European Son

"European Son"
Song by The Velvet Underground from the album The Velvet Underground & Nico
Released	March 1967
Recorded	April 1966, Scepter Studios, New York City
Genre	Avant-garde, experimental rock, protopunk
Length	7:46
Label	Verve Records
Composer	Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker
Producer	Andy Warhol
The Velvet Underground & Nico track listing
"Sunday Morning" "I'm Waiting for the Man" "Femme Fatale" "Venus in Furs" "Run Run Run" "All Tomorrow's Parties" "Heroin" "There She Goes Again" "I'll Be Your Mirror" "The Black Angel's Death Song" "European Son"

"European Son" is a song written and performed by the American experimental rock band The Velvet Underground. It appears as the final track on their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. It is also the album's longest song at more than seven and a half minutes.

"European Son" is dedicated by the band to Delmore Schwartz, a literary mentor of singer Lou Reed. Wanting to dedicate a song to Schwartz, "European Son" was chosen because it had the fewest lyrics (rock-and-roll lyrics being something Schwartz abhorred). The first pressing of The Velvet Underground & Nico referred to the song as "European Son (to Delmore Schwartz)".

The song could be seen as a precursor to the band's next album White Light/White Heat and certainly to the song "Sister Ray", a seventeen-minute-long rock improvisation.

Recording

The song begins with two stanzas of lyrics sung by Lou Reed and a Chuck Berry riff, then a loud crash is heard (caused by John Cale hitting a stack of plates with a metal chair) after the first minute or so. Afterward, the song becomes improvisational for six minutes. It makes particular use of distortion and feedback. The song's manner of dissonant ensemble improvisation can be compared to the free jazz of Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler.

Covers

• Gary Lucas covered this song on his 2000 album Street of Lost Brothers.

Trivia

• A slowed-down version of the song's bass line appears on "Moby Octopad" by Yo La Tengo
• Simple Minds recorded a song entitled "European Son" on a demo tape, which was released on CD on The Early Years: 1977-1978. The band Japan also recorded a song with the title "European Son". Both these bands titled the song in tribute to the Velvet Underground song, and have covered other songs by the band (both covering "All Tomorrow's Parties", for one), but neither "European Son" is a cover of the Velvet Underground song.