Sterling Morrison

Holmes Sterling Morrison Jr. (August 29, 1942 – August 30, 1995) was an American musician, best known as one of the founding members of the rock band the Velvet Underground. He usually played electric guitar, occasionally played bass guitar, and provided backing vocals.

Unlike his Velvet Underground bandmates Lou Reed, Doug Yule, John Cale, Maureen Tucker, and Nico, Morrison never released a solo album or made recordings under his own name. He was nevertheless an essential element of the group's sound, his percussive and syncopated rhythm playing and melodic lead parts providing a foil for Reed's guitar and vocals.

Holmes Sterling Morrison Jr. was born on August 29, 1942, in East Meadow, New York, on Long Island. He had two brothers and two sisters. His parents divorced when he was young and his mother remarried. He met future Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker through her brother Jim, with whom he attended Division Avenue High School in Levittown, New York. Originally playing trumpet, Morrison switched to guitar after his teacher was drafted.

Morrison majored in English at the City College of New York in Manhattan. While visiting Jim Tucker at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, he met Lou Reed, a friend of Tucker and a fellow English student. They met again in New York City in 1963. By this time, Reed had met musician John Cale and was interested in starting a band with him; the two invited Morrison to join.

Reed, Cale, Morrison, and Angus MacLise constituted the original line-up of the Velvet Underground, taking the name from Michael Leigh's book of the same name. Reed sang and played guitar; Morrison played guitar and bass guitar; Cale played viola, bass guitar, and keyboards; and MacLise played percussion. MacLise soon left and was replaced by Moe Tucker.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.