'I'm Not Sayin'' was Nico's first single, released in 1965, two years before she guested on the Velvet Underground's debut. Andrew Loog Oldham, manager of the Rolling Stones, was introduced to her by Brian Joes, who had 'discovered' her potential, with her then working as a model and actress in various minor films. Jones also introduced her to Andy Warhol, triggering him to ask the Velvet Underground to take her on as a 'chanteuse'. Having got her to record a version of Gordon Lightfoot's 'I'm Not Sayin', Oldham released it as the third single on his own record label, Immediate Records, under the moniker 'The Beautiful Nico', and filmed a promotional video of her in a London dockyard. Interestingly, the session musician Oldham brought in to play the 12-string was a very young Jimmy Page. Later in her career, she was known for a markedly different style, using her harsh Germanic voice and passion for bleak organs to produce some of the most genuinely terrifying music I have ever heard. This, however, is fairly upbeat, throwaway pop that bears little resemblance to anything that came later. It is clearly nowhere near her best release, but there is something about the way she sings it that makes me wonder how she's have turned out if she hadn't been quite such a depressive personality.
Here's a better-quality mp3 too, as the sound in the above YouTube clip isn't great -
The Beautiful Nico - I'm Not Sayin'
