Group - White Light/White Heat

White Light/White Heat is the second studio album by the American rock band The Velvet Underground. The record was the group's last with bassist and founding member John Cale. 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 in White Light/White Heat. The band eventually fired Warhol and parted ways with Nico; and ultimately went on to record their second album with a new 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." The album briefly appeared on the Billboard 200, although only peaking at number 199. Despite its poor sales, the distorted, feedback-driven, and roughly recorded sound on White Light/White Heat became a notable influence on punk and experimental rock. In 2003, the album was ranked number 292 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.