Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
From '' Rock 'N Roll / Box Of Old Roses ''
Label: Paramount Records – PAA-0133
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single
Country: US
Released: Dec 1971
Tracklist
A Rock 'N Roll
Written-By – Lou Reed
B Box Of Old Roses
Written-By – W. R. Cooke
Producer – Bob Ezrin
© 2005 Warner Strategic Marketing
℗ 2005 Warner Strategic Marketing
💿 [SONG INFO]
"Rock & Roll" (sometimes spelled Rock 'n' Roll) is a song by the Velvet Underground, originally appearing on their 1970 album Loaded.
The song was written by the Velvets' leader Lou Reed, who continued to incorporate the song into his own live performances years later as a solo artist.
The song recounts the advent of rock and roll music, telling the story of a girl named Jenny whose "...life was saved by rock 'n' roll."
In the liner notes to the Velvet Underground's box set Peel Slowly and See, Lou Reed wrote, "'Rock and Roll' is about me. If I hadn't heard rock and roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet. Which would have been devastating - to think that everything, everywhere was like it was where I come from. That would have been profoundly discouraging. Movies didn't do it for me. TV didn't do it for me. It was the radio that did it."
The song also appears on the albums 1969: The Velvet Underground Live; Live MCMXCIII; Loaded: Fully Loaded Edition; American Poet; Another View; Rock 'n' Roll Animal; Live in Italy; Rock and Roll: an Introduction to The Velvet Underground.; Rock and Roll Diary: 1967–1980.
Notable covers and pop culture uses
"Rock & Roll" has appeared in a number of films, including A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Rock 'n' Roll High School and SLC Punk!
A clip of the Velvet Underground performing the song is played on completion of the Rock & Roll wonder in Civilization IV.
In addition, the quote about researching the technology "Radio," read by Leonard Nimoy, is "...then one fine morning she puts on a New York station.... You know, her life was saved by rock & roll." The quote is credited to Lou Reed.
Mitch Ryder's band Detroit, which featured Lou Reed's future guitarist Steve Hunter, performed one of the first cover versions of the song in 1971, changing the lyric "New York station" to "Detroit station".
Other artists to cover the song include The Runaways, changing the aforementioned lyric to "L.A. station".
The band Jane's Addiction, though also from Los Angeles, uses Reed's original "New York station" in its cover version of the song.
🔗 [LINKS]
Available on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/track/2xwmCqhDRnKs6V0RA6jJ3l
and Apple Music:
music.apple.com/gb/song/rock-n-roll/972728020
From '' Rock 'N Roll / Box Of Old Roses ''
Label: Paramount Records – PAA-0133
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single
Country: US
Released: Dec 1971
Tracklist
A Rock 'N Roll
Written-By – Lou Reed
B Box Of Old Roses
Written-By – W. R. Cooke
Producer – Bob Ezrin
© 2005 Warner Strategic Marketing
℗ 2005 Warner Strategic Marketing
💿 [SONG INFO]
"Rock & Roll" (sometimes spelled Rock 'n' Roll) is a song by the Velvet Underground, originally appearing on their 1970 album Loaded.
The song was written by the Velvets' leader Lou Reed, who continued to incorporate the song into his own live performances years later as a solo artist.
The song recounts the advent of rock and roll music, telling the story of a girl named Jenny whose "...life was saved by rock 'n' roll."
In the liner notes to the Velvet Underground's box set Peel Slowly and See, Lou Reed wrote, "'Rock and Roll' is about me. If I hadn't heard rock and roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet. Which would have been devastating - to think that everything, everywhere was like it was where I come from. That would have been profoundly discouraging. Movies didn't do it for me. TV didn't do it for me. It was the radio that did it."
The song also appears on the albums 1969: The Velvet Underground Live; Live MCMXCIII; Loaded: Fully Loaded Edition; American Poet; Another View; Rock 'n' Roll Animal; Live in Italy; Rock and Roll: an Introduction to The Velvet Underground.; Rock and Roll Diary: 1967–1980.
Notable covers and pop culture uses
"Rock & Roll" has appeared in a number of films, including A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Rock 'n' Roll High School and SLC Punk!
A clip of the Velvet Underground performing the song is played on completion of the Rock & Roll wonder in Civilization IV.
In addition, the quote about researching the technology "Radio," read by Leonard Nimoy, is "...then one fine morning she puts on a New York station.... You know, her life was saved by rock & roll." The quote is credited to Lou Reed.
Mitch Ryder's band Detroit, which featured Lou Reed's future guitarist Steve Hunter, performed one of the first cover versions of the song in 1971, changing the lyric "New York station" to "Detroit station".
Other artists to cover the song include The Runaways, changing the aforementioned lyric to "L.A. station".
The band Jane's Addiction, though also from Los Angeles, uses Reed's original "New York station" in its cover version of the song.
🔗 [LINKS]
Available on Spotify:
open.spotify.com/track/2xwmCqhDRnKs6V0RA6jJ3l
and Apple Music:
music.apple.com/gb/song/rock-n-roll/972728020
