Femme Fatale

Cover version of the month #117
Big Star cover The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground and Big Star are two majestical, mythical and magical bands that have influenced (and have been consistently highlighted by) Scottish bands like Orange Juice and Teenage Fanclub through to bands bursting on to the scene at present. 

Art-rock NYC cool, melodic vulnerability, quintessential guitar power pop and vocal harmonies. You could easily argue that the two bands stand as the ultimate patron saints to the Glasgow independent guitar pop scene. Throw in Love, The Byrds, punk bands like Buzzcocks, The Clash and Subway Sect and that's the bones of your top 10.

One song that links both of these legendary bands is Femme Fatale, written by Lou Reed and inspired by a throwaway Andy Warhol comment about Factory 'it-girl' Edie Sedgwick. New info for me - I always thought it was about (and for) Nico!

"Oh, don't you think she's a Femme Fatale, Lou?"

The Velvets recorded the song in 1966 and it was released as the b-side to Sunday Morning in December of that year and then as the third track on their debut album, the mind blowing The Velvet Underground & Nico in March 1967. It's an album that everyone with a vested interest in the history of guitar music seems to be magnetically drawn to as a teenager.

It's well documented that the album was a flop, entering the charts at number 199 upon release and then leaving the month afterwards. Check this excellent feature article by Scottish writer Grant McPhee for Into Creative.

McPhee takes a deep dive into the myth of The Velvet Underground and Nico, particularly around the sales figures, stemming from a famous quote by Brian Eno about the album only selling 30,000 copies in its first five years.

... everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band. Brian Eno

Enjoy Grant's blog. But back to Femme Fatale. Listening again, I can't help but wonder who (if anyone) Nico was thinking of whilst singing the song. Edie? Or herself? 

Here she comes

You'd better watch your step

She's going to break your heart in two

It's true

The Velvets recording is icy cool. Nico’s vocals are famously flat, off-key and the way she pronounces clown as clun at the end of the second verse is quite funny. Funny, but ridiculously cool!

She'll build you up just to put you down

What a clown

Almost 60-years on and The Velvet Underground remain a blueprint for independent guitar music. Femme Fatale is a prime example why. Short (2-minutes 39 seconds), seemingly simple, impossibly cool and utterly beautiful. Pop music can be both a hook and a heartbreak simultaneously.

Lou Reed's NYC drawl in response to Nico's rise for the chorus is sublime.

Cause everybody knows, (She's a femme fatale)

The things she does to me, (She's a femme fatale)

She's just a little tease, (She's a femme fatale)

The closing two lines of the chorus are left to Nico, over the chiming guitar riff. They are, for me, the two coolest lines of the song, sung as if Nico is in admiration of the girl she is singing of.

See the way she walks

Hear the way she talks

In the next verses, Nico (using Lou's words of course) is clearer about her warning. The guy is merely number thirty-seven in her book. She's from the street, so already has all the guys beat and is going to play you for a fool.

Alex Chilton recorded his version for the legendary Third/Sister Lovers album sessions. The Big Star version is stripped back and fragile. Chilton sounds like he is singing from the experience of having his heart broken by the femme fatale, warning others, yet still infatuated.

Big Star are in no rush here, everything is slow, the intro longer, it all feels darker, as if Chilton is barely holding it together. It's beautiful.

Others have covered this gem of a song too. Among them - I've just found the Duran Duran version ... and ... I'm not a fan! Teenage Fanclub covered it with tender care on the b-side of Ain't That Enough. And Fatale, who I have written about a number of times over the last 6-months or so, took their name from the song and recorded it as their first demo. The way the crowd sing-a-long with Lou's she's a femme fatale line at the Fatale gigs is incredible - like they are breathing new life into the song and turning it into an anthem.

Fatale - Femme Fatale (demo)

The Velvet Underground & Nico original and the Big Star cover of Femme Fatale are added to my Everything Flows Cool Cover Versions playlist on Spotify which also features all of the songs listed below. Search for the title or CLICK HERE

Previous covers of the month blogs

1. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 

2. Going Back To My Roots

3. Nirvana play The Vaselines

4. Slip Inside This House

5. Top 10 covers by Teenage Fanclub

6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

7. Time For Livin' 

8. Sound and Vision 

9. All Along The Watchtower

10. I Am The Walrus 

11. Guiding Star

12. You’ll Never Walk Alone

13. Hurt

14. This Guy's In Love With You

15. I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine

16. California Soul

18. Wonder wall 

19. Dancing In The Dark

20. Always On My Mind

21. Ceremony

22. Heroes

23. Different Drum

24. Wild Horses

25. Respect

26. Mr Tambourine Man

27. I Heard It Through The Grapevine

28. Superstar

29. Twist and Shout

30. Purple Rain

31. Baker Street

32. Not Fade Away

33. Stop Your Sobbing

34. I Don't Want To Grow Up

35. Serious Drugs

36. Dancing With Myself

37. How Does It Feel To Feel?

38. Love Buzz

39. ABBA-esque
40. Jumpin' Jack Flash

41. Discoland

42. Varshons 2 by The Lemonheads

43. The Langley Schools Music Project
44. Witchi Tai To
45. Our Lips Are Sealed
46. Sunshine Of Your Love
47. Here Comes The Sun
48. I Think We're Alone Now
49. Don't Let Me Down 
50. It's Oh So Quiet
51. Alcoholiday 
52. Summer Holiday
53. Who Do You Think You Are?
54. Head On
55. Nothing Compares 2 U

56. Hey Jude

57. Seven Days Too Long

58. L.O.V.E Love

59. Into Your Arms

60. Heart Of Glass

61. Take Me To The River

62. We Can Work It Out 

63. Talking In My Sleep

64. Lola

65. Lost In Music

66. My Little Red Book

67. Isn't It A Pity

68. Walk On By

69. Walk Away Renee

70. Tainted Love

71. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

72. Listen The Snow Is Falling

73. Mrs Robinson

74. He's Gonna Step On You Again

75. In My Life

76. Caravan Of Love

77. The Only Way Is Up

78. Dancin' Round & Round

79. With A Little Help From My Friends

80. Killing Me Softly

81. Ain't No Mountain High Enough

82. Drop

83. Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay

84. Sympathy For The Devil

85. I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor

86. Love Will Tear Us Apart

87. Indian Rope Man + bonus Strawberry Fields Forever + This Wheels On Fire

88. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You

89. Love The One You're With

90. Cum On Feel The Noize

91. Addicted To Love

92. Valerie

93. Ride On Time

94. Let's Dance

95. It Must Be Love

96. I Fought The Law

97. For What It's Worth

98. Do Your Thing

99. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

100. Don't Leave Me This Way

101. Shout!

102. God Only Knows

103. The Last Time

104. Bridge Over Troubled Water

105. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart

106. Louie Louie

107. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

108-110. I'm A Loser, Yesterday and Beware of Darkness 

111. So You Say You Lost Your Baby

112. Kelly Watch The Stars

113. Association

114. Some Velvet Morning

115. If I Had A Boat

116. Vapour Trail

Sweet Jane

Cover version of the month #75

Cowboy Junkies cover The Velvet Underground

Sweet Jane by The Velvet Underground is classic Lou Reed storytelling; characters, sleaze, rock n roll, the escapism of dancing, the reality of working over scuzzy guitar chords played in a riff form.

It's one of my favourite Velvet Underground songs and I particularly love the middle eight where things are turned up a notch at 2 minutes 34 (on the full length version) as Reed hollers;

But anyone who ever had a heart

Oh, they wouldn't turn around and break it

And anyone who ever played a part

They wouldn't turn around and hate it

Reed then takes things off on a gentler tangent, singing of heavenly wine and roses. 

The glorious riff sounds even better, even scuzzier, on the Live at Max's Kansas City album. The band seem to be changing pace constantly, somehow keeping it together. I could listen to that riff for hours on end. The closing 90-seconds of this song are compelling. The aforementioned rise to the middle eight is speeded up, then slowed down and the closing outro is power punk pop before the genre was invented.

The Velvet Underground also recorded a much slower version of the song, but I don't think it works for them, certainly not in comparison to the Live at Max's version.

Early/slow version

Full length version

Live at Max's Kansas City

I came across Cowboy Junkies version of Sweet Jane on a compilation album by Richard Fearless from Death In Vegas, one of the Back To Mine series. It's well worth checking out.

It's slowed down and at only 3 minutes 30 seconds long, the band don't quite play on the riff or outro like the Velvets do. With Margo Timmins on vocals, the song is kept cool and calm, the story is there, but the way Timmins sings the song, especially Sweet Jane, anyone whose ever had a dream and anyone whose ever been lonely really changes the whole feel of the song. It's much more melancholy. The grit, dirt and sleaze of the Velvets song is wiped. 

Lou Reed was allegedly quoted as saying this is his favourite version of Sweet Jane. I love the way Cowboy Junkies take on quite a masculine song and bring out its feminine side. It's really bold, really beautiful.

Cowboy Junkies video

You can find links to all my previous cover versions of the month below and a playlist on Spotify by searching Everything Flows Cool Cover Versions. Or CLICK HERE

Previous covers of the month

1. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 

2. Going Back To My Roots

3. Nirvana play The Vaselines

4. Slip Inside This House

5. Top 10 covers by Teenage Fanclub

6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

7. Time For Livin' 

8. Sound and Vision 

9. All Along The Watchtower

10. I Am The Walrus 

11. Guiding Star

12. You’ll Never Walk Alone

13. Hurt

14. This Guy's In Love With You

15. I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine

16. California Soul

18. Wonder wall 

19. Dancing In The Dark

20. Always On My Mind

21. Ceremony

22. Heroes

23. Different Drum

24. Wild Horses

25. Respect

26. Mr Tambourine Man

27. I Heard It Through The Grapevine

28. Superstar

29. Twist and Shout

30. Purple Rain

31. Baker Street

32. Not Fade Away

33. Stop Your Sobbing

34. I Don't Want To Grow Up

35. Serious Drugs

36. Dancing With Myself

37. How Does It Feel To Feel?

38. Love Buzz

39. ABBA-esque
40. Jumpin' Jack Flash

41. Discoland

42. Varshons 2 by The Lemonheads

43. The Langley Schools Music Project
44. Witchi Tai To
45. Our Lips Are Sealed
46. Sunshine Of Your Love
47. Here Comes The Sun
48. I Think We're Alone Now
49. Don't Let Me Down 
50. It's Oh So Quiet
51. Alcoholiday 
52. Summer Holiday
53. Who Do You Think You Are?
54. Head On
55. Nothing Compares 2 U

56. Hey Jude

57. Seven Days Too Long

58. L.O.V.E Love

59. Into Your Arms

60. Heart Of Glass

61. Take Me To The River

62. We Can Work It Out 

63. Talking In My Sleep

64. Lola

65. Lost In Music

66. My Little Red Book

67. Isn't It A Pity

68. Walk On By

69. Walk Away Renee

70. Tainted Love

71. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

72. Listen The Snow Is Falling

73. Mrs Robinson

74. He's Gonna Step On You Again

Sunday Morning

Trust Me #19

Sunday Morning, the opening song on The Velvet Underground & Nico, lulls you into a false sense of cool calmness before the raw romp of I'm Waitin' For The Man, the majestic magical darkness of Venus In Furs, the psychedelic bliss and rush of Heroin, the insanity of The Black Angel's Death Song or the white noise of European Son.

The use of the celesta (from the French celeste for heavenly), which John Cale discovered in the studio and decided to use, creates a gorgeous melody, Lou Reed's voice is lush and hushed, Mo Tuckers drums are soft and brushed and Cale also creates gorgeous noises in the background with his viola.  Reed's guitar solo is just perfect.

Reed and Cale had originally written the song for Nico. Although she had sung this live with the band, Reed took the lead vocals in the studio and he delivers a brilliant performance.

Sunday Morning is a beautiful song; evocative lyrics, delivered perfectly and a band performance that gives me a warm glow every time I listen to it.

So many bands I fell for as a teenager cited The Velvet Underground & Nico as an important album and I fell under its spell like so many before me. And it was/is a perfect Sunday Morning song after a big night out.

This is number 19 in my Trust Me series featuring songs I love and just think; Trust Me, you'll love them too.

See below for the list of previous songs to feature. Search for Everything Flows Trust Me on Spotify for a playlist of all songs, or CLICK HERE

Sunday morning, brings the dawn in

It's just a restless feeling, by my side

Early dawning, Sunday morning

It's just the wasted years, so close behind

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'm falling

I've got a feeling I don't want to know

Early dawning, Sunday morning

It's all the streets you crossed not so long ago

Watch out, the world's behind you

There's always someone around you, who will call

It's nothing at all

Watch out, the world's behind you

There's always someone around you, who will call

It's nothing at all

Sunday morning, Sunday morning, Sunday morning

Previous Trust Me blogs

1. Something On Your Mind by Karen Dalton

1A. Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells

2. I Am, I Said  by Neil Diamond

3. Where's The Playground Susie?   by Glen Campbell

4. If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lighfoot

5. Gimme Some Truth by John Lennon

6. Gone With The Wind Is My Love by Rita and the Tiaras

7. In The Year 2525 by Zager and Evans

8. The Music Box by Ruth Copeland

9. The Ship Song by Nick Cave

10. Sometimes by James

11. I Walk The Earth by King Biscuit Time

12. Didn't Know What I Was In For by Better Oblivion Community Centre

13. When My Boy Walks Down The Street by The Magnetic Fields

14. The Man Don't Give A F**k by Super Furry Animals

15. All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun by Jeff Buckley and Liz Fraser

16. Are You Lookin' by The Tymes

17. A Real Hero by College & Electric Youth

18. Feelings Gone by Callum Easter

Never Ending Mixtape part 42

My Never Ending MIxtape breaks the 1,200 song mark.

Starting with the sublime Losing You by Solange, through northern soul, pure pop by The Frank and Walters who I once bunked off school for to go and see them play at Tower Records in Glasgow, new discoveries of old songs, a classic from BMX Bandits, quite a few from the Velvet Underground and some great pop tunes from around 10-years ago. How good is Young Folks? And Kids is still ridiculously euphoric - what a riff and melody!

The latest additions are listed below. Search for Everything Flows Never Ending Mixtape on Spotify or click below.

Losing You - Solange
Gone With The Wind Is My Love
Gone With The Wind (instrumental)
After All - The Frank and Walters
Divine Hammer - The Breeders
Pa'lante - Hurray for the Riff Raff
Life Is Sweet (live) - Maria McKee
The Lost Girl In The Midnight Sun - The Lilac Time
Don't Be Scared I Love You - Bill Ryder-Jones
Right Across The Street - BMX Bandits
Satellite Of Love - Lou Reed
What Goes On - The Velvet Underground
I'm Set Free - The Velvet Underground
I Found A Reason - The Velvet Underground
O! Seet Nuthin' - The Velvet Underground
Ride Into The Sun - The Velvet Underground
Ingrown - Smudge
Things - Paul Westerberg
Going Down - Stone Roses
Computer World - Kraftwerk
You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory - Johnny Thunders
Kids - MGMT
Need You Now - Cut Copy
How Deep Is Your Love - The Rapture
Every Beat Of The Heart - The Railway Children
Young Folks - Peter, Bjorn and John

Never Ending Mixtape Part 14

 My Never Ending Mixtape on Spotify is now approaching 300 songs. I add to the playlist every month and then round up the latest additions in a blog.

As someone who vowed never to use Spotify or a streaming service, I have to admit I'm a convert! I still love and buy vinyl, but the ease of access that Spotify offers is unarguably incredible.

So after reading Johnny Marr's autobiography and wanting to dig into The The, all I had to do was search on Spotify and I discovered 2 absolutely sublime 12-inch remixes of Uncertain Smile and Perfect. They are sensational.

Elsewhere on the latest additions to the Never Ending Mixtape we have some real heavyweights like T-Rex, Bowie and Lou Reed, cult heroes Big Star and Gram Parson's Flying Burrito Brothers and this must be the only mixtape to have 2 Groove Armada tunes sandwiched between one by Todd Rundgren and an R.E.M demo!

You can search for Everything Flows Never Ending Mixtape on Spotify and play from the start, delve in anywhere, play on Shuffle or scroll to the end for the latest addition. Or simply CLICK HERE


Association - Teenage Fanclub
Uncertain Smile (12-inch remix) - The The
Perfect (12-inch remix) - The The
Our Lips Are Sealed - Fun Boy Three
Together In Electric Dreams - The Human League
Cosmic Dancer - T-Rex

Life's A Gas - T-Rex
Sound and Vision - David Bowie
Queen Bitch - David Bowie
Space Oddity - David Bowie
I'm So Free - Lou Reed
I Love You - Lou Reed
In The Street - Big Star
Thirteen - Big Star
September Gurls - Big Star
Hot Burrito #2 - The Flying Burrito Brothers
My Back Pages - The Byrds

Chestnut Mare - The Byrds
I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better - The Byrds
Another Girl, Another Planet - The Only Ones
Couldn't I Just Tell You - Todd Rundgren
At The River - Groove Armada
If Everybody Looked The Same - Groove Armada
Mike's Pop Song (demo) - R.E.M
Nightswimming - R.E.M

Never Ending Mixtape Part 5

There's not a British artist in sight for this months additions to the Never Ending Mixtape.

A lot of the songs on the mixtape relate to my teenage years when I was discovering all kinds of music - new and old. I remember buying a 7-inch in the old Missing Records in Glasgow cause I liked the cover of a beat up old car and the song title Babe Come Down. I've loved this song for over half my life but really don't know much about the band Sammy at all. Slacker indie guitar that just sounded glorious to a young teenager living in a small town 20-miles from Glasgow that might just as well have been 1 million miles.

Sammy split up way in 1996, way before the era of the internet. So there's not much about them online at all. Just a few references to their debut album and Babe Come Down from other people who happened to discover them.

It was such a different time back then. For independent bands from America the thought and fact that teenage kids in Glasgow were somehow picking up one of their limited edition 7-inch singles must have been slightly mind blowing.

I never got round to buying the Sammy album, or maybe it never for around to arriving in Glasgow. But it is now on Spotify and their slacker style indie guitar music is filling me with teen spirit.

And on that note; I've added in Sappy by Nirvana, a song my friend Craig and I discovered on a bootleg Nirvana CD over 20-years ago following Kurt's sad passing. He would have been 50 today,

Check the Never Ending Playlist from the start here. All of this months songs are listed below.

Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed
Lou Reed was known for his experimentation; I like his experimentation with pop and melody more than his noisier material. This is perfect; the groove, flow, stories, hook, backing vocals...

Here Comes Your Man - Pixies
Like Lou Reed's stuff, it is the copier stuff of Pixies that I like. Some of my friends are Pixies daft (as is half of Glasgow) - this is by far my favourite song of theirs.

Start Choppin' - Dinosaur Jr
Ah J Mascis playing guitar - what a sound. I had some guitar lessons when I was 18 and I asked if I could be taught this riff!

Soul and Fire - Sebadoh
Lou Barlow aches over the sound of chiming guitars. One of the singles I fell for so much that I own on multiple formats.

If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar
Bob Mould knew that his Sugar project was a good one and that Copper Blue would open doors. It certainly opened mine. This is power guitar pop perfection.

Cut Your Hair - Pavement
Crazy, fun, clever and sounding great. Slacker indie pop perfection.

Cannonball - The Breeders
See above for crazy and fun. The groove and flow, rises and falls in this song, the hook.....ooohh so good that 2ManyDj's dropped it into their sets.

Sugar Kane - Sonic Youth
Blistering guitar - just superb to hear.

Babe Come Down - Sammy
See opening paragraphs. Slacker indie guitar pop heaven.

Web in Front - Archers of Loaf
More American guitar indie brilliance. The mid-90's was an amazing time for discovering music from across the ocean.

Sappy - Nirvana
Ah yeah - what could have been. The demo's that Kurt left behind and the amazing Unplugged performance....what would Nirvana have done next.....

10 great love songs

Happy Valentine's Day.

Here are 10 of my favourite love songs.

My Love Is Your Love (Forever) - The Isley Brothers

Flows superbly, gorgeous strings. 'Now girl, now that I found you, come closer girl, I wanna put my arms around you.

Only With You - The Beach Boys

Does it get any more beautiful than this?

'I wanna spend this life with you, only with you, yes it's true, all I wanna do, is spend my life with you.'

Don't Let Me Down - The Beatles

Lennon is so hopelessly in love that he says four words rather than three. Incredible middle-eight 'I'm in love for the first time, don't you know it's gonna last, it's a love that last forever, it's a love that has no past'.

I'm Thinking Of You - Sister Sledge

Disco heaven, this was sublime when Chic played it at Wickerman last summer.

'Without love, there's no reason to live, without you, what would I do with the love I give?'

'I'm thinking of you and the things you do to me, that make me love you, now I'm living in ecstasy'.

Mellow Doubt - Teenage Fanclub

I listened to this a lot before I proposed to Lynn.

'There is no choice, in what I must do, nothing is greater, than to be with you'

I Love Every Little Thing About You - Stevie Wonder

Stevie has written some inspirational love songs. Has he ever sounded so head over heels?

'I'm here to say, I love you every day, and I just wanna tell the world I love you so…'

Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In My Space - Spiritualized

From the truly exceptional album of the same name. J Spaceman is on a different level with this gorgeous lysergic lullaby.

I will love you till I die and I will love you all the time,

So please put your sweet hand in mine, 

We'll float in space and drift in time

I'm Sticking With You - Velvet Underground

Childlike vocals by Moe Tucker. The section when Lou Reed comes in is just stunning, flows superbly.

I'll do anything for you, anything you want me to, 

I'll do anything for you, woah-oh I'm sticking with you

Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac

Can you hear me calling, out your name,

You know I'm falling and I don't know what to say

Something's happening, happening to me

My friend's say I'm acting peculiarly 

Divine. 

Baby, I Love You - The Ronettes

Simple, heartfelt and soulful. This was our first wedding dance. Spector at his very best.

Have I ever told you

How good it feels to hold you

It isn't easy to explain

The Boss kicks off this weeks 6 for Saturday

Five for Friday - Part IV

It looks like the UK is going to be covered by a blanket of rain today and for large parts of tomorrow, so here are five songs for the weekend to take your mind off the weather for a while.


Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene
The guitar genius that is J Mascis - still sounds fresh and vital today.

Next up we have some warm guitar sounds from The Lemonheads.

And we then change the pace completely with this little number from Tricky - the vocals from Martina Topley-Bird are just dreamy gorgeousness, sublime;

Followed up with this stone cold classic from Tricky's mates in Massive Attack;

And we end this weeks 'Five for Friday' with the mellow sounds of Lou Reed and another stone cold classic 'Walk On The Wild Side';