Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks and Ministry) pays tribute to The Velvet Underground’s Nico on ‘Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico’ LP – New video for ‘Femme Fatale’
(Photo by Shayna Connelly) Tomorrow, November 11th Scottish musician Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks and Ministry) will present his new album “Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico“, a 24-track offering released by Shipwrecked Industries in the USA and Easy Action in the UK, paying tribute to Nico – the iconic muse of The Velvet Underground. The release coincides with Connelly’s birthday.
Out today is a new video for “Femme Fatale”; the video was created by Iain W. Mutch / Walkerandwilliam in Scotland. Originally performed by Nico with The Velvet Underground, the song was originally written by Lou Reed.
Initially planned as an album of 10 Nico covers, Connelly ultimately decided to write some additional compositions, spanning her life. The Nico material spans from her first Jimmy Page-composed single and her time with The Velvet Underground to her solo recordings up until her death. Connelly musically follows her from Berlin to New York via Paris, Ibiza, and Rome, then back through Paris, London, Edinburgh, Manchester and up to her tragic death in Ibiza on 17 July 1988.
The album opens with “Ripcord, Ripcord”, which Connelly wrote surrounding a little known detail about Nico’s life – her rape by a military officer while she was a teenager holding an administrative position for the US Army.
For this album, Connelly worked with producer and long-time collaborator Chris Bruce, who is a band member of Meshell Ndegeocello and also worked with Seal, Aaron Neville, Bob Dylan, The Waterboys, My Brightest Diamond, Cheryl Crow and Sam Phillips. The album was, in part, inspired by the book “You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone” by Jennifer Otter Bickerdicke, who contributed to album liner notes, noting “This is a record to be played at full blast, all the way through, as a commemoration not just to Nico the person, the musician, but to art for art’s sake, for making something because it is important and needs to be done – an idea that is as rare and precious as Nico herself.”
You can check the tracklisting right below.
There are a few video available as well, for “Femme Fatale”, “Ripcord, Ripcord” and “Eulogy to Lenny Bruce”.
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.