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Nico
Dec 16, 2006 9:18:49 GMT -5
Post by Lauren Curtis on Dec 16, 2006 9:18:49 GMT -5
For her debut album, 1967's Chelsea Girl [1], Nico recorded songs by, among others, Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin, Jackson Browne and Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison, co-writing only one song ("It Was a Pleasure Then", with Reed and Cale). Chelsea Girl is largely a traditional chamber-folk album in the vein of Leonard Cohen, complete with strings and flute arrangements superimposed by its producer. Nico was not wholly satisfied with the finished album but had little say in production matters. Jim Morrison is supposed to have helped her with her first solo album, but this is debatable.
For her seminal LP, The Marble Index, released in 1969 [2], Nico wrote all the lyrics and the bare bones of the music, mainly consisting of see-sawing Harmonium chords. The arrangements were written by John Cale, who fleshed out Nico's songs with an array of instruments from the folk and classical vein. Frazier Mohawk produced the album, which was widely considered to be the first rock album to completely abandon conventional structures and instrumentation. For this album, Nico played a harmonium, which became her signature instrument for much of the rest of her career. The album combines classical elements with a European folk sound.
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