Sterling Morrison

Sterling Morrison
Background information
Birth name	Holmes Sterling Morrison Junior
Born	(1942-08-28)August 28, 1942 East Meadow, New York
Died	August 30, 1995(1995-08-30) (aged 53) Poughkeepsie, New York
Genres	Rock, experimental rock, protopunk, art rock
Instrument(s)	Guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals

Holmes Sterling Morrison, Jr. (August 28, 1942 – August 30, 1995) was one of the founding members of the rock group The Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, and singing backing vocals.

Biography

Morrison majored in English at Syracuse University; it was there that he met Lou Reed, a fellow English student. Although the two jammed together, they drifted apart after Morrison quit his studies and Reed graduated in 1964. They met again in New York City in 1965. By this time, Reed had met John Cale and was interested in starting a band, so when they encountered Morrison, he was invited to join.

Morrison primarily played guitar on the band's first two albums, although when Cale — the band's nominal bassist — played viola or keyboards, Morrison often filled in on bass. Other songs, however, (including "Heroin" and "Sister Ray") featured Reed and Morrison on guitars while Cale played viola or organ. Although Morrison was a proficient bassist (exemplified by his performances on "Sunday Morning" and "Lady Godiva's Operation"), he disliked playing the instrument.

After Cale left the group in 1968, Morrison always played guitar. During the Cale era, there was no established "lead" or "rhythm" guitar hierarchy in the Velvet Underground; both Reed and Morrison traded roles regularly. From the third album on though, Morrison almost always took the role of lead guitarist as Reed concentrated more on his singing and rhythm playing. Additionally, Morrison sang backing vocals and the occasional lead vocal spot (he recited many verses of Reed's poetry in "The Murder Mystery" and sang one line in "I'm Sticking With You").

In 1970, when the band was back in New York City to play an entire summer's engagement at Max's Kansas City, Morrison seized the opportunity to complete his undergraduate degree at the City College of New York; along with Tucker, he remained in the Velvet Underground as lead guitarist after Reed left the band under acrimonious circumstances in August 1970. In 1971, however, he began graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a PhD in medieval literature (with a dissertation on the four signed poems of Cynewulf) in 1986. Morrison's last performance with the band was on August 21, 1971 at Liberty Hall in Houston. When it was time for the band to return to New York, Morrison packed an empty suitcase and accompanied them to the gate of their departing plane, before finally telling them he was staying in Texas and leaving the band.

Morrison began to work on Houston tugboats as a deckhand to supplement his income in the mid-70s; when he was forced to relinquish his teaching assistantship some years later, he was licensed as a master mariner and became the captain of a Houston tugboat, a vocation he pursued throughout the 1980s.

After leaving the Velvet Underground, Morrison's musical career was primarily limited to informal sessions for personal enjoyment, though he played in a few bands around Austin, Texas, most notably The Bizarros. Morrison's tenure in the capital of Texas made him a well-loved and admired member of the local music community as well as an influential voice. During John Cale's renaissance in the late 1970s, Morrison occasionally sat in with his former bandmate on stages such as the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin. From the mid-1980s on, however, he occasionally recorded or performed with Reed, Cale, and Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker, who had by then started a solo career of her own. Morrison was part of her touring band for most of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1992, the core Velvet Underground line-up of Reed, Cale, Morrison and Tucker decided to reform for a tour and possible album. Morrison argued that Doug Yule, who had replaced Cale in 1968, should be included to fill out the sound, but Reed and Cale vetoed him. The band extensively toured Europe in 1993, alternatively as headline act or supporting U2. Morrison's playing held up well, and his performances were generally agreed to be top-notch. But by the end of the tour, relationships had soured again and plans for a US tour and MTV Unplugged album were scrapped.

The European tour turned out to be the last for the Velvet Underground. Morrison joined Maureen Tucker's band for a tour in 1994, and later that year was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, from which he died on August 30, 1995, two days after his 53rd birthday. Upon their induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song entitled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend," which was dedicated to Morrison.

In March 2001, Sterling Morrison was remembered through a tribute set at the Austin Music Awards during the South by Southwest Festival. John Cale performed "Some Friends," a song he'd composed in Morrison's memory, with Alejandro Escovedo, who played "Tugboat," also written for Morrison. An SXSW panel on Sterling successfully convened that year, with Cale and others remembering their fallen friend. Morrison was also the subject of an oral history, Velvet Underdog, in the Austin Chronicle that year. The story featured quotes by John Cale, Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker, and other Morrison associates.

The Galaxie 500 song "Tugboat" is believed to be a reference to Morrison.

His surviving family includes his widow, Martha, and his son, Thomas, who reside in Poughkeepsie, New York, and a daughter, Mary Anne.

Discography with the Velvet Underground

Only the titles featuring Morrison are listed. For the band's full discography, please see the Velvet Underground article.

Singles

• "All Tomorrow's Parties" / "I'll Be Your Mirror" (1966)
• "Sunday Morning" / "Femme Fatale" (1966)
• "White Light/White Heat" / "Here She Comes Now" (1968)
• "What Goes On" / "Jesus" (promo, 1969)
• "Who Loves the Sun" / "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" (1971)
• "Foggy Notion" / "I Can't Stand It" (promo, 1985)
• "Venus in Furs" / "I'm Waiting for the Man" (live, 1994)

Original albums

• The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
• White Light/White Heat (1968)
• The Velvet Underground (1969)
• Loaded (1970)
• Live at Max's Kansas City (1972)
• Live MCMXCIII (1993)

Later releases of archive material

• 1969: The Velvet Underground Live (1974)
• VU (1985)
• Another View (1986)
• Chronicles (1991)
• Peel Slowly and See (box set, 1995)
• Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes (live, 2001)
• The Very Best of the Velvet Underground (2003)

Additional recording history

• Nico - Chelsea Girl (1967)
  • Plays guitar on "Chelsea Girls" (which includes a rare Morrison writing credit) and "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams"
• Luna - Bewitched (1994)
  • Plays guitar on "Friendly Advice" and "Great Jones Street"
• Moe Tucker - Dogs Under Stress (1994)
  • Plays guitar on "Me, Myself and I" "I Don't Understand" "Little Girl" and "I Wanna"; plays electric sitar on "Danny Boy"
• Inside the Dream Syndicate Vol.III: Stainless Steel Gamelan (Table of the Elements 2002)
  • Personnel: Terry Jennings, Angus MacLise, John Cale, Sterling Morrison

External links

• Sterling Morrison tribute site