nico - live 1979 and more

I've been playing a lot of Nico's music recently. Can't explain why, really.

I listened to the marvellously icy wastelands of The Marble Index and Desertshore the other week - it's not really music in the commonly accepted sense. And the songs are only songs in a fairly loose sense. I don't know what it is really. But I genuinely do actually like it. So many of the lyrics are just that little bit skewed. As English wasn't her first language you get disconcertingly odd phrases, like in "Lawns Of Dawns": 'having thrown a joke on you and me' - throwing a joke? For that matter, I wonder what Lawns Of Dawns actually are?

The other day I dug out a couple of excellent gigs from CBGB's in 1979.

These represented Nico's first shows in the USA for about 8 years, and her first anywhere since about 1975. The period between 1974's The End… and this reappearance wasn't a good one for Nico. Lost in a deepening narcotic fog there's precious little information about her life for about five years of the 1970s. No gigs, no records, nothing. She even sold her harmonium in order to fuel her habit. She was living in Paris in 1978 and met Patti Smith at a concert. Patti was stunned to discover that Nico had no money, no home, nothing at all. Upon her return to New York Patti spoke to John Cale who was similarly shocked that Nico's life had sunk so low, and both agreed that the CBGB's crowd would be a good audience for Nico. So she was brought to New York and in early 1979 Nico played a series of shows at the famously scuzzy club. And, as Cale and Patti had predicted, went down a storm. 

I have two, very well recorded, audience recordings, two sets from one night in February, and Cale and guitarist Lutz Ulbrich accompany Nico on a number of songs. At later New York gigs the Dead Boys' Cheetah Chrome would sometimes play guitar, and at a couple of shows Roland Young, the saxophonist from the Sun Ra Arkestra, apparently accompanied Nico. Goodness knows what that sounded like!

Anyway, back to February - Cale adds viola to songs like "No-One Is There" and Lutz and Cale try to Velvet up "Femme Fatale" a bit. But mostly it was simply Nico and a harmonium, a new one bought for her by Patti Smith. Interestingly at least half the set is previously unrecorded songs, tracks that would later be recorded in radically different form on Drama Of Exile. Songs like "Genghis Khan" and "Henry Hudson" are simple harmonium pieces here, and never sounded sadder. "Purple Lips" had actually been debuted on French tv far back in 1975, but was still new to the Bowery audience. Nico sounds pleasantly surprised by the response of the crowd, and she delivers a cracking performance. During the second show she gets stuck during "Frozen Warnings" and plays the same part over and over whilst clearly rummaging around in her mind for the next verse, then some kind soul shouts it out for her, and she thanks him and continues with the song. But it's the only blip in an otherwise excellent gig. 

After she'd recorded Drama Of Exile in the UK in 1981 Nico went out on the road in earnest. Between 1981 and 1984 she was often supported by various combinations of Manchester musicians. Then, after the recording of Camera Obscura in 1985 the band was pared down to percussion and keyboards, as heard on Live In Tokyo, Behind the Iron Curtain and loads of other semi legit albums.

I recently got hold of a Nico gig from Basel in December 1986. Here the band is Eric Random's Bedlamites. I was surprised when I first heard this recording as I'd been under the impression that the Bedlamites were a percussion ensemble, frequently playing found instruments, banging bin lids and iron bars etc. Almost like a Mancunian pound shop version of Einstürzende Neubauten (and yes I did have to look up how to spell that!). This could have made for a fascinating experience. Well, maybe the Bedlamites did do that sometimes, but when backing Nico they're far more like a slick lounge band. Which is very, very odd. So tracks like "Purple Lips" are graced with a smoochy saxophone and a polite shuffle, more suited to a Sinatra type late night bar. "I'll Be Your Mirror" starts with a gently swinging beat and bouncy bass, then utterly falls apart when Nico starts singing and is totally at odds with the band. Different speed, timing, phrasing, everything! They do rally and try their best to match the rhythm section to Nico's own peculiar idea of rhythm but it never quite recovers to be honest. Which is a shame as "Mirror" was very rarely played live by Nico. 

Another rarity from this show is the "Eulogy To Lenny Bruce" ('I've lost a friend, and I don't know why…') which, as far as I can tell, was only ever played live during this short European run of shows in late 1986. This is far better than "I'll Be Your Mirror" as Nico sings her sad song accompanied only by some appropriately sparse guitar notes. Unsurprisingly the best part of the show is the middle section when the band leave the stage entirely and Nico mournfully plays "Frozen Warnings" and "The Falconer" all alone.  

No matter how they tried to dress up Nico's stage shows, with whatever musicians and instruments, she was always at her most compelling and commanding when sat at the harmonium, alone in the candlelight.