NICO - 'Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams'

Boomp3.com
Artist: Nico
Track: Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (from the LP, Chelsea Girl)
Label: Verve Records
Catalog#: 2353025
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: UK
Released: 1971 (originally 1967)
Credits: Producer - Tom Wilson, Arranged and conducted by Larry Fallon

This month sees a number of tribute concerts marking twenty years since Nico’s death, so I thought it appropriate to feature a track from 'Chelsea Girl', Nico's debut solo album.

So who the hell is this statuesque, German blonde equipped with a voice deeper than the foghorn on the Tirpitz? Nico (real name Christa Päffgen) was arguably the world’s first supermodel; a junkie muse, musical pioneer and formidable femme fatale – all rolled into one. Her music; folky and earthen – reminiscent of Mary Travers (Peter, Paul & Mary) – yet more elegant, isolated and inward.

For her debut album, 'Chelsea Girl', Nico recorded songs by among others; Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin, Jackson Browne and Velvet Underground members... Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison. Lou Reed gave her the song ‘Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams’ (which did not surface as a Velvet Underground recording until it was included in the box set release, ‘Peel Slowly and See’) and for me this is the best track on 'Chelsea Girl'. Not bad for a gal who was tone deaf and couldn't hear in one ear!

The musical backing is hauntingly minimal, featuring one or two guitars. There are no base instruments or drums and the strings and flute arrangements (added in post) create a surreal, almost Baroque–Folk feel to the whole experience.


Nico’s life reads like a Shakespearian play, except her performance was equally romantic, tragic, dramatic…. complex, and for a girl of her fame, she died in rather mundane circumstances. On July 18th, 1988, in Ibiza, Spain, after enjoying a relatively rejuvenated stint (post heroin addiction), Nico suffered a minor heart attack while riding a bicycle, causing her to fall and hit her head. A passing taxi driver found her unconscious and had difficulty getting her admitted to local hospitals. She was incorrectly diagnosed as suffering from exposure and she died the next day. X-rays later revealed a severe cerebral haemorrhage as the cause of her death. She was 49.

Nico was buried in her mother's plot in Grunewald Forest Cemetery in Berlin. At her funeral, a few friends played a tape of ‘Mütterlein’, a song from the album, ‘Desertshore’.

Directions to Nico's grave

Nico's Grave

Check these two great tributes; Life Along the Borderline — a Nico Tribute, curated by John Cale, Southbank Centre, London SE1, Oct 11 2008 and Nico tribute concert curated by Lutz Ulrich, Volksbühne, Berlin, Oct 17, 2008.

Chelsea Girl was reissued last year on the 4 Men With Beards label.