Billy Hough tackles 1967’s “Velvet Underground & Nico” in 3 minutes
Legs McNeil gave Billy Hough 3 minutes to unpack as much information about some his favorite things as he could. As a life-long rock nerd, deep reader and cinema geek, Billy has compiled a lifetime’s worth of gossip, trivia and back story on pop culture with an emphasis on the fringes of the scene. Billy writes exhaustive deep dives about Patti Smith, John Cale and others for PKM, but there is always more to the story. “Things You Should Know” is shot live in Provincetown, and gives Billy one last chance to squeeze as much information out as possible before the clock stops.
Billy has written about this iconic album in great detail in his pieces about Nico and John Cale. Here he tries to take a track-by-track approach to the songs, elaborating on the many different innovations this amazing record contains. Billy explains his life-long mission of gaining more visibility for the record’s “real” producer, Tom Wilson, and name-checks several of the surprising characters (Marianne Faithfull) who are tangentially connected to his favorite band.