Songs
The album's oldest composition, "König," was originally recorded for Desertshore and re-recorded some fifteen years later for Camera Obscura. A version was included in the Philippe Garrel fim, La Cicatrice Intérieure (1972). John Cale reportedly wanted to produce the song with a more percussive, synth-based arrangement in keeping with the rest of the material, but Nico insisted it should be kept as a solo harmonium piece.
Another early song re-imagined for the recording sessions was "Tananore," which Nico had performed at a Cale concert in Marseille on April 12, 1975 and kept in her set ever since. Nico had incorporated "My Funny Valentine" into her set since February 1982. "My Heart Is Empty" and "Fearfully in Danger," meanwhile, had been set mainstays since her Library Theatre appearance in Manchester on June 16, 1983.
Nico performed songs from Camera Obscura up until her death, although there are no known performances of opening instrumental "Camera Obscura" or the song "Into the Arena."
Read more about this topic: Camera Obscura (album)
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“Dylan is to me the perfect symbol of the anti-artist in our society. He is against everything—the last resort of someone who doesn’t really want to change the world.... Dylan’s songs accept the world as it is.”
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