The connection between Andy Warhol and music

WYEP takes a look back at how the legendary art icon and Pittsburgh native interacted with music, whether as a cover art designer, music impresario, music video producer, and as an inspiration to many songwriters over the years. Listen to WYEP’s one-hour program to hear an exploration of Warhol’s connection to music and musicians like Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, Blondie, David Bowie, The Cars, Jonathan Richman, The Rolling Stones and many more. Below you’ll find some of Warhol’s album artwork, music videos he directed, clips from his MTV show, and an extensive list of songs that make reference to Warhol.

Warhol designed the cover art for a wide variety of albums, both in his pre-fame days as a commercial artist as well as after he became a household name with his pop art. Below is an interactive display of 25 of the albums he designed or ones that were based on his art. (In the case of the 1984 self-titled release by The Smiths, the cover art was designed by The Smiths’ Morrissey using an image from Warhol’s 1968 movie Flesh. The 1986 Debbie Harry album was designed by Stephen Sprouse using a Warhol screen-print as its background.)

Hover over the album to see the artist, title, and year of release. (Mobile users: tap on the image to see info)

Here are several music videos directed by Andy Warhol. (See if you can spot Andy’s cameo appearances!)

Warhol also hosted a talk show briefly on MTV, called Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes. Below are several clips from the series.

Andy Warhol in Song

Andy Warhol would have celebrated his 90th birthday this week, the pop artist made an impact on music by helping introduce the influential Velvet Underground to the world, as well as designing album covers and music videos. Warhol’s indirect influence on music is significant as well, there are many musicians who name drop the artist in their songs. Here’s a look at some of them along with a somewhat comprehensive* list of songs that mention Andy Warhol.

“Andy Warhol” – Dana Gillespie

This song about Warhol is best known from David Bowie’s 1971 album “Hunky Dory”. This version is sung by Dana Gillespie, a friend of Bowie’s who sang backup on his “Ziggy Stardust” album. Gillespie actually recorded her version about the same time as Bowie recorded his, but her version wasn’t released until 1973. Both the Bowie and Gillespie versions feature Mick Ronson on guitar. Bowie sent Warhol an advance copy of the song (which now lives in the collection of the Warhol Museum) but according to a 1987 interview, Bowie was never sure if Warhol liked it or not.

“Andy’s Chest” – Lou Reed 

This track just name checks Warhol in the title, but was inspired by the 1968 incident where Warhol was shot in the chest multiple times by Valerie Solanas. Originally recorded by the Velvet Underground in 1969, Reed shelved the song until 1972 when he released it on his “Transformer” album (The VU’s version would eventually be released in 1985) . The reference to Andy’s chest is of the multitude of scars left behind from the shooting, which damaged his spleen, lungs, stomach, liver and esophagus. Although Warhol usually hid his scars, he did show them for a series of 1969 photographs by Richard Avedon. Reed wrote about Warhol in song more than once, in 1990, he and John Cale recorded “Songs for Drella” an entire album of songs about Warhol’s life.

“A Simple Desultory Philippic” – Simon & Garfunkel

The subtitle to this 1965 Paul Simon composition is “How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission”, and features Simon & Garfunkel doing their best Bob Dylan impression. Name dropping many cultural figures from the 60’s like Jack Kerouac, John Lennon, Cassius Clay, Lenny Bruce, Dylan Thomas and of course, Andy Warhol. Certainly, Simon and Garfunkel are having some fun poking fun at Bob Dylan, and American culture at the time.

“Chocolate Cake” – Crowded House

Among of the more better-known songs that mention Warhol, The Finn Brothers do their fare share of name dropping on this track (including Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elvis Presley, Tammy Faye Bakker, Pablo Picasso). Critical of the culture of consumption, Warhol is mentioned as “spinning in his grave” at the notion of “cheap Picasso fakes.”

“Drunk in Love” – Beyonce (feat. Jay-Z)

After Warhol’s death, his individual paintings were valued in the millions, his name began to appear in songs as a thing. Warhol’s work took on a level of status, having the ability to buy a Warhol was a way of showing off wealth. Jay-Z and Beyonce are said to have a sizable art collection and he name drops Warhol here, in this case “messing up” his Warhol in throes of drunken lovemaking. In fact, Jay-Z’s name appears multiple times on the list below, coming in only behind Lou Reed in mentioning Warhol in song.

“Something Worth Leaving Behind” – Lee Ann Womack

In her 2002 song, Country star Lee Ann Womack mentions Warhol (along with Leonardo Da Vinci, Marilyn Monroe, Mozart and Elvis) in the opening verse of this song, following with “you gotta die to be famous”. A veiled reference perhaps to Warhol’s well-known “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” quote. There are more than one references to this Warhol quote used in songs on this list, including others from Van Morrison and Tin Machine.

“Dancing Together” – David Byrne & Fatboy Slim featuring Sharon Jones

This track was written by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim for “Here Lies Love”, their musical based on the life of former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. The musical debuted in 2013, but three years prior, the duo released an album of all the songs from it sung by various women. Sharon Jones takes the vocals on this track about Marcos hobnobbing with many New York nightlife luminaries in the 1970’s, including Andy Warhol.

Check out the rest of the list below (This is not a complete list, but we are working on it. If you notice a song missing, please let us know):