Andy Warhol’s iconic banana image from the debut album of the Velvet Underground has certainly been famous for more than 15 minutes. In fact, it’s slated to begin showing up soon on cases, sleeves and bags — but the Velvets aim to block the move.
The 1960s-era underground rock band, co-founded by Lou Reed and John Cale, is taking legal action against the Andy Warhol Foundation over reports that they’ve agreed to license the design for covers on everything from iPads to iPhones. According to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the group claims the iconic banana is synonymous with The Velvet Underground, as featured on their 1967 album The Velvet Underground And Nico.
Warhol’s design, which was never officially copyrighted, “became a symbol, truly an icon, of the Velvet Underground for some 25 years,” according to court documents. Band members are seeking an injunction blocking the use of the banana by third parties, a declaration that the Warhol Foundation has no copyright interest in the design, unspecified damages, and a share of the profits made by the Warhol Foundation from any licensing deals.
Here’s a look back at our thoughts on the Velvet Underground, and related solo projects. Click through the titles for complete reviews …
LOU REED AND METALLICA – LULU (2011): As per usual, there were a lot of reviewers out there straining themselves to come up with clever ways to say how much they hated this record. This reminds me of St. Anger, which had a kind of brutal and claustrophobic intensity that really dug in. And speaking of brutal, Frank Wedekind’s Lulu plays were drenched in it — a young German dancer sexing it up with rich men, rampant violence, and even a collision with Jack the Ripper. So all of those comments about Reed’s “random mumblings” are more than a little off base. Me, I kinda dig it when Reed is croaking out “Jack, I beseech you!!” as the boys are grinding away behind him.
LOU REED – ANIMAL SERENADE (2004): Before I began paying attention to Lou Reed, these were the only songs of his that made any impression on me. All of Lester Bangs’ rants had no effect. Velvet who? Didn’t matter. There was as yet no ‘there’ there for my adolescent brain to muckle onto. It took a few years of living to figure out that, hey, there’s just something about that weird dude and his even weirder voice. Fast forward to 2004, and this live album. Instead of the early-Animal GlamRockOnSteroids sound, Lou’s very talented band delivers the goods in an elegant, almost cerebral fashion. The influence of wife and fellow art-weirdo Laurie Anderson, maybe?
FORGOTTEN SERIES: NICO – THE MARBLE INDEX (1969): An album that Lester Bangs famously claimed “scared the shit out of him,” though it failed commercially and disappeared without a trace upon its release. Its contemporary listeners could find nothing they related to in its glacial, European avant-garde sounds, but it later claimed a new set of admirers among the post-punk, Goth scene. Today, the album is often seen by critics as merely an interesting musical oddity, which fails to respect the haunting beauty of Nico’s song writing. Album producer John Cale, who Nico had previously worked with in the Velvet Underground, said: “It was so highly personal, that was why it was so powerful.”
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