The Velvet Underground Popularity Myth Pt.8 – September and October 1966

Part 8: September and October (part one) 1966

September 1966

11th September 1966

The Boston Globe announces that Verve have released a single by The Velvet Underground. This likely suggests that the single came out in September rather than the July, as has been suggested. It certainly looks like the paper received a pile of Verve singles for review that week. While this did not make a full review it was noted and is perhaps the first official mention of the single in the press.

18th September 1966

The Boston Globe has a prescient (though generally negative) article on Warhol; interestingly the piece mentions that his ‘Velvet Underground works are being emulated’ and more prescient, ‘will be viewed 50 years from now the way we view a Renoir landscape’.

October 1966

2nd October 1966

The Sydney Morning Herald brought the Velvet Underground their first article. As with the earliest US articles it was framed as being part of US high society.

4th October 1966

The Boston Globe – Wild, Wild Warhol… “The hottest living personality in the art world”, a testament to how huge Warhol was in the media during 1966 and how much of a helping hand he gave the group. “The Velvet Underground – a cultural mafia for ‘total creativity’”

5th October 1966

The Montana Standard. The first Velvet Underground record review – All Tomorrow’s Parties. “The record features the death-ish, dismal distinctive voice of beautiful former fashion model, Nico.”