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July 18, 2007

Velvet Underground's Secret Weapon: The Ostrich

Fans of alternate tunings and/or Lou Reed & John Cale's magical relationship should be hip to the Ostrich, but WFMU's Beware Of Blog sketches out the tale of the avian-named tuning for a lesson in VU 101:

One of the secret weapons of the Velvet Underground was Lou Reed's Ostrich Guitar Tuning, where all the strings were tuned to D. It got its name from the 1964 novelty single "The Ostrich" by The Primitives, a pre-Velvet Underground band fronted by Lou Reed. Originally only a studio project, the song about a fake novelty dance generated enough interest to put together a band for a few live gigs. And amazingly enough, that touring version of The Primitives featured John Cale, Tony Conrad, and Walter DeMaria.
All Music expands:

John Cale, however, was struck when Reed told them that learning "The Ostrich" would be easy, as all the strings were tuned to a single note. This was similar to what Cale and Conrad were doing with experimental composer LaMonte Young; Reed was applying a similar concept to rock'n'roll. The Primitives experience likely was one more factor that helped bind Reed and Cale together, starting a musical partnership that would flower into the Velvet Underground and prove hugely influential on the course of rock music.

And that, kids, is your lesson in rock history for the day. Head over to WFMU for Primitives MP3s (including the infamous "The Ostrich"). Do try this at home, but not without a spare set of D'Addarios laying around. Knew there was some subconscious reason we were bidding on Galifianakis's ostrich-headed monstrosity.

Posted at 7:06 PM
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13 Comments

you should make said 'lessons in rock history' a daily routine.

Posted by: betty lou at 07/18/07 11:12 PM | Reply
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i agree

Posted by: ben at 07/18/07 11:35 PM | Reply
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Are we going to be tested on this?

Posted by: tk. at 07/19/07 12:17 AM | Reply
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It was obviously a paid advertisment.

Posted by: jables at 07/19/07 1:22 AM | Reply
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It was obviously a paid advertisment.

Posted by: Jables at 07/19/07 1:23 AM | Reply
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We Swirlies fans knew all this already. ;) Next!

Posted by: RSL at 07/19/07 8:15 AM | Reply
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D'Addarios! Lou Reed would cringe at the thought!

Posted by: Uhnonimus at 07/19/07 9:57 AM | Reply
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I'll bet that second string breaks a lot.

Posted by: dannygutters at 07/19/07 10:12 AM | Reply
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This proves my theory that Mr. Reed could not properly tune a guitar due to his perverse use of Cocaine. Many music critics site VU's debut album as spawning as many rock and roll acts as the LP sold. I'll buy that if the LP sold 2 copies. Highly overrated!

Posted by: #1 Blogger at 07/19/07 11:59 AM | Reply
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Wow, you really are the #1 Blogger. What a great opinion!

Posted by: Woohoo at 07/19/07 12:06 PM | Reply
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I've been trying to hunt down this song for over ten years. I'd previously only heard snippets on docs. So Cool.

Posted by: nylund at 07/19/07 12:27 PM | Reply
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The song is pretty pitiful from what I recall. I have a bootleg version of it on LP somewhere. Think of a boring "Louie Louie" riff but with even shittier sound quality and worse singing. no thanks. The first Velvet's LP is a landmark compared to this pile o' crap.

Posted by: bill at 07/19/07 2:03 PM | Reply
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Ummm, the first Velvets LP is a landmark, regardless of what you compare it to. If you don't like the album, that's one thing, but its landmark status is fact, not opinion.

Posted by: d at 07/19/07 5:18 PM | Reply
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