The Velvet Underground was an American band from the 1960s using unique guitar sounds and mysterious punky lyrics. They helped influence the punk and alternative rock movements that started in the 1970s. Art rock was a new experimental genre of music that started in the 60’s and David Bowie and The Velvet Underground fell into this new sound, by pushing the envelope with every new release.
    In a PBS interview, Bowie remembers getting his first The Velvet Underground record, “My then manager brought back an album, it was just a plastic demo of Velvet’s very first album in the 1965-ish, something like that. He was particularly pleased because Warhol has signed the sticker in the middle, I still have it by the way. He said, ‘I don’t know why he’s doing music, this music is as bad as his painting’ and I thought, ‘I’m gonna like this.’ I never heard anything quite like it, it was a revelation to me.” This album was a big influence on Bowie, he says it ‘influenced what he was trying to do.’ David Bowie and Velvet’s front man, Lou Reed became quite friendly around 1971, and the pair were eager to work together. Bowie would help Reed produce his first solo LP, Transformer in 1972.

     Their friendship was rocky at times.  The most infamous scuffle between the two was in 1979 when Reed punched Bowie during a dinner after an argument when Bowie suggested that Reed ‘clean up his act.’ Despite this, the two were lifelong friends up until Lou Reed’s death in 2013.