy Name, Stephen Shore, Andy Warhol, 
the New York Police and others.


This film was shown at the 1990 Fondation Cartier exhibition.  A 6.20 excerpt was 
broadcasted June 8, 1991 on French La Sept TV channel as 'extra' to 
Songs For Drella video broadcasting.  Until Raro Video release, unofficial video 
copies of the 1st reel were circulating.  The Velvet Underground & Nico has been 
released on DVD by Rarovideo (RVD 40051, Italy, 2004).


** Review (by Callie Angell) **
The Velvet Underground and Nico is a portrait of the band, recorded during a 
practice session at the Factory; apparently shot in January 1966, it shows the 
group rehearsing for what was probably their opening at the Film-Makers' Cinematheque 
in February. The music is an instrumental number; Nico, the German singer and 
actress whom Warhol introduced into the band, sits on a stool and bangs a tambourine, 
while her son Ari plays on the floor at her feet. The two reels contain a great deal 
of wild camerawork and psychedelic zooming, which indicates that this film was intended 
for exhibition, probably in double-screen, behind the Velvet Undergound on stage. 
It is easy to imagine how this footage might have looked projected in a large, crowded 
theater in an atmos phere of deafining music, wild dancing, and strobe lighting.

As if to authenticate the film's countercultural status, the second reel documents the 
arrival of the New York City police during the filming, apparently in response to a 
telephoned complaint about the noise level at the Factory. After a disarmingly self-conscious 
cop appears on screen to adjust the amplifier, the rehearsal is stopped, and the camera 
pulls back to show the deep space of the studio-one of the few documentary of the Factory in 
Warhol's films-where Warhol is seen talking with the police while the Velvets, Gerard Malanga, 
Billy Name, and other Factory regulars mill around.

~ by Callie Angell, The Films of Andy Warhol: Part II
  (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1994)