Chapter 28 - You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico

I haven’t time to be a cliché.

Nico                    

Working on The Marble Index proved to John Cale and the higher-­ups at Elektra that he could deliver the goods in the studio. Discussing the label’s reaction to the LP, Cale reflected that ‘that album allowed a lot of European angst to come out and it was really something. We got carte blanche, which didn’t normally happen … [Elektra boss] Jac Holzman told me how much he liked it, which was how I came to produce the Stooges.’ The Stooges were a Danny Fields discovery, hailing from Michigan. Soon after Fields signed the group, they were brought to New York to start recording with Cale. Lead singer Iggy Pop (born James Osterberg) had already publicly confirmed his admiration for the Velvet Underground and Nico. When asked in an interview with Jazz & Pop magazine to name his favourite contemporary artist, Pop responded, ‘I like the Velvet Underground and I’m one of those very few people who really, really like Nico’s music. I love her last album [The Marble Index].’ The trip marked the first time the singer had been to any major metropolis, and it was transformative. ‘I was meeting a lot of people who were unlike anyone I had ever met,’ Pop reflected when I spoke to him. He has a great sense of humour and is disarmingly honest and kind, and his memories provide one of the most thoughtful and honest portraits of Nico. ‘A lot of people who were interesting were artistic people, cultivated, literary in a sense – kind of like my father was. But they weren’t strict like that. They were also more rockin’, like me. This interested me. It was confusing. There weren’t people like that in the Midwest. A lot of these people gravitated around Andy Warhol and his art scene. Among them, I got to know Nico.’

Nico had taken up residence at the Chelsea Hotel and was already starting to think about her next album. She thought the artists’ boarding house would be the perfect place to let inspiration flow and took to going with Cale to the Stooges’ recording sessions, which were taking place at the Hit Factory studio.

‘I don’t remember the specific first time I met Nico. It’s probable that I met her through Danny Fields, but it’s also possible that I met her in our studio through John,’ Pop confides. ‘I do remember she was present at a number of the sessions for the first Stooges album. My earliest memory of her is sitting there with John Cale in the booth. She would sit there going, “Yaah, yaah, this is good … better than the Velvets.”’ Nico watched and listened, knitting throughout the sessions. ‘The two of them [Cale and Nico] looked like refugees from Valley of the Dolls or something,’ says Pop. ‘It was very gothic-looking.’ Cale’s outfit made a particular impression on the young lead singer. ‘John wore a great big, black, velvet, hooded cape like Dracula. It had pink velour inside. The two of them would sit there. It was kind of like the Addams Family … it was like Mr and Mrs Munster,’ says Pop. ‘I got along with her right off.’ So well that soon after their initial meeting, the two became an item. ‘The next night or so, we went to Steve Paul’s club, the Scene, to see Terry Reid play. Jimi Hendrix showed up and we jammed with him,’ recalled Pop’s Stooges bandmate Ron Asheton. ‘After the show, Iggy and I had a beer with Hendrix. Iggy was walking around with Nico, and I was just sitting there snickering, because she was leading him around like he was her kid. She was so tall and he’s so short – they were holding hands, real lovey-dovey. She wouldn’t let him out of her sight.’ The two would often eat lunch at Max’s. Nico made it obvious to everyone that she had dibs on the new arrival from the Midwest. Pop biographer Paul Trynka recounted one particular evening, when photographer Leee Black Childers and actor Jaime Di Carlo spotted the pair standing together, with Nico’s hand thrust firmly down the front of Pop’s trousers.

Danny Fields was not at all surprised by this new romance. ‘You kind of expected that Iggy would be someone Nico would fall in love with,’ Fields asserted. ‘He was everything she would like in a guy: wounded, brilliant, fragile but made of steel, insane, demented. So, it was no surprise. Nico fell in love with everyone who was extremely brilliant, insane, or a junkie. I don’t want to seem cynical, and if I knew it was going to make such history, I would have had a tape recorder, but at the time it was, “Ho hum, Nico’s in love with another poet.”’

During the recording sessions, the Stooges used the Chelsea Hotel as a base for writing songs. It was there that Pop remembers ‘keeping company with her from time to time’. He eventually wrote some of the lyrics for the Stooges track ‘We Will Fall’ in reference to having to wait for Nico at the hotel. For him, their age difference was part of Nico’s allure. ‘She was nine or ten years older than me and I knew she had been around more than I had. I never really thought about it, until one day I saw her passport. It was sort of like having a premonition of what was going to happen to me: years later, I was gonna end up in Berlin. I remember that the picture was black and white and very stark and very German-looking. The name on it was Christa Päffgen. I saw the age and the whole thing … I thought, “Woah!” I didn’t know what to make of that, but I thought, “Wow! This is something else!”

‘I was really thrilled and excited to be around her,’ Pop continues. ‘She was older and from somewhere else, and the first foreign per­son I can remember having a lot of contact with, and I really liked that. I liked that her accent was from somewhere else … everything was from somewhere else. And she was extremely strong. She was like hanging out with a rock singer, like hanging out with a guy, except she had girl’s parts. It was the only difference. Otherwise, it was like a guy. A tough-minded, egotistical, artistic kind of guy.’

In another interview, he went into more detail, saying, ‘She didn’t want to be cuddled or anything. She didn’t want me to whip her either.’ However, Pop did witness her uncertainty about what she would do next and how she fitted in to the changing culture. ‘At key times, she would show tremendous vulnerability, and all of a sudden it would all fall off,’ says Pop. ‘And I would see, here’s some­one over thirty, not a model any more, not a commercial entity in the big business called America … What the fuck is she going to do? Once in a while, that side of it would show itself in the way she would get flustered over something or just sort of be off to the wind. She had a great sadness about her.’

Nico’s vulnerability and isolation touched Pop, who recognized a damaged woman who was not sure where to turn or what to do. ‘You know, [I was] a young, smart-ass rock singer trying to make an impression in New York City, hanging out with a very lost girl, a very lost and fragile personality. I think she was on the rebound. She didn’t really have any relations with the Velvet Underground any more. She wasn’t a top model any more … she was just kind of floating around. I think there had been an affair – with this one, with that one … whichever musician.’

The duality in Nico appealed to Pop, who could appreciate, even at his young age, a soul who was adrift despite all of the outer trap­pings of success. ‘She had all the accoutrements of a really groovy international gal – the right boots, the right sheepskin coat, the right hair and she knew people on the right level – and yet she was fucked up, she had a twist to her.’ Pop was one of the few people that Nico opened up to, the singer recalling, ‘She was never the sort of person who would lie in real life, but she did work in an Andy Warhol enterprise for a while, and Andy Warhol’s directive on how you do an interview is lie! Lie! You must lie!’

Once recording with Cale was done, it was time for the Stooges to return to Michigan. They had taken up residence in a farmhouse – or ‘Fun House’, as it was referred to – located in the middle of a cornfield. Nico decided she would follow her new amour back to the Midwest. ‘When Iggy said, “Nico’s coming,” it was like, “Hey, well cool, we don’t care,”’ said Stooge Ron Asheton. ‘When Nico moved into the Fun House, we hardly saw her, because Iggy kept her up in the attic. The only time we saw her was when we prac­ticed, and we resented her being there because we had a big rule – nobody allowed in the practice room, especially a woman.’ The tall German in residence did cause tension among the bandmates; as Iggy says, ‘The Stooges didn’t want any girl in the house, especially one who had a very deep voice. They would imitate how she talked.’

Nico would watch the band practise, clearly interested in what the young group was creating. ‘She would come to our re  hearsals. We’re just these guys rehearsing in this tiny, little, miserable, destroyed former living room of a farmhouse. She would stand right there and watch and listen to everything we did. The songs were just these primitive riffs, with me kind of caterwauling. She was very attentive to it and checked it out. She said once [does impression of Nico], “You are better than Lou.” I think that was because she was just pissed off at Lou. That’s what I think! That was the only time I ever heard her … she didn’t express [anything bad about the Velvet Underground] or flappability, but she did say that. Maybe she liked the Stooges that much – I don’t really know.’

In many ways, she was the teacher to Pop’s willing student. ‘She’d be very opinionated about my work and this, that and the other thing,’ says Pop. But it wasn’t just his art that Nico was tutoring the twenty-one-year-old in; she also introduced him to some of the more refined aspects of adulthood. ‘She taught me how to eat pussy. She said one day, “You know there is something very nice you can do for me that would make me feel very good.” So she showed me about that, which was a good thing to learn.’

Nico did occasionally take up the role of rock’n’roll den mother, whipping up her vegetarian meals for the unsuspecting young men. ‘She’d try to cook for us. She’d cook pots of brown rice every day and sometimes serve fresh fruit, but mainly brown rice and vege­tables, and it would always have so much Tabasco and hot sauce that nobody could eat it – but she tried. She had an ear infection and she felt the Tabasco would clear her out,’ remembers Pop. Regardless of how edible Nico’s culinary attempts may have been, they were often accompanied by expensive tipples that were new to the Midwestern boys. ‘She’d make these great curry dishes and just leave them on the table with really expensive wines,’ said Ron Asheton. ‘That’s what got us all back into drinking, the great wines Nico turned us on to.’ Nico’s choice of booze also made a huge impression on Pop. ‘The first time I ever had a Beaujolais, that was from Nico. Before that I just had Ripple – a very cheap, very sweet wine. It was the time of year when the Beaujolais wines were coming into season. They mature in September, so she was excited. “We must find some Beaujolais wine!” There was a place called the Big 10 Party Store up the road from the Stooge house, and they had it. I had never had a European wine or anything and I took to that like a duck to water. I was drinking a bottle a day of that and doing other drugs.’ He adds, ‘Nico liked to drink.’ The wines were not just a lesson in being a sommelier; Nico was also teaching Pop how to navigate the music industry. ‘She’d feed me red wines with French names I’d never heard of. That’s how I learned all that bullshit, that’s how I learned to modulate my voice … and speak to record company executives.’

Nico’s choice of food and drink reflected her conflicted persona. ‘She had a mix of so many things. There was a little bit of a top model in there, someone who knew her way around France and made love to Alain Delon and had been in very, very nasty New York and survived. Then there was a little bit of just a very typical somebody who would wear an alternative dress and eat brown rice. Little of this, little of that. Really, really, truly interesting person.’

Yet for all her seemingly sophisticated ways, Nico had genuinely fallen for the young singer. According to Danny Fields, ‘Nico would call me all the time from Ann Arbor, saying, “I don’t know eeeff he loves meee enymore, he’s ignoring meee, oooh, he’s so meeean to meee!” I’d say, “Well, I guess you picked kind of a hard guy to have an affair with.” You know, sorry, but what else is new?’

Nico was also an influence on Pop’s early stage presence. ‘The more we were together, the crazier she seemed and the crazier I became,’ recalls Pop, adding, ‘You know, she was not like the girl next door. She had a way of shaking things up. She had insights, and she would let you know her insights in a briefly worded pas­sage, with 110 per cent assurance that she was right. She’d tell me [does impression of Nico], “You must wear your hair to hide your face. Your face is not to be seen.” That was one. Another one was [does impression of Nico], “You are not yet fully poisoned. Lou is poisoned. Bob Dylan is poisoned. You have not yet got to poisoned. You need to poison,”’ says Pop. ‘She meant I had too much human­ity.’ Looking back, he is clearly moved by how true Nico’s assertions turned out to be. ‘In retrospect, it was like having my own little Greek chorus or something. Or an oracle. I had an oracle on my hands, that is what I had!’

When Nico was in the crowd, Pop began trying out more cha­otic versions of his stage persona during gigs. ‘There was something about her presence that kept me constantly edgy. And I had some of my most dangerous and some pretty nasty shows [with Nico in the audience]. A couple of them were stopped by the police. When we were working in Michigan, she was coming with me to the shows. I didn’t know what that was, whether I was trying to impress her or some influence – I am not sure.’ Nico inspired Pop to make the live shows ever more provocative. A couple of occasions particularly stick out in his memory. ‘It was getting colder, and she gave me a sheep­skin embroidered jacket which she said Jim Morrison had given her. I don’t know if it was so or not, but probably true – she’s not a liar type. One of the gigs I drank all the wine and then broke the wine bottle over the microphone in the middle of the finale because I thought the broken glass would look cool in the light. Which it did, but it cut a teenage audience member. It was sort of controversial. Then there was another gig – it might have been the last time she came to my gig with me – she was there at the show in Romeo, Michigan. I stripped off and sort of counter-attacked the proletariat of rural Michigan. I got arrested by the state police. The band tried to smuggle me out in the trunk of a car, but they [the police] grabbed me.’

Nico’s time with Pop illustrates that she wanted to have an intim­ate, close bond with someone; however, she may have not been equipped or known how to make such a situation last. The romance with the young singer was no different: short, but impactful for Pop. ‘It’s not a long period of time that I spent together with her – maybe a month, I don’t know. But it was important to me,’ he later said. Bandmate Asheton had a slightly different spin on the situation, saying, ‘Nico stayed a long time, about three months. Iggy never said if he was in love with her or not.’

One artefact to come from the romance was a short film shot for ‘Evening of Light’, a track on The Marble Index. It was a special song for Nico. ‘I had a toy piano on “Evening of Light”, a piano for little children, and I started playing and we used that,’ she com­mented later. François de Menil was determined to make a film with the singer, and it was decided that they would make a video for the song. Nico had met de Menil while she lived with Fred Hughes. De Menil became obsessed with the singer and proposed doing a project with her; however, she had recently relocated to Michigan to be with Pop. De Menil was heir to the oil equipment firm Schlumberger fortune, so when Nico insisted on having him drive to Michigan to film there, there were no financial obstacles. She also told the aspiring film-maker that he must feature Pop in the project. De Menil did just that. ‘I think it really pissed off de Menil,’ recalls Pop. ‘At that time, the equipment was really bulky. He didn’t look thrilled about the whole thing, but he put it all in a station wagon and drove to Michigan.’ Filming for the video, which was shot on 16 mm, took place in a barren, icy potato field neigh­bouring the Fun House. ‘There are a lot of farms around there,’ says Pop, ‘and it was she and I and the third person was the Stooges’ road manager [John Adams] at the time.’

The video captures a red-haired Nico, looking hauntingly angelic in a white robe, strolling across the desolate land, before lying down on the ground. Iggy wears tight-fitting leather trousers and a grey T-shirt with the word ‘RATIONAL’ emblazoned across the chest. His face is painted mime white, his features completely obscured. Doll parts are scattered across the landscape as Iggy carries a cross. The final scenes are of the sun setting as the cross is erected and burned against a dark sky. It was a challenging shoot. ‘It was very physical. I did it because she asked me to. I wasn’t going to turn her down. We ran around and around this potato field and mimed with plastic limbs. I never made much sense of it … but I needed dinner that day,’ says Pop.

The film is eerie, gorgeous and incredibly atmospheric. Pop ­credits Nico for coming up with the concept and the symbol­ism. ‘She probably wanted that imagery and told the guy, “Find me a place where we can burn a cross.” A field was just probably convenient as a place where you could start a fire and nothing was going to happen. But, also, the potato has a deep history with the German people. I think it was Charlottenburg castle in Berlin where the first potato cultivation in Europe went on. It was early, and they love their Kartoffels in Germany. The look of that field certainly matched the song, so maybe François has some credit there. The guy was not a hick. He barely deigned to speak to any of us. He was a New York guy supported by an important trust fund, so he didn’t really talk to me. I don’t remember who said what. I just remember I was out there going, “Shit, this is hard! I’m getting tired here!” When you’re on the spot, you definitely try to perform and do the best you can do. As it turns out, it was a wonderful thing. It’s probably the only video I’ve been in that I’ve ever liked! This one was all right. It was her video, not mine, and the music was great.’

When presented to Elektra as a possible promotional vehicle, Evening of Light was swiftly rejected. Attempts by de Menil to get the video broadcast by other media outlets were equally fruitless. However, decades later, Pop is proud of the final result of that after­noon spent in the cold fields of the Midwest. ‘What a great song. It’s a real mind-fucker.’

Ron Asheton had similar memories, saying, ‘We all went out to this farm, and Nico got John Adams to be in it, too, because he looked like a sphinx: big, long, light, curly red hair. It was the dead of winter and we were sitting looking out this picture window, laughing, while they put these mannequin arms all over the field – John with no shirt on, and Iggy with no shirt on, doing nothing. Boy, it was real artsy.’

Nico departed Michigan and Iggy not long after they completed filming Evening of Light. According to Asheton, she left behind an unpleasant reminder: ‘I remember after she left, Iggy came down­stairs looking for some advice. He came up to me and said, “Well, I think something’s wrong, maybe you can tell me what this is?” So he whips out his cock, squeezes it, and green goo comes out. I said, “Buddy, you got the clap.”’

However, it is Nico’s artistry that has stuck with Pop. ‘In my way, I loved her. I had a great admiration for her,’ he says. ‘She was a great, great artist. It was just a real kick to be around her. I’m abso­lutely convinced that someday, when people have ears to hear her, in the same way that people have eyes to see a van Gogh now, that people are gonna just go, “WHOOOAAA!”’