30 Songs/30 Days: Day 2

The MOG brain nixed Day 2, but no problem. It's a holiday weekend, and if there was ever a couple of songs that merited a double header, it's these two:Day 2: The Velvet Underground: "Sister Ray"Day 3: Iggy & the Stooges: "Search and Destroy"Everyone who discovers punk goes through a similar tragectory. They start with first generation bands like The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and The Clash, and works backwards. It's so typical I want to puke every time I hear someone say "It all starts with the Velvet Underground" (not that it's bad, but it's like trying to eat food at a restaurant you've worked at for a year: you're overexposed). Personally, I feel the Velvet Underground are pretty dated, but one track that may never age is "Sister Ray," the most extreme track on their most extreme album. It's weird to think a movement about being loud and fast can start with a 17 minute epic song. But if it's not fast, it's loud as fuck, and you haven't heard "Sister Ray" until you've cranked it up to 10 and had a sibling, parent or neighbor tell you to turn it down. In the bootleg tapes of VU live performances (which were recorded by another punk legend, Robert Quine of the Voidoids), three seperate concerts all end with Sister Ray, one version lasting 38 minutes. While it would be tempting to say these were the more extreme versions (they're certainly more extreme than just about anything else you're likely to hear), none have the power of John Cale's vox organ blasting through the seams of all the rest of the hodgepodge. The mess is more anarchic than anything the Sex Pistols ever did, and the lyrics, prominently featuring "she was sucking on my ding dong," are just as much a chaotic sinful orgy as the music. It's still chilling nearly 40 years later, and only gets more intense with each listening.