GRGR1-Bananas

[David Andignac]

> There was indeed such a rumor, and many believed it enough to create 
> enormous messes and stinks trying to process banana peels into dope.  But

> I don't think the Velvet Underground cover connects with that, or with 
> Gravity's Rainbow.  First, I'm pretty sure the dates of the three things 
> are actually pretty widely scattered -- first the banana-peel thing, then

> the Velvet Underground album, then Gravity's Rainbow -- and second, the 
> drug associated with the Velvet Underground was pretty exclusively
heroin.
> 
First, the banana rumor was still around (or perhaps resurrected) as
recently as 4 years ago when I was in college.

Second, the Banana on the cover of the Velvet Underground originally peeled
off revealing a hot pink banana underneath. I think I remember reading that
Warhol had meant this to signify the wild side lurking beneath the normal
surface appearance. Who knows for sure?

The other thing I have read about this cover art was that the Warhol design
was an attempt to make the album more commercially viable.

David A.