"...and then my MIND split open!": The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat POLL

ah.

"booker T" on the peel slowly box set is pretty much a different thing than "the gift" tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdBwxDBXQSk
vs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egFezSPH4D8

Will have to dig it out.

I have that New Zealand "What goes on" set also

In fact, what haven't I got?

I just found out that the UK Universal edition of the box comes with a free flexidisc of Booker T from the Gymnasium for the initial batch of orders from the website
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-velvet-underground-to-reissue-white-light-white-heat-20131001#ixzz2gV5XHFqJ

I thought it was already on the Gymnasium disc supposedly. & on the Peel Slowly & See box.

I thought the track was an improvisation on a theme so open to pretty wide difference gig to gig and it has always been put forward as the track that The Gift was read to. Don't remember having read or seen anything about the story recitation being played live, as I've come across being talked about elsewhere since this box set was announced. Which may be triggered by the tracklisting that's been announced.

They certainly played it live at the gig I was at!

Yeah, they did it on the '93 tour. It's funny, on the live album you can hear the cheers as they build up to the climax of the story.

I was thinking more of the original Cale era. Was Murder Mystery done live in the Yule era?
Both strike me as studio experiments. Very wordy to remember during a gig.

I love this album too much to participate in this thread.

they did bits of the murder mystery at the end of various sister rays in the yule era.
iirc cale read the gift off of a sheet of paper at the 93 gigs.

Yeah was thinking that it must have been read off something.

But also that something done by the reunion band after the track had had several decades to sink in with the audience wasn't necessarily the way that it would have been presented originally.

& both Booker T and The Gift instrumental appear to be approaching something based on the same groove/riff whatever from different focuses.

But one's a fairly boring 12-bar and the other's an awesome one chord choogle

(... well it's not one chord, but no changes nonetheless)

iirc cale read the gift off of a sheet of paper at the 93 gigs.

― tylerw, Sunday, October 6, 2013 10:15 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, he did. I remember from Ira Kaplan's adorably gushing review of their Paris show in Spin something like, "A music stand is being brought out. 'The Gift'? Yep, called it!"

Looks like they're also putting out a 2-disc Deluxe Edition of WL/WH that surprisingly doesn't include the mono version of the album but does include the Gymnasiuim concert!

Disc: 1
1. WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (STEREO VERSION)
2. THE GIFT (STEREO VERSION)
3. LADY GODIVA'S OPERATION (STEREO VERSION)
4. HERE SHE COMES NOW (STEREO VERSION)
5. I HEARD HER CALL MY NAME (STEREO VERSION)
6. SISTER RAY (STEREO VERSION)
7. I HEARD HER CALL MY NAME (STEREO VERSION)(ALTERNATE TAKE)
8. GUESS I'M FALLING IN LOVE (STEREO VERSION)(INSTRUMENTAL VERSION)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
9. TEMPTATION INSIDE YOUR HEART (STEREO VERSION)(ORIGINAL MIX)
10. STEPHANIE SAYS (STEREO VERSION)(ORIGINAL MIX)
11. HEY MR. RAIN (STEREO VERSION)(VERSION ONE)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
12. HEY MR. RAIN (STEREO VERSION) (VERSION TWO)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
13. BEGINNING TO SEE THE LIGHT (STEREO VERSION)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED EARLY VERSION)

Disc: 2
1. WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (MONO VERSION)
2. THE GIFT (MONO VERSION)
3. LADY GODIVA'S OPERATION (MONO VERSION)
4. HERE SHE COMES NOW (MONO VERSION)
5. I HEARD HER CALL MY NAME (MONO VERSION)
6. SISTER RAY (MONO VERSION)
7. WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (MONO VERSION)(MONO SINGLE MIX)
8. HERE SHE COMES NOW (MONO VERSION)(MONO SINGLE MIX)
9. THE GIFT (MONO VERSION)(VOCAL VERSION)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
10. THE GIFT (MONO VERSION)(INSTRUMENTAL VERSION)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)

Disc: 3
1. BOOKER T. (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)
2. I'M NOT A YOUNG MAN (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
3. ANYMORE (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)
4. GUESS I'M FALLING IN LOVE (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)
5. I'M WAITING FOR THE MAN (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
6. RUN RUN RUN (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
7. SISTER RAY (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
8. THE GIFT (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)

That was supposed to look like this:

Disc: 1
1. WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (STEREO VERSION)
2. THE GIFT (STEREO VERSION)
3. LADY GODIVA'S OPERATION (STEREO VERSION)
4. HERE SHE COMES NOW (STEREO VERSION)
5. I HEARD HER CALL MY NAME (STEREO VERSION)
6. SISTER RAY (STEREO VERSION)
7. I HEARD HER CALL MY NAME (STEREO VERSION)(ALTERNATE TAKE)
8. GUESS I'M FALLING IN LOVE (STEREO VERSION)(INSTRUMENTAL VERSION)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
9. TEMPTATION INSIDE YOUR HEART (STEREO VERSION)(ORIGINAL MIX)
10. STEPHANIE SAYS (STEREO VERSION)(ORIGINAL MIX)
11. HEY MR. RAIN (STEREO VERSION)(VERSION ONE)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
12. HEY MR. RAIN (STEREO VERSION) (VERSION TWO)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
13. BEGINNING TO SEE THE LIGHT (STEREO VERSION)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED EARLY VERSION)

Disc: 2
1. WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (MONO VERSION)
2. THE GIFT (MONO VERSION)
3. LADY GODIVA'S OPERATION (MONO VERSION)
4. HERE SHE COMES NOW (MONO VERSION)
5. I HEARD HER CALL MY NAME (MONO VERSION)
6. SISTER RAY (MONO VERSION)
7. WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (MONO VERSION)(MONO SINGLE MIX)
8. HERE SHE COMES NOW (MONO VERSION)(MONO SINGLE MIX)
9. THE GIFT (MONO VERSION)(VOCAL VERSION)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
10. THE GIFT (MONO VERSION)(INSTRUMENTAL VERSION)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)

Disc: 3 2
1. BOOKER T. (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)
2. I'M NOT A YOUNG MAN (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
3. ANYMORE (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)
4. GUESS I'M FALLING IN LOVE (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)
5. I'M WAITING FOR THE MAN (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
6. RUN RUN RUN (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
7. SISTER RAY (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
8. THE GIFT (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)

I went for "Lady Godiva's Operation", btw, if only for that moment where the heart beat comes in, the yawning sounds of death approach, then the sound crashes back in with "one goes here....one goes...there!", followed by "the ether tube's leaking, says someone who's sloppy".

― Z S, Wednesday, December 17, 2008 10:31 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also because Cale+Tucker on that song are fucking unstoppable. That is THE groove of all times.

― Z S, Wednesday, December 17, 2008 10:34 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^on the money

― insufferably annoying (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, December 17, 2008 10:35 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

i cannot stop listening to and thinking about (and playing! so easy!) this song!! there is something wrong with me.
i have been humming and whistling it around school for days. in addition to the relentless groove, props to lady godiva herself, peeping tom, and all related legends.

30 sec teaser of that unreleased/unbootlegged "beginning to see the light" here:
http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/openGraph/wid/0_klogtddq

and here's the whole of that "beginning": http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/velvet-underground-raid-the-vaults-for-light-premiere-20131205

love that picture:

http://assets-s3.rollingstone.com/assets/images/story/velvet-underground-raid-the-vaults-for-light-premiere-20131205/1000x600/120313-velvet-underground-600-1386099215.jpg

haha yeah... high concept photo shoot! "here is the band ... with their record!"
the outtake "beginning" is very cool, tho it sounds like Lou hadn't quite written the lyrics in full yet.

ahhh, the live "gift" on the new reish (which wasn't on the gymnasium bootleg), is soooooo good. just an instrumental, but a nasty, feedbacky ride. i love it.

not sure how they're getting away w/ calling the "heard her call my name" an "alternate take" though. definitely a different mix (basically like the sundazed single) but definitely the same take.

dudes aren't quite hitting the harmonies on the "original mix" of "Stephanie Says" though... nice to hear anyway.