Eight Days A Week: The Velvet Underground & Nico

Of all the evergreen subjects covered by rock ‘n’ roll (girls, street fightin’, cruisin’, California, love, god), the days of the week hold their own in terms of the sheer number of good songs meant to fete the seven that exist. (Plus the weekend, of course: whether we’re livin’ for it, workin’ for it or taking a Tuesday point of view of it.) MAGNET’s Corey duBrowa presents the best songs written about each day of the week.

:: SUNDAY: The Velvet Underground & Nico’s “Sunday Morning” (1967)
The final song to be recorded for the Velvet Underground’s debut LP—added almost as an afterthought in an effort to inject a tune with radio-single potential (to the point where the final master tape of the album shows the song penciled in as the lead track, as though tacked on at the last minute)—“Sunday Morning” is the perfect summation of the morning after the night before. From its pioneering use of bell-like celesta (a keyboard instrument that sounds more like a twilight xylophone) to Lou Reed’s pitched-up, almost feminine vocal track, it remains the most pop thing in the VU catalogue and stands in stark opposition to a record otherwise marked by tales of drug abuse, sexual deviancy and observations of Warhol Factory tragedies-in-waiting (e.g., actress and “Femme Fatale” Edie Sedgwick). “Sunday morning/Brings the dawn in/It’s just a restless feeling/By my side:” Sleep this one off, Holmes. Monday’s just around the corner.

“Sunday Morning”