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Sister Ray

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For other uses, see the song.
"Sister Ray"
Song

"Sister Ray" is a song by The Velvet Underground that closes side two of their 1968 avant-garde rock album White Light/White Heat. The song's lyrics were written by Lou Reed, with music composed by John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker and Reed.

"Sister Ray" was a concert favorite of the band, who regularly closed their set with the song. The studio recording of the song was recorded in one single take that lasts over seventeen minutes, while live versions were known to last as much as half an hour or more.

Studio version

Recording

The studio recording of "Sister Ray" was recorded in one take. The band agreed to accept whatever faults occurred during recording, resulting in over seventeen minutes of highly improvisational material.

The song was recorded with Lou Reed providing lead vocals and guitar, Sterling Morrison on guitar and Maureen Tucker on drums while John Cale plays an organ that was routed through a distorted guitar amplifier. Secondary guitarist Sterling Morrison remarked that he was amazed at the volume of Cale's organ during the recording and had switched the guitar pickup on his Fender Stratocaster from the bridge position to the neck position to get "more oomph". Also notable about the song is that it features no bass guitar—John Cale, who usually plays bass, was playing his organ on the take. The band had a sponsorship from Vox amplifiers, resulting in use of top of the line amps and distortion pedals to create a very distorted and noisy sound.

After the opening sequence, which is a modally flavored I-bVII-IV G-F-C chord progression, much of the song is led by Cale and Reed exchanging percussive chords and noise for over ten minutes, similar to avant-jazz. The recording engineer is famously rumored to have walked out while recording the song. Lou Reed recalled: "The engineer said, 'I don't have to listen to this. I'll put it in Record, and then I'm leaving. When you're done, come get me.'"[1]

Subject matter

The song is based on some of Reed's near-perennial concerns—drug use, violence, homosexuality and transvestism.

Reed said of the lyrics: "'Sister Ray' was done as a joke—no, not as a joke—but it has eight characters in it and this guy gets killed and nobody does anything. It was built around this story that I wrote about this scene of total debauchery and decay. I like to think of ‘Sister Ray' as a transvestite smack dealer. The situation is a bunch of drag queens taking some sailors home with them, shooting up on smack and having this orgy when the police appear."[2]

Performance lineup

Sweet Sister Ray

Before live versions of Sister Ray, The Velvet Underground would often play an extended jam session (which sometimes ran from 20-40 minutes) dubbed "Sweet Sister Ray." The song has not had an official release but one version of it, taped in 1968 at La Cave by Jaime Klimek, appears on numerous bootlegs. According to band members (and Mr. Klimek), this was apparently merely one of several permutations of "Sister Ray" performed at the time, the most infamous being the perhaps-taped but never-bootlegged "Sweet Rock and Roll".

Trivia

  • The music was jammed into shape by Morrison, Cale and Tucker at an Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable. engagement in Chicago without Reed, who was in hospital with hepatitis at the time.
  • As with several other Reed songs, someone named "Jim" is mentioned ("whip it on me, Jim"). Astute listeners should note that "Jim" in this context is not a person, but rather hipster argot, with a meaning somewhat similar to the hippie term "man".
  • The title provided the inspiration for the name of the Salem, Oregon band Sister Ray.
  • Likewise, it also provided the name for London Oxford Street-based indie record store, Sister Ray.
  • The Raveonettes' debut EP, Whip It On, was named after a line from the song[citation needed].
  • A powerful cannon called the "Sister Ray" is featured in the popular 1997 PlayStation video game, Final Fantasy VII.
  • A portion of "Sister Ray" plays over the end credits of the 2006 film Brick and is featured on the film's soundtrack.
  • British Punk band the Buzzcocks formed after Peter Shelley put an advert up saying "Wanted: People to form a group to do a version of Sister Ray"
  • Lou Reed called the song 'Sister Ray' in acknowledgment to Ray Davies of the British band, The Kinks. [3]

Cover versions

  • Joy Division and New Order have done covers of the track. A JD cover played live on April 3rd 1980 appears on the 1981 compilation Still, and a NO cover played live at Glastonbury 1987 was released in 1992 on the album BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert.
  • Sister Ray was a "power trio" band that played in Stuttgart, Germany in the late 60's. Founding members were Michael Finlayson (drums & vocals), Hank Snow (bass guitar) & Al Muehlke (guitar & vocals). The band did cover Lou Reed's classic song but specialized in covers of Blue Cheer & original songs with lyrics by Mike Baxley. Michael Finlayson later worked as a roadie for Lou Reed at the Bottom Line, NYC (May 9-11, 1977) and received a check from Sister Ray Enterprises. In 1986 he engineered the dance mix of Reed's The Original Wrapper at Unique Recording, NYC.
  • Jonathan Richman plays a portion of "Sister Ray" on his song "Velvet Underground." Indeed, it could be argued that Richman's "Roadrunner" is, considering its distorted organ solo (provided by producer John Cale) and chordal similarities, largely a reworking of "Sister Ray" in musical terms, although Richman's positive and life-affirming lyrics about the joys of driving around suburban Boston are in marked contrast to Reed's detached saga of "debauchery and decay".
  • Proto-punk synth duo Suicide would often cover "Sister Ray" in fragmentary form during the late '70s. One version was released as "Sister Ray Says" on the compilation Half Alive.
  • British rock band Sisters of Mercy have had the song as part of their live set over the years.
  • Australian goth-rock band Ikon did a cover of "Sister Ray" on one of their albums.
  • Pop punk all star band Short Attention (members of The Ergs!, The Steinways, Dirtbike Annie) do a sub 30 second version on their 7" "Clever Maddening Annoying."
  • Austin punk band The Skunks covered "Sister Ray" on their album "Earthquake Shake"
  • The danish post-punk band, Before made a cover version af the song in the late 80's, called simply "Sister Ray", where the singer Michael “Fritz Fatal” Bonfils screams parts of the song. In fact only the lines "Im searching for my mainline", "I said I couldnt hit it sideways" and "Just like sister ray said", is screamed out, over and over again for 3:41 minutes.

Sample

References

  1. ^ American Masters: Lou Reed: Rock & Roll Heart documentary
  2. ^ "The Stranger interview with Lou Reed".
  3. ^ Tom Robinson Radio Show, BBC 6 Music 22/5/07
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