Eva is off visiting the Enkelkinder and its very quiet on the farm tonight. It is times like this that I listen to music and read, I rummaged through my private stock of CD's as if they were fine wine and stumbled upon two of my forgotten favorites by The Velvet Underground. For a band that only made three albums, they left some legacy on modern music. In the 60's and early 70's, most of us were too busy having fun, growing up, protesting and such to realize how really good the music was then. Now as we gray and are much older we and our children appreciate it much more.

The two I like best are Sunday Morning and Pale Blue Eyes. I dare you to listen to Pale Blue Eyes and then not hum it for some time after.

Sunday Morning

Pale Blue Eyes

Richie Unterberger shares his thoughts on The Velvet Underground.

"Few rock groups can claim to have broken so much new territory, and maintain such consistent brilliance on record, as the Velvet Underground during their brief lifespan. It was the group's lot to be ahead of, or at least out of step with, their time. The mid- to late '60s was an era of explosive growth and experimentation in rock, but the Velvets' innovations — which blended the energy of rock with the sonic adventurism of the avant-garde, and introduced a new degree of social realism and sexual kinkiness into rock lyrics — were too abrasive for the mainstream to handle. During their time, the group experienced little commercial success; though they were hugely appreciated by a cult audience and some critics, the larger public treated them with indifference or, occasionally, scorn. The Velvets' music was too important to languish in obscurity, though; their cult only grew larger and larger in the years following their demise, and continued to mushroom through the years. By the 1980s, they were acknowledged not just as one of the most important rock bands of the '60s, but one of the best of all time, and one whose immense significance cannot be measured by their relatively modest sales. Their colorful and oft-grim soundscapes were firmly grounded in strong, well-constructed songs that could be as humanistic and compassionate as they were outrageous and confrontational. The member most responsible for these qualities was guitarist, singer, and songwriter Lou Reed, whose sing-speak vocals and gripping narratives have come to define street-savvy rock & roll. Reed loved rock & roll from an early age, and even recorded a doo-wop type single as a Long Island teenager in the late '50s (as a member of the Shades). By the early '60s, he was also getting into avant-garde jazz and serious poetry, coming under the influence of author Delmore Schwartz while studying at Syracuse University."

Even Andy Warhol got into the act and designed their first album cover which in itself became a classic.