“The Velvet Underground & Nico” 1966/67. Verve Records. Original pressing (V6-5008) gatefold with the Andy Warhol “peel slowly and see” banana. Today, March 2nd, is Lou Reed’s birthday (b. 1942 d. 2013). This album is so massive, so influential: it’s #13 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and Brian Eno said of its original (and low-selling but we have a copy!!! not bought by us in 1967 though) release that “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” I wonder if “Jan,” whose name is scrawled on the record label and I assume was the original owner of this copy, started a band back in the 60′s.

It’s been reviewed only about a million times, so just highlighting my favorite tracks here: “I’m Waiting For the Man”, “Run, Run, Run” (which I like to sing in my head when I run – OK, plod – along sometimes), “Venus in Furs,” “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and “Heroin.”  Those last three always make me feel like I should be draped over a settee in an opulent den of disrepute, shrouded in a haze of candles and incense.