Customer Reviews

Desertshore

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A local newspaper recently ran a poll (and published a follow-up article) on the albums that readers found had "changed their lives." It didn't even occur to me to submit an entry. I have many albums that changed my life in some sense, just as there have been a number of books and movies that I could also describe in such terms. But for the most part, I find that if they really did change me, it probably has to do more with the cumulative effect of exposing myself to a variety of musical (or literary, or cinematic) works over the course of my life.

In other words, to put it bluntly, my first reaction was that the entire poll was pretty stupid. But then, well after the results had been tallied and the article had appeared, it occurred to me that there really was at least ONE album that had a direct bearing on my life choices, and in effect, literally changed the course of my life.

I was a Freshman in college and already a serious Nico fan when DESERTSHORE was released. I had been kind of shopping around for a major--although it appeared that I would probably end up yielding to pretty much the prediction that everyone I knew seemed to hold regarding my academic career. They all had me pegged as a typical English lit major. Out of sheer contrariness, I felt I had to find something else to specialize in.

Then I heard Nico singing in German--two tracks from DESERTSHORE that apparently came from the soundtrack of a French avant-garde film (by Philippe Garrel) called LA CICATRICE INTERIEURE (the inner scar). Of course, I had heard pop songs and folk songs sung in German before, and there was always something I liked about the sound and the feel of the language, but hearing Nico sing "Abschied" and "Muetterlein" for the first time was just one of those moments. I decided then and there that I MUST learn the German language. Even though, I had already completed my language requirements with French, I signed up for a German course as soon as I possibly could, was completely taken by its sound and structure, went to Germany to study and ultimately got a Masters degree in German language and literature.

Seemed like a pretty good deal at the time...I mean, I got to read books...and learned another language in the process. What could be better? (The fact that I feel like I've been spending the greater part of my adult life trying to play catch-up on English language literature nothwithstanding).

I can't really explain the pull that the entire album (and those two songs in particular) had over me. Nico's English language compositions and vocals had always held a certain allure. They were still fundamentally "foreign" even when sung in my mother tongue. Those mournful vocals with their stretched out vowels, the jagged and sometimes bizarre imagery. No native English speaker would sing like that--or WRITE like that. Cynics--and there were many--might point out that some of the images were almost comically off (e.g. "janitor of lunacy") and there were a number out-and-out mispronuniciations rather than intentional distortions "fal-con-eer" for "falconer." Such things were part of the package--you either bought 'em or you didn't. The self-appointed "dean" of rock critics (you know the guy) once wrote that while he had first thought Nico had charisma, her own compositions convinced him that she was "a fool."

I could go on and on about, say, the cultural difference between a German "Hausmeister" and the faintly comic American figure of the "janitor." But that would be pointless. You either love "Janitor of Lunacy" for what it is and is not, or it means nothing to you. You either allow for the "falconeer" pronunciation and then immerse yourself in the song--or you find it ridiculous and pass it by.

The inclusion of the sweet French children's song "Le Petit Chevalier" sung by her son, Ari, and the two German language tracks should have at least humbled the wiseacre American naysayers a little bit. John Cale has long argued that Nico (and to a large degree, Cale himself) came from a completely different tradition, a European high art tradition, that was in many ways the antithesis of American rock 'n'roll. Hooking up with Lou Reed, changed all that for both Cale and--to a lesser extent--Nico, but once they embarked on establishing Nico's trademark sound for her post-Reed solo albums, they instinctively went back to their avant-garde/medieval European roots. Lou who? Andy who?

And it worked brilliantly on its own terms. THE MARBLE INDEX and DESERTSHORE remain utterly unique in the history of, uh, rock'n'roll. It took a Germanic warrior princess to put the Goth in Gothic. Which is what made INDEX so monumental. It was imperious. Someone below pointed out that DESERTSHORE is a bit warmer than its predecessor, and there's some truth in that. Both albums contain songs dedicated to her son, but DESERTSHORE actually follows "My Only Child" with the chanson actually sung by the young Christian Aaron Paeffgen Delon. But then the mood shifts dramatically from French airiness to Teutonic austerity with "Abschied." Of course, once you know that "Muetterlein" is translated as "Dear Little Mother," you get a hint of the Schmaltz behind the Weltschmerz. But that's part of Nico's appeal. Just when you're sure that she was a ghostly apparition, it turns out that she was someone's mother--and someone's daughter. And an eternal enigma.

Capable of changing someone's life--a little anyway.

Among the travesties of popular culture that sicken me most, is the effortless, almost immediate dismissal of Nico's musical brilliance. Her voice, her lyrics...anything to do with her so as to fail to admit to one's self, the true curiosity she evokes.
This album blows away any cares I could have about that, or so many other things, as her resonating emotions carry me away with her every phrasing. The sounds evoke the highest of superlatives with inexpressible passion kindled in my brain. Each song is a powerful testament to the ominous wonder that ebbs and flows throughout this life we live in, with heavenly melodies that leave me aghast, and attain ageless prescience within my inquiring soul.
Think what you like of my glowing compliments, but the mideval, and worldly-lyrics-by-way-of-the-otherworldly-sounds, will never cease to amaze me. Nor will any other voice chill me to a glorious rapture as does hers.

This album is perfect.

That lyric's from my favorite song on this album. That one line from "Afraid" basically sums up most of Nico's life - she was stunningly beautiful, yet she hated her good looks(and later ruined them with heroin and hard living) and could never find one person she could really call her soulmate(well, there was Jim Morrison, but he had died in 71). She was beautiful and she was alone.

But anyway, this is one of her best albums. I personally think this is better than the album that was considered her masterpiece, "The Marble Index"(which is great, but tends to drag a little). Besides the song I just mentioned, there's also the haunting "My Only Child"(not much instrumentation - Nico's booming Wagnerian voice and the backing vocals, which almost sound like a choir, are the things that were put in the forefront of the song), the opening track "Janitor Of Lunacy", "The Falconer", and "All That Is My Own". I would suggest to anyone who wants to start acquiring Nico's albums to definitely pick this one up.

One more note - Another reviewer said that "some French kid" is singing on "La Petit Chevalier". This is actually Nico's son Ari, who was raised by Alain Delon's(Ari's father) parents in France. Just wanted to clear that up.

Nico is, as far as im concerned, the most underrated and underappriciated artist of all time. Her music was decades ahead of its time, and to this day there is STILL nothing like what she has done out there. She was writing songs in a style that was and is unparalleled, she used beautifully dark imagery to tell her stories rather than just come out and say them. She began as a top model in Paris during the 50s, took acting classes (with Marylin Monroe btw) and earned a part in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita", which led to Andy Warhol's discovery of her. Andy introduced Nico to a new group he was working with called The Velvet Underground and, as they say, the rest is history. She then left the group to record a solo album, "Chelsea Girl", with compositions from Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and Jackson Browne. She then went on to create her first masterpiece, "The Marble Index" which was solely composed by Nico herself (She credits Jim Morrison as the one who told her to write songs) and largely arranged by her ex-velvets member John Cale. "The Marble Index" may have been her first masterpiece but it was not her career's crowning achievement... her third solo album "Desertshore" takes that title. This album is again solely composed by Nico and produced by John Cale. It is by far one of the most compelling pieces of music I have ever experienced. These songs sound like the music you would hear if you were to take a knife and slowly make a tiny cut in the earth's flesh and peer into the depths of hell. Every single song on this album is incredibly hauntingly beautiful and dark, from the chilling harpsichord accompanying the voice of Nico's son Ari (whom she would later get addicted to heroine) in "Le Petit Chevalier" to the sheer majesty that is "Janitor of Lunicy". Nico was a tragic and mysterious figure in the world of rock and that classic line from "Afriad" pretty much sums up her entire life and legacy: "You are beautiful... and you are alone." This album is a MUST for anyone who likes gothic, dark, or poetic music. Oh and btw I first heard this album sitting alone at night in a dark dark room listening to every word, sound, and shriek of her harmonium, and I recommend that be how you first experience it. BUY THIS ALBUM NOW!!!!

Nico's music is often gloriously terrifying--especially some of her live recordings. Desertshore demonstrates the "many moods of Nico" and is expertly produced by John Cale. Cale is a man who understands how to make evocative music. From the harrowing beauty of "Abschied" to the delicate and mournful "Afraid", this is an album of great feeling. The mood of this record is quite melancholy. It is very much music to listen to alone in the dark. However, this is still a Nico album. There are moments that are legitimately creepy and fully capable of bleeding into your dreams. Just be aware, that is all.

Desertshore is liturgical and very sombre in places. I keep thinking of cloisters of excommunicate nuns and priests indulging in their lusts while Nico plays her tunes to get them in the mood. There is a warmth to even her most abstract compositions that feels like a cold hand on the shoulder from someone you adore.

I quite enjoy John Cale's playing on this album--especially on "Abschied". The interplay between his viola and Nico's harmonium is exquisite. Indeed, the instrumentation on this album gives it the feel of a collection of chamber pieces. I've always thought that Nico's music would provide an excellent accompaniment to silent horror films. Or, perhaps, a high Gothic opera...

A convoluted mess of darkness and sequence, arbitrary singing of the Devil's upbringing, in-and-out frequence of vynil from the thirteenth-century. Nico is the real angel of death moaning out of some archaic beach and time.

When I speak of lost gems, I find the two great examples every time: Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and Nico's Desertshore. They are both the yin and the yang to each other; absolute, beautiful light, and the real danger of evil caught on tape, from someone who knew what evil was in heroin.
Both are masterworks of the entire 60's idiom, relating a strength in music that is the work and inspiration, or should be, for writing songs today. Sinnead O' Connor once said that Van Morrison should be "Friggin' Canonized", well the same goes for the queen to his kingship. Although they are in opposite moods of each other, both evolute into an effortless beauty, one that transcends the tired tradition of singing, into something that man cannot grasp, like some holy scepter or a church-goer with real faith and tears. Even if you're an aetheist to the "church" of either of these albums, you must at least notice their pure conviction, and respect that. You may be extremely religious, or extremely scientific, but if you do not respect man at his greatest, or at least try to understand him, you're not worth your salt. Give this album a chance and you will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams.
Nico obviously retains an airiness of timelessness about her. Whether that is because she uses a voice so natural, organic, and deeply german, or because of the music sounding like something of BACH or Beethoven, I don't know. However, I can feel deep down in my soul a place of peace where I could be sitting on a stone in dreary scotland, or sunny Gothic Germany, or old Rome, and still enjoy what some would call modernist-wreck. Just think if people could access Nico like the who?
This album may never find the viewer it deserves because of its thick beauty. It's so good that some who may listen to stuff like 50 cent, or Conor Oberst, would get chills from something real. It's like if you don't eat Burger King, or McDonalds for awhile, and then you eat it again, you notice just how bad those burgers were. Try, for Godsakes, just once, not listening to something easy. Try to have some patience is this nightmare world of instant connection. If you can listen to Radiohead without vomiting, then you ought to be able to listen this.
For the reason of knowing Genius, disregard magazines like spin, or blender, or even Rolling Stone. They made an entire list of the best hundred, or even 500, and this album did not appear on either of any. This album deserves to be right alongside any of the top 20 every time, yet people ignore it. Screw magazines.
I refuse to describe the songs, because each does not deserve to be brought down by such frugal description. All I will say, is that they should remaster this and find outtakes, just like they should Astral Weeks.

"Meet me at the Desertshore" This disc is centuries ahead & behind its time. Easily the enigmatic artist's most personal recording ever. Unlike her other works, "Desertshore" was entirely, painstakingly, (and very consciously) composed by Nico, while held up on the island of Positano. To me it remains her most pure statement on record. While it is the Pitchest-Black, it simultaneously holds her most exquisite melodies ever recorded. Like a 600 year old ghost singing in a near-dead, exhausted, howl relaying foggy details of humanity's ancient, ghastly history. The more recent observations are delivered in windy, uplifting tonalities that sound as if they were secretly recorded in a medieval prison. Growing up and frozen by her childhood amongst the ruins of Berlin in the '40's, informed her visions against all outside musical influences. Nico's albums sound like absolutely nothing released in the last 25 years. For the critics, I rebut that few, if any artists of the time were even remotely as Original and Authentic as NICO. "Desertshore", (as well as the very rare, "Behind The Iron Curtain"), remain 2 of the most intense and heartbrakingly beautiful records ever recorded.

When it comes to Nico, those words describe both the woman and her music. She's a unique individual in rock history. From European supermodel to avant-film actress and participation in the Velvet Underground (first album only) - Nico stood out from the crowd.

After leaving the Velvets, her album "Chelsea Girl" (1967) showcased her laconic German accent in the service of more-or-less conventional songs written by others. That all changed two years later with the release of "The Marble Index" (1969). She wrote all the words and music herself, with arrangements by fellow VU'er John Cale. Cale plugged in his electric viola while Nico pumped her harmonium, and they unleashed an avant-cacophony that hadn't been heard since the Cale-dominated second VU record "White Light/White Heat".

Not on all of it, however. He knew when to give her space, and there's plenty of beautiful airy passages where they both exhibit restraint. It must be said though that at times it sounds pretty "busy". His point/counterpoint arrangements can occasionally make a composition seem like two different songs struggling to co-exist.

On "Desertshore" (1970) Cale stepped back and allowed greater simplicity. There's still some welcome weirdness, but generally the whole affair is lower-key. "My Only Child" is basically sung acappella. The result is the most gorgeous, stunning album in her repertoire.

Years ago I read an article about the actress Joan Crawford that bemoaned what she had become. The film critic said she had once been so natural in early movies like "Rain", and now had to widen her eyes and jerk her whole head around to try to convey what used to come so easy to her. By the time Nico issued "The End" (1974), she had sort of turned into the older Crawford. I blame it on her increasingly heavy drug addiction. Nico was always gothic, but "Desertshore" and "Marble Index" had a lightness about them. "The End" was an un-relentingly heavy, almost cartoonish self-parody of what she had been a mere 4 years earlier.

Don't get me wrong - I love "The End". I also enjoy watching older Joan Crawford! I'm just saying that "Desertshore" was the last of her "natural" records. She later put out "Drama Of Exile" (1981), which featured a rock band slogging it out behind her. No tasteful, clever Cale arrangements. I still like it, especially her version of "I'm Waiting For My Man" and Bowie's "Heroes", which he supposedly wrote for her before deciding it was too good to give away. Her 6th and final solo album "Camera Obscura" (1985) is the only one I don't like. Robotic drum beats, repetitive keyboards, and sub-standard material. Only her song "Konig" shines, and the old chestnut "My Funny Valentine". In 1988 Nico had a minor heart attack while riding a bicycle in Ibiza, Spain, but hit her head on a curb. She died just short of turning 50. A very good documentary, "Nico Icon", came out in 1995.

If you'd like to hear someone who's really different, check out "Chelsea Girl", "Marble Index", and "The End". But whatever you do - don't overlook the exquisite "Desertshore".

An absolutely beautiful album, gothic, haunting, but at the same time uplifting. "Janitor of Lunacy", "The Falconer", and "All That is My Own" are especially powerful. The first of these, Luncay, makes one wonder of the possible influence on Nico of being a child in the ashes of wartorn Germany. The second, The Falconer, pulls one back almost literally into the Middle Ages. The third, All That is My Own, from which the title of the album comes ("Meet me on the Desert Shore"), also harkens back to the Middle Ages, with a hint of Middle Eastern influence. "Mutterlein" is also a hauntingly beautiful song (in German). And then, to this, you add the uplifting and positive (despite the title) "Afraid". Truly, a landmark album.

Each and every song in this album is simply beautiful. "All that is my own" is my personal favorite. This is album is Gothic to the core, with beautiful melodies, and lyrics. A must have!