(Members: Guitar/vocal/songwriter: Lou[is Alan] Reed, b. N.Y., March 2, 1942; Viola/bass/keyboards: John Cale, b. Garnant, South Wales, Dec. 3, 1940; Guitar: Sterling Morrison, b. Aug. 29, 1942, East Meadow, Long Island; d. Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Aug. 30, 1995; Drums: Maureen "Mo" Tucker, b. N.J., 1945; Nico [born Christa Päffgen], b. Cologne, Oct. 16, 1939; d. Ibiza, Spain, July 18, 1988.)

The Velvet Underground had a brief and relatively unnoticed existence from 1965 to 1970, but later had a profound influence on emerging ROCK styles (punk, new wave, grunge).

After graduating from Syracuse University, Lou Reed worked on the edges of the pop music industry. He worked as a professional songwriter in N.Y., while also performing with groups like the Primitives and the Warlocks (not the same group from which the GRATEFUL DEAD developed). In 1966 he recruited John Cale, and together they formed the Velvet Underground. Cale came from a background of playing avant-garde modern music with LA MONTE YOUNG. SO, from the start, the Velvet Underground was a different type of rock group, combining ATONAL and DISSONANT musical accompaniment with lyrical topics not often found in pop songs (drug addiction, sado-masochistic sexual encounters, etc.).

The group was initially produced by Andy Warhol as part of his N.Y. multimedia organization The Factory, and toured under the auspices of his Exploding Plastic Inevitable. However, the aesthetic of the Velvets was closer to the earthy films of Paul Morrissey than to Warhol's deadpan irony, and it did not take long before the group separated from Warhol. The group produced four studio albums before its demise.

Another noteworthy performer with the Velvets was Nico (born Christa Päffgen), a German-Hungarian model and singer. Warhol convinced the group to take her on, and she contributed vocals on their first album and tour. She later recorded several solo albums, some produced by Cale. Other members of the Velvets were Agnus MacLise, a percussionist who joined and left early in the group's history; Maureen "Mo" Tucker, who replaced MacLise and remained with the group until 1969 (she has produced a few solo albums over the years); Sterling Morrison, guitarist, the only member to stay with the group during its entire history, but also the only one to quit music entirely (for an academic career); and the Yule Brothers—Doug, a bassist and guitarist who replaced Cale in 1968, and Billy, who replaced Tucker in 1969.

Two of its members had important careers after leaving the Velvets. After leaving the group, Cale's experimentation continued with his first solo album, Vintage Violence (1969). He subsequently collaborated with TERRY RILEY on The Church of Anthrax (1971) and The Alchemy in Peril (1972) and with Brian Eno in 1974. Other albums include Paris 1919 (1973), Fear (1974), Helen of Troy (1975), Honi Soit (1981), and Caribbean Sunset (1984). As a producer, he worked with several early punk groups.

Reed left the group in 1970 and began exploring different sides of his musical personality. There was the accessible hard rock and balladry of Transformer (1972; including his biggest hit Walk on the Wild Side, a satire on life at The Factory), Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974), Coney Island Baby (1976), Blue Mask (1981), New Sensations (1984), and Magic and Loss (1992). Reed composed two brilliant concept albums, the harrowing Berlin in 1973 and the streetwise New York in 1989, and an unadulterated, utterly anarchistic display of uninhibited white noise, Metal Machine Music, from 1975.

Reed and Cale reunited 20 years after Cale left to compose and perform the suite Songs for Drella, in memory of Warhol in 1989. They in turn joined with Morrison and Tucker for a European reunion tour in 1993.