Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

My heart goes out to you, NaughtyNige.

We're not talking about whether or not people like those particular albums (and of course I entirely agree people like what they like, horses for courses and all that). Keith says in his original post why is she so revered and what did she do after the first Velvets LP? That's what I was responding to. Those 3 albums (Marble Index, Desertshore & The End) are about the most convincing case you could offer. As a body of work they are some of the most compelling and daring pieces of music released under the "popular music" banner in the early to mid 70s. That is why she is so revered, not for a tossed off cover which has a miniscule bearing on her overall recorded output. Ian, I hear what you're saying about John Cale's input and I think you're right. As for his solo career, I've been disappointed at how unsatisfying the albums have been - there is so much pedestrian singer-songwriter guff.
To address some of the other arguments taking place in this thread - for your average Head To Head'er those 3 Nico albums are melodically pretty accessible and this knee-jerk attacking of music which is considered difficult by some really should cease. As should the retaliation against people who don't necessarily like that kind of music. The reason we're all on this forum is surely to rejoice in all forms of great music and to be enlightened about more of the stuff by others. I've noticed some particularly mean streaks creeping in to this forum lately, I fuckin' love a debate but there's no need for insulting people as part of that.
So there.

Still, even genius producers have to eat and he wasn't exactly flavour de jour in the 80s. Correct me if I am wrong but I think Squeeze was his last commercial project as a producer in that era.

Anyway Cale had a golden run and then seemed to be making records for what he imagined his audience to be rather than for himself. Still, even genius producers have to eat and he wasn't exactly flavour de jour in the 80s. Correct me if I am wrong but I think Squeeze was his last commercial project as a producer in that era.

Squirrel Gman etc the 1st Happy Mondays lp with the long title? & I'm not sure if that was the only production he did at the time. But that would be about 86, so possibly there was a gap I'm not 100% sure of his chronology.

Squeeze was late 70's. Apart from producing (most of) their debut LP, he also produced their earlier Packet Of Three ep IIRC. Now that's a great little record (1st record I ever bought without having ever heard the band in question, bought after an article in Sounds iirc).

Featuring some great riffs, there was a definite punk influence to PO3. Nothing of the cheeky chappy pop that came later (not that there's anything wrong with that. I think they made some fab 45's).

His presence is also felt on the first Happy Mondays album. Still love that one...

Well you know to a lot of folks VU never did a thing wrong and Nico is kind of frozen in aspic as the blonde Wagnerian goddess of s&m rock and roll. Nico is also a beneficiary of 40 years of rock crit fantasies. They come on all Mark Corrigan in a "maybe she's just mad enough to shag me" kind of a way.

You just can't say she was kinda average. People swear by her genius just as others will tell you the Floyd never did anything good after Syd, that all the best Marley records were on Trojan, that Trout Mask is a work of genius, that Exile is Keef's best album and that Joy Division were more valuable than Magazine ;-) These are now accepted truisms that almost transcend analysis.

To be fair there are some really really good Nico recordings but no where near as many as the critical legacy would suggest. I would argue that she didn't make any records as good as "Broken English" or Annette Peacock's barkingly brilliant "I'm The One" but it is all in the ear of the whatsit.