re: Beatles obsession thread

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Although the Velvet Underground are sometimes portrayed as existing in near-total-obscurity totally out of the mainstream of 1960s rock culture, in fact they intersected with—and sometimes even influenced—many major shakers and movers between 1965 and 1970. Starting with the most famous rock group of all, some of them include:

The Beatles: Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, liked the Velvet Underground's first album and was considering getting involved with them in some capacity in 1967. This might have entailed helping arrange for some VU gigs in Britain and Europe—something the Velvets had several opportunities to do while Lou Reed was in the band, but unfortunately something that never came to pass. VU manager Steve Sesnick also tried to interest Epstein in making a publishing deal for the Velvets' songs. But the Velvet Underground decide to hang onto their publishing, and in any case Epstein died on August 27, 1967.

In a semicomic incident, Lou Reed himself met Brian Epstein around spring 1967 when, at publicist Danny Fields's instigation, Reed finagled a cab ride with the Beatles manager in New York in the hopes that some interest in the VU's affairs might be ignited. Evidently nothing came of it, however, other than Epstein sharing a joint with Reed and telling Lou how much he liked the banana album.

In Richard Witts's biography Nico: The Life & Lies of an Icon, she claims to have been in attendance at the private party Brian Epstein threw at his home on May 19 to preview the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for the press. "There is a song I liked on Sgt. Pepper, called 'A Day in the Life,'" she states in the book. "It has a beautiful song and then this strange sound like John Cale would make (he told me it was an orchestra, actually) and then this stupid little pop song that spoils everything so far. I told this to Paul [McCartney], and I made a mistake, because the beautiful song was written by John Lennon and the stupid song was written by Paul. It can be embarrassing when you speak the truth." The book also reports that she briefly stays in Paul McCartney's home during that May visit.

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