Nico, Songs They Never Play on the Radio [Paperback]

 

 

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A great and fascinating book. Indeed, it's a classic of its type.

Mr Young is a born observer, the right man at the right place at the right time. John Cale, among other guys, emerges from this book with his reputation in tatters.

One of the two or three best books about a musician - or, better say, a "group" of musicians - as I have ever come upon.

The dark, painful side of music. Drugs and death and despair. Funny and insinuatingly convincing, unforgettable in its well-found images and its insights into human nature.

Nico herself comes out of the book well.

(Thanks to irridium for the recommendation.)

This book is nothing if not iconoclastic. James Young was keyboardist for German-born singer Nico during her performances and recordings throughout the 1980s until her premature death on the island of Ibiza on July 18, 1988. Having already been so many people - European catwalk model, French actress (e.g. starring in Fellini's La Dolche Vita), Warhol superstar and a sexy chanteuse with The Velvet Underground - Nico was now Queen of the Junkies, living off scattered solo shows and intermittently releasing albums. After a lull, she decided to launch a comeback in 1982 whilst living in Manchester; a local music entrepreneur, Dr. Demetrius, became her manager and, inevitably, also a go-between for drugs: "Nico needs to work in order to buy heroin, and heroin in order to work," he said. With a motley crew of amateur musicians including Young (who had only played at a few bar mitzvahs previously), Nico embarked on chaotic, largely unsuccessful tours of the US, Italy, Eastern Europe, Australia and Japan. All the while, Young argues, Nico's heart belonged to heroin: "Nothing outside really impinged on her terrifying single-mindedness, her obsessive neurological and emotional need for heroin". What follows are a string of stories from these tours in which Young characterises Nico as consistently lazy, having anorexic tendencies (living off custard and yoghurt, she finds solid food repulsive), a "monster" who makes selfish demands and is prone to tantrums and impatience: "What might have been the forgivable narcissism of a fashionable beauty had now become a tiresome and undignified egotism".

Enveloped by a permanent vapour of opiated hash and burnt heroin, Nico had retreated so far into drug abuse that human relationships were no longer possible. Part of her seemed to relish having sunk so low. There are moments in this book, however, when her emotional vulnerability becomes pathetically clear. Hoping that Bob Dylan would drop by after one of her live shows, she baths - for the first time in months! - and buys a new shirt for the occasion, but he doesn't appear. Young finds her sobbing in the decrepit dressing room, complaining that "no one comes to see me anymore". On another occasion, after an audience has given her an especially negative reception, she silently weeps at her derelict career: "I guess I'm through". Young, sober and pragmatic, concludes with hindsight: "Nico's songs of mortality and decay were not compatible with the dominant rhythm of the eighties".

On the way, there are weird and funny encounters with John Cale, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso. Young's descriptions of ex-Velvet Cale are particularly amusing, recording his transformation in less than two years from a bloated control freak brimming with paranoid conspiracy theories and tales of Artificial Intelligence to some kind of well-toned, clean-living, anti-smoking Zen Buddist. Some of the stories are less appealing: Young recalls Nico's only son, Ari, trying to sell his dead mother's methadone at her funeral and pocketing the proceeds of a memorial concert held in her name. There is also the suggestion that Nico was raped as a fifteen year-old by an American soldier who was court-martialled and shot for the offence.

James Young is a generous and self-effacing writer, unfettered by bitterness or score-settling; for him, being with Nico on tour was an escape from the dusty, book-strewn world of academia rather than an avowed attempt to jump-start his own career. He is not too proud to appear naive (when Nico covertly asks him for something sharp - i.e. a hypodermic needle - he hands her his Swiss army knife!) nor to admit to prostitutes and porno mags on the tour. Probably not to everyone's taste are his relentless descriptions of bad bodily odours and flesh bloating, flaking, sweating and riven with abscesses and heroin tracks. Nor his penchant for rendering accent textually for the whole book as a way of lightly mocking all concerned, especially Nico ("I was in the Sa-haaara, making a film...that's lo-onely") and Le Kid ("My muzzerre should play ze Carnegie 'All").

Nico's last concert was not, alas, to be in the Carnegie Hall, but in Berlin at the Planetarium a month before she died (Berlin was, in fact, the city in which she would be buried). "Nico wailed out of tune", but the German audience was reasonably positive. The last song Nico played live was one requested by Young and was his favourite of all her songs -

You do not seem to be listening
You do not seem to be listening
The high tide is taking everything
And you forget to answer.
(Nico, 'You Forgot to Answer')

This biography, variously titled Nico: The End, Nico: The Last Bohemian or Nico: Songs They Never Play on the Radio, is a masterpiece of style and content, one of the very best rock biographies in existence. It explores the life of Nico after the Velvet Underground, covering her life in London and tours of Europe, the USA and Japan in the 1980s.

I found myself devouring the text in utter fascination. It includes descriptions of bizarre performances, wild parties, weird tour experiences, eccentric characters like her one-time manager Dr Demetrius, encounters with luminaries like John Cale, a visit to the motel where Tom Waits used to stay and much much more.

The Preface covers Nico's family background, her career as model, the first move to New York, her role in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, involvement with The Rolling Stones and later Andy Warhol and the Factory crowd. Post Velvet Underground she went solo and made some great albums with the help of John Cale, eventually settling in Manchester in the UK.

The author met her in 1981 and thus this biography deals with the last seven years of her life. The first tour was that of Italy, the next of the USA that included shows in Detroit, Denver, and Chicago. In LA the band stayed at The Tropicana where Tom Waits made his residence at the time. One of the funniest parts is the narrative of Nico's first experience with angel dust in Los Angeles. The tour concluded in New York.

Then came the performances with Gregory Corso in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. A highlight of the narrative is Nico's show at the Free University in Berlin, where she made the mistake of singing Deutschland über Alles, causing a riot. Fortunately, her harmonium shielded her against the hailstorm of beer bottles.

Back in Manchester, there was an interesting encounter with the punk poet John Cooper Clarke and John Cale in a bad patch of his life. At a studio in Shoreditch he produced her album Camera Obscura which was launched with a powerful performance at Chelsea Town Hall. Allen Ginsberg appears in the chapter Suspicious Minds whilst other beats like Carolyn Cassady also make an appearance.

Eric Random joined the band just before the European tour that encompassed Germany, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland (where Nico managed to score opium behing the then Iron Curtain) and Spain. Australia and New Zealand came next and then Japan. The book concludes with an account of her death and funeral in 1988.

Underneath the humor there is a lot of sadness too but it is a strangely inspiring read. Songs They Never Play On The Radio is a gem on many levels and transcends the genre of rock writing. Only Marianne Faithfull's Memories, Dreams and Reflections comes close. You don't have to be a fan of Velvet Underground to enjoy this classic work, as it offers much humor, wit and arresting portraits of a colorful array of personalities.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun!
What a great little book!

I bought this mainly because of the numerous John Cooper Clarke references in it. I had never heard any of Nico's music before. Read more

Published on 28 Oct 2009 by Pagan Ronnie

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty, fascinating, honest
This is the dark side of rock n' roll. Read this if you want to know what it's like to be famous, but not popular. Read more

Published on 4 May 2009 by Lou Ice

5.0 out of 5 stars nico
Allow me, if you would, a comment or several on the words of a previous reviewer.

"I brought this book in hope that it would capture the bohemian spirit but it... Read more

Published on 25 Mar 2009 by Dr. Elzabeth Thomas

5.0 out of 5 stars Oddly uplifting masterpiece
This book is a masterpiece of rock writing in both style and content. It's one of the very best rock biographies in existence, dealing with the post Velvet Underground life of... Read more

Published on 31 July 2008 by Pieter

1.0 out of 5 stars SO BAD, I ACTUALLY BURNT IT!
I brought this book in hope that it would capture the bohemian spirit but it simply did not do this and I can't see what all the rave reviews are about. Read more

Published on 19 Sep 2007 by Nathan Strange

5.0 out of 5 stars Funniest book I've ever read
Young happens to be the only "normal" person in the motley crew which he describes. A hilariously funny book, compounded with the unfortunate end that Nico reached - having... Read more

Published on 26 Jan 2006 by LFF12

5.0 out of 5 stars Life on the road.....
With a junkie.....

I loved this book. It was witty, poingant and at times terribly depressing.Nico was such a miss understood woman with some major issues, which I guess anyone... Read more

Published on 27 Jun 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing
Yep it really is as good as they say it is and you need not like the acquired taste that is the music of Nico either. Read more

Published on 17 Nov 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I have EVER read
A special book.
I am no particular fan of Nico, but what a cracking read this is.
Dr Demetrius is a real life Arthur Daley and his life should be serialised on... Read more

Published on 14 Oct 2002 by Lord Didsbury

5.0 out of 5 stars darkly funny and poignant
Probably like many people who read this book, I came across it through an interest in the Velvet Underground. Read more

Published on 27 May 2002

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