46 years ago - Velvet underground released ''White Light/ White Heat''

White Light/White Heat is the second studio album by American rock band The Velvet Underground, released in 1968. It was the band's last with violist and founding member John Cale. In 2003, the album was ranked #293 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.After the disappointing sales of the Velvet Underground's first album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, the band's relationship with Andy Warhol deteriorated. They toured throughout most of 1967. Many of their live performances featured noisy improvisations that would become key elements on White Light/White Heat. The band eventually fired Warhol and parted ways with Nico; and ultimately went on to record their second album with Tom Wilson credited as producer.

The album was recorded in just two days, and with a noticeably different style than The Velvet Underground & Nico. John Cale described White Light/White Heat as "a very rabid record...The first one had some gentility, some beauty. The second one was consciously anti-beauty." Sterling Morrison said, "We were all pulling in the same direction. We may have been dragging each other off a cliff, but we were all definitely going in the same direction. In the White Light/White Heat era, our lives were chaos. That's what's reflected in the record."

During the recording of "Sister Ray", producer Tom Wilson reportedly left the studio rather than endure the cacophony.[

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