Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

those Velvets Forum trainspotters mean business man.

http://www.paulvates.com/images/gatwickshuttle.jpg

But yeah, the "Beginning" with Cale is mentioned in the Unterberger book - recorded at the "Mr. Rain" session apparently? With "fuzz bass"? There was talk of it appearing on a projected WL/WH "deluxe edition, I think. Which never came out obv.

LOL, yeah, obv.

But ... maybe now that this singles set has come out, there's a chance of more VU material coming out officially? I think I read that Lou wasn't into having any more live stuff come out.

Hmmm, so I'm listening to this "Retinal Circus" VU show -- and I'm pretty sure some of these takes are the same as appear on Live 1969. Haven't a/b'd them or anything. It's an uncut tape of the show, though, which hasn't circulate as far as I know ... I think that those songs were thought to be from the Matrix, wonder what the deal is! MYSTERY. Sounds great, anyway.

yeh, the wh/wh posted above is the same as the version on the live 69 album

er wl/wh

Yeah, same w/ "heroin", "what goes on", "new age" so far. it's funny to hear these songs w/ audience applause -- on 1969 they cut off almost immediately, sort of giving the impression that the VU was playing to barely anyone. But here they've got a totally enthusiastic crowd. And why not, considering the godlike awesomeness of this "What Goes On."

so I'm fairly certain that these are ALL tracks from Live 1969, albeit in unedited form ... Maybe "Some Kinda Love" is different? Not sure.

interesting... now that u mention it the track times look very similar.

going to John Cale talk at MoMA monday!

What? Nobody told me about it.

Oh, I see.

OK, I'm there.

John Cale talk is being postponed. Very sad.

What was he supposed to talk about? Something specific, or just the Art of Being John Cale?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou0NJ_9IA4g

Sweet Jesus "Venus in Furs" sounds amazing here!

check the moma website under "Looking at Music 2". I think it as mostly about some art instillation/film he's got in the Venice Biennual now or something?

I was hoping he was going to talk in Welsh, about being Welsh.

I think he was going to interview Joe Walsh, about eating Welsh Rarebit.

Cale and Walsh need to restart their long-dormant collab Walsh Rarebit ... shit was off the hook.

ahem ILX user tylerw please report to the "five jazz album runs" voting thread

Damn, gotta check out that Unterberger book. Boring writer but his subject matter's always interesting.

Yeha, often when Unterberger inserts an opinion into his Velvets book, I find myself disagreeing with him. But as a reference, and as a history of the band, I think it's unparalleled. Also, tons of great photos/posters/ephemera, stuff I'd never seen before. And I appreciate that he has in fact listened to the bootlegs, which a lot of writers before him don't seem to have done. In general he doesn't seem too down with the experimental side of the group, even though he does give plenty of space to Cale's pre-VU work, as well as Angus MacLise, which is nice.

There's no way I am gonna be able to finish reading it, tbh.

OK, so I'm familiar with the differences between the original "closet mix" of the 3rd LP and the Valentin (sp?) mix that was put out in the 80's reissue series. I know that "Some Kinda Love" is a different take altogether on the Valentin one. My trainspotter question is: which mix does the recent 4 Men With Beards reissue have? "Cause I already have an original closet one and am kicking myself for not picking the alternate mix up a few years ago when it was cheap.

4M reissue has the Valentin mix.

awesome, thanks.

Think I prefer the Valentin mix, tbh. At least, the take of "Some Kinda Love" is superior.

preordered Kugelberg has arrived

is it mainly photos/posters and stuff? not sure if I need to shell out the $$$ ... Does it come with a CD or something?

I went to Kugelberg's apt once to talk about some post-punk/DIY stuff, and in this one room where he had his record collection, or small portions of it, he had all these cabinets with 12" sized panels, and in each panel was a copy of the first Velvet Underground record. Perhaps different states of peeling, different pressings, different photo states on the back, I don't remember, it was pretty impressive though.

Blimey, how many have I got now? I have the UK original, the Banana one with a 97% intact banana, um.... Oh, an HMV box set version, a deluxe CDversion, oh and how many more...

Wow, mono White Light/White Heat from that Nuns Seawall blog is making me really happy. Of everything I've heard of theirs (Matrix excepted) that's the thing that most needs a legit release (and I kind of wonder why it hasn't happened already).

Yeah, not sure why they haven't followed up that deluxe VU&Nico from six or seven years ago with deluxe editions of White Light and the third album ... Maybe VU&Nico didn't do that well, since it didn't have any unreleased stuff on it?

i thought these would've come out domestically by now, but i scored Japanese versions a couple/few years ago of wl/wh, s/t, 1969 live, and V.U.
the only one that's not a big improvement is '69 live. both white light, and the velvet underground really sound noticeably "better"(IMO) than the mid-1990's releases. and v.u. sounds greatly improved over its original cd release

LPs? Yeah, I got the 3rd album, it was the only Valentin version readily available at the time.

Oh, and does the V.U. one have that intro on "Foggy Notion" snipped from the CD?

Hey, this is the trainspotting thread, innit?

I'll be picking up that singles box tomorrow from the postie!

Will report back tomorrow.

Oh, and does the V.U. one have that intro on "Foggy Notion" snipped from the CD?

I believe that this is only on the original 1985 vinyl pressing but I dunno about the new 4 Men one. It's definitely not on the '85 CD.

speaking of trainspotting, check out this alternate version of VU!

Pre-release cassette sent to radio stations contained what was to be the original version of the album, with different mixes and with Ferryboat Bill in place of Ocean (version different from the Another View one).

(from http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/index.html , a great resource)

Yeah, he actually bought "Sweet Sister Ray" off me!

yeah, that site is vu trainspotter heaven.

http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/pep/pepdesc.cfm?id=6084

a panel/talk...or something else?

25-minute "What Goes On" jam w/ Fricke on vocals? Where's Cale? (glad they're including Doug in this stuff, though! YULE RULES)

lol at "the Beatles of New York"

this is so weird.
I just compiled a bibliography of VU stuff available at libraries in my town for my reference class.
Now they are playing at the new york public library.

yeah, must be a panel. I really can't imagine them playing. I \mean, without Sterling.

maybe they'll do some stuff off of "Squeeze."

so going back to that "Retinal Circus" bootleg mentioned upthread -- it is definitely the uncut show from whence a great deal of the Live 1969 LP was drawn. So it's not new performances, but holy shit, it is like the best concert ever. it's weird though -- I wonder where it's actually recorded. In the Unterberger book, he attributes that stuff to the Matrix in SF. WILL WE EVER KNOW.

https://www.discogs.com/release/6210824-Lou-Reed-Early-Lou-Pre-Velvet-Underground-Recordings-1958-1965

I got this one about a year ago.

This LITA one is only download, yeah?

2LP, CD, download

Ta.

Weird track spacing, 8 tracks on each side of the first LP, 4 on side 3 and 5 on side 4

I've just noticed a really interesting (to me anyway) connection with Lou Reed's later career. Terry Phillips, the main producer and songwriter at Pickwick and (I think) the guy who hired Lou Reed in the first place, produced Larry Young's 1975 album, "Larry Young's Fuel", on which the bass player was... Fernando Saunders! Also it was on Arista, the label Lou Reed was just about to sign for.

Wow

Fernando had played, maybe recorded, with Bohannon as well--said Lou was super-impressed by that, and that it may have been the tipping point re getting (longterm) Reed gig.

Yeah, press sheet for this Pickwick collection has Terry P. saying that he hired Lou for his writing, but also foresaw singing and playing getting sharper; "I thought he could be all that he became."

There was a very full article in a recent "Strange Things" which went into full detail about the pickwick years. Terry P pretty much freed Lou from his contract as soon as he started to make inroads with the Velvet Underground, so on the whole a good guy. I believe Nilsson had a similar pre-fame career, and told his guys it was fine for them to make the "Early Years" comps as he had already been paid for them.

I thought I'd heard the La Cave '68 bootleg before now, but I'm starting to think maybe I hadn't. This is really great!