You spit on those under twenty-one

The Velvet Underground & Nico - 'European Son' (The Velvet Underground & Nico - 1967)

Here at The Run Out Grooves, we focus on the song and the album it comes from. We try not to get too fixed on live versions or covers, but this time we think it is instructive to look at the artists who’ve covered the closing track from one of the most influential debut records of all time. You can hear the influence of ‘European Son’ in the baseline on ‘Father Cannot Yell’, which opens Can’s Monster Movie, and on Yo La Tengo’s ‘Moby Octopad’. Then you have Thurston Moore, Half Japanese, Gary Lucas and Iggy Pop with Matt Sweeney with covers and Simple Minds and Japan with song titles that reference it.

The Velvet Underground & Nico is considered so influential that in 1982, Brian Eno told Musician magazine.

I was talking to Lou Reed the other day and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years. The sales have picked up in the past few years, but I mean, that record was such an important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.

One of the most notable aspects of ‘European Son‘ is its deep connection to the work of Delmore Schwartz¹. Schwartz was an American poet and author known for his dark and surrealist writing, which often explored themes of alienation and disillusionment. He was a mentor of singer Lou Reed at Syracuse University.

Delmore Schwartz

In the striking chorus, Reed repeatedly sings, “European son, kill the king and queen, and all that's in between." These lyrics reference the revolutionary spirit of Schwartz's writing, which often explored themes of overthrowing oppressive authority figures.

Sterling Morrison said:

Everyone thinks it’s because the song is thematically appropriate: “You killed your European son/you spit on those under 21”. Incidentally that may be true because Delmore was the son of Jewish emigres and a great poet, who was never accepted, but the real reason is that it has only two stanzas of lyrics and a long instrumental break. Delmore thought rock and roll lyrics were the worst things he’d ever heard in his life; he despised songs with words. As this was our big instrumental outing on the album we dedicated it to him.

The song opens with a frantic and chaotic guitar riff, which sets a tense and foreboding tone. This is quickly followed by the vocals of Lou Reed, who delivers the lyrics menacingly and urgently. The song's lyrics are cryptic and enigmatic, but they seem to tell a story of violence and conflict, with Reed singing about "bullets flying" and "bodies dying" in a European city. We start with those two sections sung by Reed for a minute, then John Cale hits a stack of plates with a metal chair, and we spend the next six minutes wigging out with feedback, distortion and a tinny guitar solo.

The song was committed to tape in April 1966², and more than anything on their debut maps out where they would go on their second album, White Light/White Heat. It is the closest thing to the proto-punk and improvisation you can hear on long tracks like ‘Sister Ray’, which stretches out to 17 minutes. With a lengthy instrumental section, it is the only song on the album to be credited to Reed, Cale, Sterling Morrison and Mo Tucker. Overall, ‘European Son’ is a standout track on the band's debut album and a testament to the unique and groundbreaking sound that they could record so many torch songs with the chanteuse Nico on the record but then use a chaotic closing number to build on for their next record.

1. The first pressing of The Velvet Underground & Nico referred to the song as ‘European Son (to Delmore Schwartz)’

2. Schwartz could not repeat or build on his early successes later in life due to alcoholism and mental illness, and his last years were spent in seclusion at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. Schwartz was so isolated from the rest of the world that when he died in his hotel room on July 11, 1966, at age 52, of a heart attack, two days passed before his body was identified at the morgue. Reed wasn’t able to see him in his last few months.