December 1970

Desertshore is Nico’s otherworldly masterpiece. It is an illusion – a mirage. A dichotomy of the desolate, dry desert, and the living, breathing ocean.

The album is sequenced in order of allied keys, slipping song by song to the relative minor – a classical song cycle. Desertshore is Nico’s supernatural requiem to pain and solitude through the drone of her harmonium and the sweetness or dissonance of John Cale’s viola and piano. A beautiful nightmare welcoming death’s release.

As mentioned in the biography Nico: The Life and Lies of an Icon, by Richard Witts (1993) Ornette Coleman told Nico that the normal way to approach a keyboard was to play the chords with the left hand in the lower register and the melody higher up with the right hand. He suggested that she reverse this — and she did, with striking results.

Melody Maker called Desertshore ‘a medieval ruin of a record.’ The album includes two stunningly sad ballads, ‘Alone’ and ‘My Only Child’. One song is sung by her young son, Ari. ‘Janitor of Lunacy’ is for Brian Jones and ‘The Falconer’ for Andy Warhol…

“Father child
Angels of the night
Silver flame
my candlelight”

Here is Nico’s song for Andy, ‘The Falconer’ from her masterpiece Desertshore…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QZu8FrzgpU&list=RD7QZu8FrzgpU

And a wonderful version from from Philippe Garrel’s  Le Lit de la vierge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxN8VFAAQ6A

The falconer is sitting on
His summer sand at dawn
Unlocking flooded silver cages
And with a silver din arise
All the lovely faces
And the lovely silvertraces erase
My empty pages

The falconer is sitting on
His summer sand at dawn
Beside his singing silver waves
And his dancing rebe lrace
That compose ahead of timeless time
A sound inside my candle light

Father child
Angels of the night
Silver friend
my candlelight

Father child
Angels of the night
Silver friend
my candlelight

The falconer is sitting on
His summer sand at dawn
Unlocking flooded silvercages
And with a silver din arise
All the lovely faces
And the lovely silver traces erase
My empty pages