Nico janitor of lunacy12/7/2022 ![]() ![]() Chelsea Girl is a very strong album, boasting some of Nico´s most committed performances. She worked with Reed, who like Woody Allen represented the vitality of the Jewish contingent, and on her debut, she covered a Bob Dylan standard, just as the songwriter was embracing the wind of Christian balladry. The American songbook is surfeited with Jewish songwriters, and Nico certainly benefited from the fruits of the Jewish back catalog. Either way, it´s a nice song, and Nico sings it well. #NICO JANITOR OF LUNACY SERIES#Indeed, the song could have reflected the anguish the titular spy felt as he cradled a woman he swore to protect against the tyranny of an organization grander than anything the series had yet experienced: Spectre. This could have served as a very tasty alternative to Nancy Sinatra´s turn on the 1967 James Bond epic You Only Live Twice. Weirdly ominous, the song nonetheless pierces straight into the heart, giving the appearance of a ballad decorated by raw nerve and feeling. One of the many highlights heard on The Velvet Underground & Nico, this sultry ballad showcases Nico´s smokey vocals, bolstered by Lou Reed´s menacing harmony. The tune is a favorite of Morrissey’sand he´s been known to play a snippet of the song during his concerts. It´s a charming cover of Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian balladeer of “If You Could Read My Mind” fame. It’s the sound of Jimmy Page chiming away in the background. If those 12 strings sound Zeppelinesque, you’re not wrong. This piece aims to piece together some of the highlights of her career in the hope of contextualizing some of the more offbeat moments of her career. ![]() Indeed, she was very much her own beast, curating a new form of singing style that was hers and hers alone. She worked with The Velvet Underground, but there was more to the singer (born Christa Päffgen in Germany) than Warholian sound pieces and installations. ![]() To others, she´s a mightier being than many would dare countenance in their lifetime. It has remained one of Nico's best-loved songs.For some, Nico is the Yoko Ono of the underground. At the same time, however, the accusations of gothic gloom which now draped Nico like a long black skirt are readily extinguished by the loveliest of melodies, and though "Janitor of Lunacy" scared the bosses at Capital Radio, it won the hearts of the station's listeners. If an open crypt could sing, this is what it would sound like. It was not the most conventional of relationships, however, and the song follows suit - Nico herself regarded it as akin to a poem on a tombstone, an intention which is certainly captured by the blast with which the song opens, a boiling harmonium giving way to an almost Valkyrian and demandingly protracted opening syllable. The song was written about Brian Jones, with whom Nico enjoyed an affair during the mid-'60s. According to legend, the station's upper echelons were so outraged that Clarke was never invited back. He used the opportunity to air some of his own favorite, but seldom-heard, records, including "Janitor of Lunacy" from Nico's third album, Desertshore. Around 1978, poet John Cooper Clarke was invited to appear as guest DJ on London's Capital Radio's nightly rock show. ![]()
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