4 minute read
CHELSEA GIRL
By Alex Klineberg
Alex Klineberg catches up with Dr Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, whose new book explores charismatic rock star Nico
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Nico was one of the most original and charismatic rock stars of the post-war era. She starred in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, fronted The Velvet Underground, and unleashed a series of dazzling, and at times terrifying solo albums.
Dr Jennifer Otter Bickerdike is a rock & roll cultural historian and author. Her latest book is a biography of Nico – who has become a semimythical figure since her sudden death in 1988.
How did you discover Nico’s music?
It was that scene in the Royal Tenenbaums where Margot Tenenbaum gets off the bus and These Days by Nico is playing. It’s so beautiful, so perfect, and so dysfunctional and it ticked every box for me. I then got the Chelsea Girl album. I’d be lying if I said I could listen to a Nico album all the way through. I find the records really, really intense.
Was The Velvet Underground a logical destination for her, or did she stumble into it by accident?
Nico was a woman of two sides; she said: “I always get there too late or too early.” At the same time she always found the right people. I don’t know if The Velvet Underground was meant to be, but Nico did have an excellent way of figuring out the people she needed to get to the next step. Remember, she came from war-torn Nazi Germany. Her whole life was about trying to shrug off that identity.
Nico had little singing experience before she joined the band – she’d recorded records in the UK but never performed in the US... Nico is thinking this is my backing band. So there was a massive communication clash from the beginning. In all the newspaper clippings from that time it’s Nico & The Velvet Underground. This made Lou Reed very jealous and you can understand why.
Her first solo album was Chelsea Girl, do you see that record as an anomaly in her catalogue?
Yes, she didn’t write any of the songs on that album. They were all given to her by other people. There was a folk rock artist called Judy Collins at the time. I think they were trying to craft Nico into being the next Judy Collins. You know, it’s like saying we have Pearl Jam so now let’s have Soundgarden. Nico hated it. I don’t think she even knew that she could be an artist in her own right until she hooked up with Jim Morrison. They were equals. He unlocked her songwriting.
The Marble Index is one of the strangest and most unnerving albums ever recorded. John Cale from The Velvet Underground produced the album... The album clocks in at just under 30 minutes. The legend goes that Frazier Mohawk – the other producer – and Nico were very high on heroin for most of that album. You hear some of that tension of addiction and darkness, and also what it means to be a woman in rock and roll at that time.
Iggy Pop mentions in the book that you have these two weirdo Europeans in America making music. Iggy describes when he first met Nico. John Cale was producing an Iggy & The Stooges record and Nico was there. He said they were like Mr and Mrs Munster. John Cale has this crazy black cape with pink velour lining and Nico is sitting there knitting. She’s all dressed in black. The sensibility is very different from anything else at that time period.
Nico certainly had affairs with some of the most high-profile figures of the day, not least Jim Morrison...
I’ve heard different things from different people in terms of who the love of her life was. In terms of which way she went, I think she used her sexuality to get ahead. I think she used sex to find comfort and belonging. Later in life she would have been happy to have a relationship with a man or a woman. Someone who accepted her for her. I think to love someone else you have to love yourself, and Nico never really loved herself.
Nico washed up in Manchester in the ‘80s. She was broke, as ever, and she began a new phase in her life...
A guy named Alan Wise books her to play in Manchester. He was in the Factory Records scene. Alan was captivated by her.
He convinced her to move to Manchester and became her agent. She swapped heroin for methadone. She got a band together, made more albums and toured extensively. I think it was the first time in her life that she found people who really cared about her.
Although she cleaned up her act slightly, she never really got past drugs. She fell off her bike in Ibiza and passed away aged 49 from a brain injury. She had gone out to score hash... She was never straight edge. I don’t think she was on the road to destruction, but she’d drink and have hash. Nico wasn’t clean when she died.
She’s now an unlikely pop culture icon. How would you sum up her legacy?
Nico made art because she had to make art. She was a poet and she had to get these ideas out. To me that’s the most inspirational thing ever. She said her only mistake was not being born a man. Hello, you could say the exact same thing now. It’s been a long time since she passed away but she shows that you can make records on your own terms, and that’s her legacy.
