29 Facts About Sterling Morrison

Unlike bandmates Lou Reed, Doug Yule, John Cale, Maureen Tucker and Nico, Morrison never released a solo album or made recordings under his own name.

Sterling Morrison was nevertheless an essential element of the group's sound as a guitarist whose percussive and syncopated rhythm playing and melodic lead parts provided the foil for Lou Reed's improvisational rhythm and lead guitar riffs.

Sterling Morrison was born on August 29,1942, in the Long Island town of East Meadow, New York.

Sterling Morrison's parents divorced when he was young and his mother remarried.

Sterling Morrison first met future Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker during childhood, through her brother Jim, who attended Division Avenue High School in Levittown, New York, with Morrison.

Originally playing trumpet, Sterling Morrison switched to guitar after his teacher was drafted.

Sterling Morrison majored in English at the City College of New York.

Reed sang and played guitar, Sterling Morrison played guitar, Cale played viola, bass and keyboards and MacLise was playing bongos, hand drums, tabla, tambourines and the cimbalom.

Sterling Morrison primarily played guitar on the band's first two albums, although when Cale, the band's usual bassist, played viola or keyboards in the studio or on stage, Sterling Morrison often filled in on bass.

Additionally, Sterling Morrison frequently sang backing vocals and the occasional lead vocal spot.

Sterling Morrison repeatedly remarked that "Venus in Furs", from the band's debut album, was his personal favorite of all of The Velvet Underground's songs, as he felt that the group had achieved with that one track, to a greater degree than any other, the sound the band had in mind.

In 1970, when the band was back in New York City to play an entire summer's engagement at Max's Kansas City, Sterling Morrison seized the opportunity to complete his undergraduate degree at the City College of New York.

Sterling Morrison remained in the Velvet Underground as lead guitarist after Reed left the band in acrimonious circumstances in August 1970.

When it was time for the band to return to New York, Sterling Morrison packed an empty suitcase and accompanied them to the gate of their departing plane, before finally telling them he was staying in Texas and leaving the band, the last founding member to quit.

Sterling Morrison began to work on Houston tugboats as a deckhand to supplement his income in the mid-1970s; when he was forced to relinquish his teaching assistantship some years later, he was licensed as a master mariner and became the captain of a Houston tugboat, a vocation he pursued throughout the 1980s.

Sterling Morrison was part of her touring band for most of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Sterling Morrison argued that Doug Yule, who had replaced Cale in 1968, should be included to fill out the sound, but Reed and Cale vetoed him.

Sterling Morrison's playing held up well, and his performances were generally agreed to be top-notch.

Sterling Morrison joined Maureen Tucker's band for a tour in 1994.

In late 1994, Sterling Morrison was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; and, as his health deteriorated, he could no longer play guitar.

Sterling Morrison was visited by his former bandmates Reed and Tucker; according to Reed, when he visited Morrison for the last time, he was bedridden, had lost weight and his hair, but never complained about his lymphoma and described it as "leaves in the fall".

Sterling Morrison died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on August 30,1995, one day after his 53rd birthday.

Doug Yule, another Velvet Underground member, wrote an obituary for Sterling Morrison following his death.

In March 2001, Sterling Morrison was remembered through a tribute set at the Austin Music Awards during the South by Southwest Festival.

An SXSW panel on Sterling Morrison successfully convened that year, with Cale and others remembering their friend.

Sterling Morrison was the subject of an oral history, Velvet Underdog, in The Austin Chronicle that year.

Sterling Morrison's surviving family includes his widow, Martha, his son, Thomas, and his daughter, Mary Anne, all of whom reside in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Sterling Morrison got the rights to all the songs on Loaded so now he's credited for being the absolute and singular genius of the Underground, which is not true.

Sterling Morrison co-wrote "Chelsea Girls" with Reed, the title track to Nico's debut solo album.