I was listening to NPR on Friday afternoon, and Monitor Radio had a bit on a woman named Nikko. (Forgive the spelling, I know it's wrong.)
Apparently she was some beautiful, self-destructive model who met Dylan sometime in the 1960s. Dylan introduced her to Andy Warhol, who got her into the music business. She was involved with Lou Reed, and was Jackson Browne's lover when he was 18 or so. I heard part of a version she did of "These Days." Haunting. Beautifully sad.
She died, apparently recently, at age 50. Someone has done a film about her life, and death.
tm@informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de (Thies Meyer) wrote:
>She came from Germany and was singing with Velvet Underground.
>I have no idea how she got in that Warhol/VU thing...
Nico was born in Berlin (1944) and worked in Paris for a time as a model. Through a friendship with the Stones' Brian Jones, she got involved with music. She cut her 1st single, "The Last Mile", in 1965, which was co-written and arranged by Jimmy Page. In 1966, she met Warhol in NYC and appeared in his "Chelsea Girls". Warhol introduced her (1967?) to Lou Reed & John Cale in the VU and she sang on the one album with them and even got featured billing. In 1968, she began her solo career which produced little commercial success. "Rolling Stone" reffered to her trademark singing style as "droning harmonium". I choose to call it boring tho I did enjoy her addition on the one VU album. There was a nice chemistry there that was lacking in he solo efforts, IMOHO.
- Joe
