Lou Reed’s “Ostrich” Tuning as an Aesthetic Point of Articulation

Abstract

The author argues that an unusual guitar tuning known as "Ostrich" served as a point of articulation between the differing musical practices of Lou Reed and John Cale when they came together as the Velvet Underground. The implications of the tuning, which is composed of unison and octave doublings of a single pitch class, are discussed.

Notes

1 In the science of acoustics, a beat is a perception of interference between two or more waveforms of slightly different frequency. The rate of the beats will correspond to the difference in frequency. See Joseph (26–30) for a more extensive explanation of the role of just intonation in the Theatre of Eternal Music.

2 Cale got the idea to amplify his instrument from Conrad, who in turn got the idea from John Cage, who was attaching contact pickups to unusual items like the Slinky children’s toy.

3 The B-side of “The Ostrich,” “Sneaky Pete,” also seems to feature the Ostrich tuning, though it is difficult to tell for sure through the murky, distorted recording and raucous performance. If this is the case, it might be conjectured that the “Ostrich” tuning was seen as a signature element of the fictional “Primitives” band, itself being a “primitive” tuning.

4 Indian music was in the air in the mid-1960s thanks to the Beatles and the new visibility of musicians like Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan. Early Velvets drummer Angus MacLise may have had an influence, having travelled to India to study drumming there.