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In 2016, I started rehearsing this song (to perform it live again) with my partner Uma Robin Mackey. I've been doing 12 Step recovery work since 2014, and as we kept playing this song, it dawned on me that it is a confessional expose on recovery, even if Lou Reed may have not intended that.
When Velvet Underground recorded this song in late 1966, their goal was to tailor a hit single. Instead, they created a dark lullabye, an almost-gospel message about the world versus the spirit. The song was intended to be sung by Nico, but Lou Reed ended up singing it in a Bob Dylan demeanor. John Cale added the celesta on impulse, emphasizing the lullabye-like flavor of the song. The first VU album would gain notoriety for its experimentalist performance sensibilities, as well as the focus on controversial subject matter expressed in many of their songs including drug abuse, prostitution, sadism, and sexual deviancy. Yet it also has themes of hope, affection, eternity, tenderness, and wisdom that comes from a moral compass.
Reed said he never intended to write about such topics for shock value. Reed, a fan of poets and authors such as Raymond Chandler and the beat poets, saw no reason why the content in their works couldn't translate well to rock and roll music. An English major who studied for a B.A. at Syracuse University, Reed said that joining the two (gritty subject matter and music) was "obvious…That's the kind of stuff you might read. Why wouldn't you listen to it? You have the fun of reading that, and you get the fun of rock on top of it."
The song opened one of rock’s most influential albums, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO. Released March 1967, the album was a commercial flop and critics ignored it, but, like Brian Eno said, “Everyone who heard that record started a band.” The record has since become one of the most influential and acclaimed rock albums in history, appearing at number thirteen on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time as well as being added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. It was recorded (for less than $3000) in 1966 during Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event tour.
Cale and Reed wrote “Sunday Morning” in a classic pop-rock template that could’ve suited The Monkees, The Turtles, or any number of pop acts of that era. In 2003 I was asked to participate in a Lou Reed tribute project, and I took the song into a straight-up pop mode--adding vocal harmony and thicker guitars and keyboards as well as Brian Wilson-style percussion--yet retaining the atmosphere of the VU version. I recorded and mixed it in 6 hours (less than 3 takes) with members of The Badlees (Bret Alexander, Ron Simasek, and Paul Smith under guise as The Cellarbirds). If you want to move fast in the studio, they’re the cats.
It was one of my most relaxed recording sessions and the track has gotten a lot of mileage. I’m grateful that, in 2006, Lou Reed himself commended it and featured it on his website.
lyrics
Sunday morning
Brings the dawning
It's just a restless feeling by my side
Early dawning
Sunday morning
It's just a wasted year so close behind
CHORUS: Watch out the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all
Sunday morning
And I am falling
I've got a feeling I don't want to know
Early dawning
Sunday morning
It's on the streets you crossed not so long ago
Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large"San Francisco, California
"Johnny is a virtuoso"--Brian Wilson
"Pop music with a conscience.”--Goldmine
“the Harry Houdini of rock and roll.”--
Spotlight. Listen to Johnny's fast-paced mix of old school soul, psychedelia, punk/new wave, & classic pop/rock. Singer-songwriter in his own right, he was also a sideman for Davy Jones and The Monkees + performed with David Cassidy, Al Stewart, Buddy & Julie Miller, & others....more
Beyondo is beyond good, launching pop and jazz off into a fun and fascinating imaginarium, as if Miles Davis, Todd Rundgren and Brian Wilson went on a wacky space trip. Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large"
The latest from Peel Dream Magazine is a conceptual exploration of isolation told via narcotic psych pop inclined towards the whimsical. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 20, 2022
Dreamy, intricate guitar pop from Oakland's Absent City; splashes of accordion, sitar, lap steel, and mandolin add textural richness. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 26, 2020
Hopscotching from jangle pop and post-hardcore to math rock and shoegaze, these Minnesota rockers have a gift for musical multitasking. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 29, 2024
West Virginia trio showcase strident country rock anchored in bold, anthemic songcraft and deliciously twangy tones. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 18, 2024
If you’re mad for young guitar bands like Momma and Feeble Little Horse, L.A. four-piece Rocket are sure to hit your alt rock sweet spot. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 5, 2023