White Light/White Heat is the second studio album by the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Released on January 30, 1968, by Verve Records, it was the band's last studio album with multi-instrumentalist and founding member John Cale. Recorded after band leader Lou Reed fired Andy Warhol, who had produced their debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico, they hired Steve Sesnick as their new manager and Tom Wilson, who had worked on the band's debut, to produce the album. White Light/White Heat was engineered by Gary Kellgren. Like The Velvet Underground & Nico, the album includes lyrically transgressive themes, exploring topics such as sex, amphetamines, and drag queens. Reed was inspired by a variety of authors, including William S. Burroughs and Alice Bailey, and the lyrics create a cast of characters, such as in "The Gift" and "Sister Ray". Musically, he took influence from avant-garde jazz musicians such as Ornette Coleman. Warhol conceived the album's cover art, although he is officially uncredited. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_L...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)