The Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale as covered by Damon, Naomi, and Dean
... and Luna, and Britta, and Angel Corpus Christi, and Nico
A pretty short, and under-researched, post this week since last week I was on a trip to Broughty Ferry (near Dundee) so haven’t had much time at my computer. This week I’m spending a lot of time ferrying my mother-in-law around… so there’s a good chance next week’s post will be a short, under-researched one too!
The Velvet Underground’s Femme Fatale is one of the only non-Galaxie 500 songs to have been covered by all ex-members of Galaxie 500.
Femme Fatale was written by Lou Reed when Andy Warhol asked him to write a song about Edie Sedgwick. The song was sung by Nico and was on their 1967 LP The Velvet Underground & Nico LP (and on the b-side of a Sunday Morning 7”).
Since, you all know the Velvet Underground version, I thought I’d share this astounding performance of the song by Nico in the UK in 1982 backed by The Blue Orchids. It looks a bit ropey, but the performance is utterly entrancing.
Damon & Naomi recorded the track with Ghost (at Ghost’s suggestion) in the sessions for their album Damon & Naomi with Ghost however the track never got released until the 2012 reissue of the album when it appeared on a bonus 7” single with some copies, it later got released on their digital only Spirit of Love (b-sides, bonuses, and soundtracks) album in 2016.
Dean covered the song with Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles at a Big Star tribute in 2014, there was a video on YouTube but sadly it’s gone AWOL so you’ll just have to believe me that it happened. I must admit that I was slightly sad that Dean was at a Big Star tribute and covered a Velvet Underground song rather than a Big Star one!
More recently Luna have been covering the song, with Britta doing the vocal - here they are playing it in Los Angeles in December 2024.
Dean and Britta (and Sonic Boom) also appeared on the cover of Femme Fatale that Angel Corpus Christi released on her Louie Louie CD back in 2003…
… and now, drifting a bit off-topic…
Angel also recorded the song, with vocals, on her I♡NY album…
… and since Dean didn’t cover a Big Star track here are Damon & Naomi who did… with Ghost on the album with Ghost…