“Venus in Furs” is a song by The Velvet Underground, written by Lou Reed and originally released on the 1967 album The Velvet Underground & Nico. Inspired by the book of the same name by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the song includes sexual themes of sadomasochism, bondage and submission. “Venus in Furs” was one of three songs to be re-recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Hollywood, before appearing on the final mix of The Velvet Underground & Nico (the other two being “Heroin” and “I’m Waiting for the Man”). The music features John Cale’s cacophonous viola as well as Lou Reed’s ostrich guitar, which is a guitar with all of its strings tuned to the same note (albeit in different octaves); in the case of the ostrich guitar, it appears at the end of the song, alongside Reed’s normally strung guitar at standard tuning 1 semitone down, which is much more prominent in the song.
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