On this day in music history: January 30, 1968 - “White Light/White Heat”, the second album by The Velvet Underground is released. Produced by Tom Wilson, it is recorded at Scepter Studios in New York City in September 1967. Following the disappointing response and meager sales of their debut album, the members of The Velvet Underground decide to fire pop artist Andy Warhol as their manager and co-producer, also removing singer Nico from the band. After spending much of 1967 touring, The Velvets return to the studio in the Fall with producer Tom Wilson to record their follow up release. Consisting of only six songs written by Lou Reed (with co-writing contributions from the other members on three tracks), the tone of “White Light” is darker and more aggressive than its predecessor, a direct reflection of the band’s lives at the time. Recorded in only two days, the material on the album covers then highly taboo subject matter including drug use (the title track), graphic sexuality (“Here She Comes Now”) and transgenderism (“Lady Godiva’s Operation”, “Sister Ray”), backed by a wall of screeching feedback and a thudding back beat. The darkness of the album also extends to its cover artwork featuring a stark black background with artist name and title printed in white, with a faint impression of an arm with a skull tattoo in the lower left hand corner. The tattoo belongs to Warhol Factory actor Joe Spencer, who appeared in the film “Bike Boy”. When it is reissued in 80’s, the original cover art is altered, increasing the size of the text on the front cover and doing away with the tattoo. In the mid 70’s, an alternate cover featuring toy soldiers against a white background is issued in the UK, remaining in print until the early 80’s. Once released, “White Light” performs even more poorly than the first VU album, barely scraping the bottom of the Billboard chart before falling off after only two weeks on. In spite of this, its reputation grows over time, becoming as influential as their landmark debut, inspiring generations of rock musicians and helping lay the musical template for punk rock, post punk and grunge. A number of bands including Nirvana, Joy Division, The Sisters Of Mercy, Cabaret Voltaire, Galaxie 500, and The Hoodoo Gurus record covers of the songs. For its 45th anniversary in 2013, it is remastered and reissued as a three CD deluxe edition. The first disc features the stereo version of the original six track album, with seven additional bonus tracks including alternate mixes, instrumentals and other previously unreleased songs from the sessions. The second disc features the mono mix of the album. The third disc features a live performance recorded in New York City on April 30, 1967.The deluxe edition (minus the live material) is also issued as a 180 gram double vinyl LP. “White Light/White Heat” peaks at number one hundred ninety nine on the Billboard Top 200.
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