Nico, Songs They Never Play On The Radio - James Young

 

This book was actually referenced by the author of You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone, and it was written by the pianist that performed with Nico in her later years. Young simply fell into the band by the fact that he had a previous relationship with the man who was managing Nico at the time, and really had no experience in rock bands, much less a band of junkies. He is frank in his descriptions of the characters involved and writes in an intelligent fashion with tales of fairly crazy times.

His duration with Nico sounds pretty bleak'n'dire - to the point that you have to wonder if there is at least some exaggeration, although living with junkies certainly can be bleak'n'dire, to say the least. Considering the fact that Young was, apparently, pretty straight-laced before this experience, you have to wonder why he stayed in the described squalor, especially as he claims that basically no money was coming in, even when there were shows'n'tours. There must have been some impetus, although he never says what it might have been.

He obviously does have some fondness for Nico and their history together, although he is frank about how difficult she could be, especially when jonesing for junk. But despite everything, there seems to have been some fun, as well, even if it was few and far between. Things did appear to improve as time went on and she released a record with Beggar's Banquet, which upped her notoriety, and they did recordings'n'tours with John Cale, who, although Young does not have many kind words for him, the association certainly helped Nico's stance.

Young did play with Nico for her final gig, which apparently was bootlegged eventually, and he was one of the few in attendance at her funeral, even if he only got a second hand (at best) description of her final days'n'hours, as is the case with most everyone other than her son, who she was staying with at the time.

Even with the ostensible poetic license, Young does give a down to earth description of life on the road, everywhere from Europe to American to Australia to Japan, so I suppose if really is no wonder that he stayed with her, seeing as where else would he have gotten these experiences, even in the anarchistic ways that they traveled.

This is only meant to be a snippet of Nico's life, but the road was her life for the final decade or so for her, so this is a fairly appropriate requiem. Worthwhile for anyone interested in how small bands tour (although the junkies here add an extra bit of danger'n'grotesquery that most groups do not have to deal with. In any case, he does entertain throughout.