Già la copertina di questo disco del 1966, con due intensi profili sovrapposti di Christa Paffgen, in arte Nico, che qui debutta come fascinosa chanteuse, emana una malinconica dolcezza e una misteriosa sensualità che catturano. E la musica di "Chelsea Girl" (che in origine avrebbe dovuto commentare le immagini dell'omonimo film di Andy Warhol) non è da meno: in queste dieci canzoni, prevalentemente per chitarra e archi, scritte da alcuni tra i più bei nomi del rock, si respira un'aria di sogno, a volte leggera come una giornata d'aprile, a volte buia e plumbea, ma sempre magnetica e seducente.
L'album comincia con due canzoni scritte da un giovanissimo e sorprendente Jackson Browne: "The Fairest of The Seasons" è un brano di struggente dolcezza, grazie agli archi e all'interpretazione accorata di Nico, mentre "These Days" è un quadretto di fresca sensualità, come la più malinconica "Somewhere There's a Feather", sempre di Browne, che troviamo nella seconda parte dell'album.
Ai due pezzi di Browne seguono quattro composizioni firmate da componenti dei Velvet Underground: "Little Sister" è un etereo valzer per harmonium e archi con un testo immaginifico di Lou Reed, mentre la concitata "Winter Song" di John Cale preannuncia la tetra sperimentazione di "It Was a Pleasure Then" (a firma di Reed, Cale e della stessa Nico), brano molto "velvettiano", con atmosfere malate e rarefatte, melodie spezzate, rumori e dissonanze. Altrettanto cupa è "Chelsea Girls", grazie a un testo di Reed (qui coautore, con Sterling Morrison) che parla di donne disperate, droga e violenza. Questo brano è uno dei vertici dell'album, assieme al suadente invito di "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams", in cui la voce sensuale di Nico dà potenza alle visioni poetiche di Lou Reed.
Completano l'album l'ariosa ballata folk "I'll Keep It With Mine", scritta da Bob Dylan, e l'intensa e scarna "Eulogy To Lenny Bruce", di Tim Hardin, spettrale requiem, in cui la voce dolente di Nico, accompagnata solo da una chitarra, chiude con un'ineffabile emozione questo disco davvero senza tempo.
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01 The Fairest of the Seasons (04:09)
Now that it's time
Now that the hour hand has landed at the end
Now that it's real
Now that the dreams have given all they had to lend
I want to know do I stay or do I go
And maybe try another time
And do I really have a hand in my forgetting ?
Now that I've tried
Now that I've finally found that this is not the way,
Now that I turn
Now that I feel it's time to spend the night away
I want to know do I stay or do I go
And maybe finally split the rhyme
And do I really understand the undernetting ?
Yes and the morning has me
Looking in your eyes
And seeing mine warning me
To read the signs carefully.
Now that it's light
Now that the candle's falling smaller in my mind
Now that it's here
Now that I'm almost not so very far behind
I want to know do I stay or do I go
And maybe follow another sign
And do I really have a song that I can ride on ?
Now that I can
Now that it's easy, ever easy all around.
Now that I'm here
Now that I'm falling to the sunlights and a song
I want to know do I stay or do I go
And do I have to do just one
And can I choose again if I should lose the reason ?
Yes, and the morning
Has me looking in your eyes
And seeing mine warning me
To read the signs more carefully.
Now that I smile,
Now that I'm laughing even deeper inside.
Now that I see,
Now that I finally found the one thing I denied
It's now I know do I stay or do I go
And it is finally I decide
That I'll be leaving
In the fairest of the seasons.
02 These Days (03:33)
I've been out walking
I don't do too much talking
These days
These days
These days I seem to think alot
About the things that I forgot to do
And all the times I had
A chance to
I stop my rambling
I don't do too much gambling these days
These days
These days I seem to think a lot
How all the changes came about my way
And I wonder if I'd see another
Highway
I had a lover
I don't think I'd risk another these days
These days
And if I seem to be afraid
To live the life that I have made in song
It's just that I've been losing
So long
La la la la la
La la
I'd stop my dreaming
I won't do too much scheming these days
These days
These days I sit at corner stones
And count the time the quarter turns to ten
Please don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them
03 Little Sister (04:26)
Don't call me home, little sister
Before the night is done
My love and I are fleeing
Running into the sun.
Turn to fly, go away
Little bird, please don't stay
Fare thee well.
Take up all your jewels and gold,
Bury them away in the earth.
Let your memory reduce them to dust
But don't forget the knife that was thrust.
Turn to fly, go away
Little bird, please don't stay
Fare thee well.
Frozen kiss by the fountain
Running into the sea
Where shadows choose their horrors
Designed for music.
Turn to fly, go away,
Little bird, please don't stay,
Fare thee well.
05 It Was a Pleasure Then (08:05)
It was a pleasure then
Could you just be here again
To know what there was to see
When all the Sunday people
Were so quiet in the dark
Afraid to be better the next day
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la.
It was a pleasure then
When we could sit and stare again
Until the stars fell through
The cloudy trees onto the grass
Stars to smile with us
Until they too had tears in their eyes
You tell us this one tale
Of how much we must not agree.
It was a pleasure then
To see the dying days again
In horror of the nights
Never never never
Never be too bright
We've got no secret
Heart to hide somewhere at last
As long as we could see
The sky confess this crime
Of bitter tasting hatefulness
Above our shattered minds.
It was a pleasure
It was a pleasure
La la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la.
06 Chelsea Girls (07:25)
Here's Room 506
It's enough to make you sick
Bridget's all wrapped up in foil
You wonder if she can uncoil.
Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls
Here's Room 115
Filled with S & M queens
Magic marker row
You wonder just high they go.
Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls
Here's Pope dear Ondine
Rona's treated him so mean
She wants another scene
She wants to be a human being.
Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls
Pepper she's having fun
She thinks she's some man's son
Her perfect love's don't last
Her future died in someone's past.
Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls
Dear Ingrid's found her lick
She's turned another trick
Her treats and times revolve
She's got problems to be solved
Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls
Poor Mary, she's uptight
She can't turn out her light
She rolled Susan in a ball
And now she can't see her at all
Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls
Dropout, she's in a fix,
Amphetamine has made her sick
White powder in the air
She's got no bones and can't be scared
Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls
Here comes Johnny Bore,
He collapsed on the floor
They shot him up with milk
And when he died sold him for silk
Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls
Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls
09 Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (05:09)
Wrap your troubles in dreams
Send them all away
Put them in a bottle and
Across the seas they'll stay
Speak not of misfortunes
Speak not of your woes
Just steal yourself a holiday
Crouching by the door
Ride and sway to music's pain
Searing with the sides
Caress it with a lover's touch
For it shall be your bride
Wrap your troubles in dreams
Send them all away
Put them in a bottle
And across the seas they'll stay
Slash the golden whip, it slaps
Across the lover's sides
The earth trembles without remorse
Preparing for to die
Salty ocean waves and sprays
Come crashing to the shore
Bullies kick and kill young loves
Down on barroom floors
Wrap your troubles in dreams
Send them all away
Put them in a bottle
And across the seas they'll stay
Violence echoes through the land
In heart of every man
The knife stabs existent wounds
Pulse runs through matted hair
The gleaming knife cuts early
Through the midnight air
Cutting entrails in its path
Blood runs without care
Excrement filters through the brain
Hatred bends the spine
Filth covers the body pores
To be cleansed by dying time
Wrap your troubles in dreams
Send them all away
Put them in a bottle
And across the seas they'll stay
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