"White Light/White Heat" is a song recorded by the American rock band

the Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise ...

. It was released in January 1968 as the title track on their second studio album of the same name. Also in January 1968, the song was released as a single with the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

Here She Comes Now "Here She Comes Now" is a song released by the American rock band the Velvet Underground in January 1968, from their second studio album '' White Light/White Heat''. As the shortest song on the album, the performance and mix of the song are both ...

Background

"White Light/White Heat" was recorded in the course of the recording sessions for ''

White Light/White Heat ''White Light/White Heat'' is the second studio album by American rock band the Velvet Underground. Released on January 30, 1968, on Verve Records, it was the band's last studio recording with multi-instrumentalist and founding member John Cale ...

'' in September 1967 at

Scepter Studios Scepter Records was an American record company founded in 1959 by Florence Greenberg. History Florence Greenberg founded Scepter Records from the $4,000 she received after she sold Tiara Records and the Shirelles to Decca Records. When the Shir ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. The song's vocals are performed primarily by

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades ...

, with

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various sty ...

and

Sterling Morrison Holmes Sterling Morrison Jr. (August 29, 1942 – August 30, 1995) was an American guitarist, best known as one of the founding members of the rock group the Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, a ...

performing backing vocals. The song, much like " I'm Waiting for the Man", features a pounding rock-and-roll Barrelhouse-style piano vamp. The song is about the sensations produced by intravenous injection of

methamphetamine Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamp ...

and features a heavily distorted electric bass outro played by John Cale over a single chord. This bass solo purportedly mimics the throbbing, ear-ringing effects experienced during the methamphetamine "rush." "White Light/White Heat" was also a staple of the Velvet Underground's live performances from 1967 on. The tune appears on numerous live bootleg albums, and the nearly nine-minute version included on the group's posthumous ''1969 Live'' double LP is one of the album's centerpieces. Reed also recorded a live version of the song in 1974, which featured on his '' Rock 'n' Roll Animal'' and ''Greatest Hits'' albums. Reed went on to perform the song with several notable musicians, including

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

and

the Raconteurs The Raconteurs (, also known as The Saboteurs in Australia) is an American rock band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 2005. The band consists of Jack White (vocals, guitar), Brendan Benson (vocals, guitar), Jack Lawrence (bass guitar), and ...

. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' and '' Paste'' both ranked the song number seven on their lists of the greatest Velvet Underground songs.

In popular culture

Two traditional-music influenced versions of the song were included on the soundtrack to the 2012 film '' Lawless'', one by The Bootleggers featuring

Mark Lanegan Mark William Lanegan (November 25, 1964 – February 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet. First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the ...

and one by bluegrass legend

Ralph Stanley Ralph Edmund Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016) was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. Stanley began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of ...

. The live version of the song from Reed's '' Rock 'n' Roll Animal'' was specially covered by

Julian Casablancas Julian Fernando Casablancas (born August 23, 1978) is an American singer, musician and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of rock band The Strokes, with whom he has released six studio albums since their foundin ...

for the HBO television series ''

Vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

''. It appeared on the soundtrack of the fifth episode, during a flashback to a fictional Reed gig in 1973.

Personnel

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar *

– fuzz bass, piano, backing vocals *

– lead guitar, backing vocals *

Maureen Tucker Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker (born August 26, 1944) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who was the drummer for the New York City-based rock band the Velvet Underground. After they disbanded in the early 1970s, she left the music industr ...

– percussion

David Bowie version

The song was regularly performed live by

. A version he recorded in 1973 was released as a single in 1983 to promote the album '' Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture''. Bowie, a long-time Velvets fan, had been performing "White Light/White Heat" since 1971. (His album of that year, ''

Hunky Dory ''Hunky Dory'' is the fourth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released on 17December 1971 through RCA Records. Following the release of his 1970 album, '' The Man Who Sold the World'', Bowie took time off from recording and tourin ...

'', features a credit to the song for having inspired Bowie's " Queen Bitch"). It had featured throughout the Ziggy Stardust Tour (including a performance with

on July 8, 1972), been recorded by Bowie for two BBC sessions, and been slated for inclusion on '' Pin Ups'' (the backing track from this session was later recorded as a solo version by

Mick Ronson Michael Ronson (26 May 1946 – 29 April 1993) was an English musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session musici ...

in 1975). Despite this, the ''Ziggy Stardust – The Motion Picture'' project would be the first time the song had been issued on a Bowie record, and as such it was released as a single. With Bowie at the peak of his global stardom thanks to '' Let's Dance'', "White Light/White Heat" was considered an unusual turn for the pop audience he had attracted, and reached only #46 in the UK. Bowie performed the song during his 1987

Glass Spider Tour The Glass Spider Tour was a 1987 worldwide concert tour by English musician David Bowie, launched in support of his album '' Never Let Me Down'' and named for that album's track "Glass Spider". It began in May 1987 and was preceded by a two-wee ...

, a live version of which was released in 1988 (re-released in 2007) on ''

Glass Spider ''Glass Spider'' is a concert film by English singer David Bowie. The release was sourced from eight shows during the first two weeks of November 1987 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in Australia during the last month of the Glass Spider Tour ...

''. The song continued to feature in Bowie's live repertoire throughout his career.

Background

In popular culture

Personnel

David Bowie version

References

Further reading