Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

He was seriously into health foods at the time

yeah, there are interviews from around the time where he sounds pretty hippie-ish. talking about auras, how "white light" is the white light of consciousness or something. drinking honey from a jar. lou reed, flower child.

It's the beginning of a new age.

Not gonna lie, this looks pretty amazing: http://www.sundazed.com/vu_quine.php
Not gonna pay $100 for it though ...

I'm past the point that I care about the object as fetish, so I'll be happy with the cds.

yeah, it's obviously bait for ummm VU trainspotters. speaking of which, wow, there are some *serious* completists over at that VU forum.

That forum scares me a bit. The cocksmanship is pretty unappealing.

yeah, kind of a weird scene. still, I'll keep lurking if things like those professor tapes keep showing up ....

Totally. That was worth it.

Indeed! Thanks for that heads up, tylerw!

anyone who wants to hear that Heard Her Call My Name from the Sundazed singles box, ahem: http://decrepittapes.blogspot.com/2010/01/velvet-underground-singles-1966-69.html

for some unknown reason i've never checked out the band's live material until recently... suddenly i find myself sucked into a frenzy of exploring this stuff. i discovered i have the first disc of the 'caught between the twisted stars' bootleg, which i downloaded and never got round to listening to at the time. i'm currently half way through acquiring the first of the professor tapes so looking forward to hearing it.

i admit to being tempted by the sundazed quine tapes set. my few rational brain cells are arguing that for that price i could get the cd version, along with the Live 1969 cds, and still have room for the sundazed singles box to scratch the vinyl itch.

Live 1969 is essential Puppa, so I'd listen to your brain cells there. The fidelity of the Quine set isn't so great that vinyl is going to make a difference over the cd versions. (I totally understand the fetishism of the lavish vinyl packaging though).

Thanks Officer Pupp. It's a sunny Sunday morning (ha!) here so I think I'll head on down to the record store and see what they've got. Good point on the Quine set fidelity. Sometimes one must set aside fetishistic tendencies.

I was never aware of how improvisational the band was. That becomes obvious when you start listening to them live of course, but usually whenever you read/hear about them the focus seems to be on their influence, the avant-garde aspects, the lyrical content, Andy Warhol, rather than the Velvet Underground as live band.

Does anyone know where I can find the new Professor tapes? Can't seem to find them anywhere

yeah, the guy who put them out asked that it not be put up on blogs for the time being ...
i'll get around to upping them at some point for people who missed em the first time around.

still available via Nuns Are On The Sea Wall blog, btw

is it? i thought he took it down ... if it's there, grab it while it lasts!

and while this thread is revived, this is probably appropriate:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Inevitable-World-of-The-Velvet-Underground/133663983326915?v=wall
A compilation of VU newspapers and magazine ads, articles and reviews published from 1966 to 1975.
• More than 340 pages
• Actual reproduction of the ads, articles and reviews.
• Numbered Limited Edition of 500
• A Bonus CD with radio ads and interviews

I haven't been able to get them working from that blog, it's a rar file, and i'm not sure what to do with it, I've gotten lots of VU downloads to work but i'm having trouble with this, I'm not that great with this sort of thing. Also,how much better is the quality than the older Boston tapes?

i just picked up some of these recently. you realize these are flac files right? the quality is a little "bass-y", but really good. better than the quine tapes official release

My files are all messed up then. Is there anywhere else I can get them? I'm dying to hear these.

If you are on a Mac you can unpack the rar archive using UnrarX. The equivalent program for Windows would appear to be WinRAR. Once you have done that you will have your flac files which you will need to convert to wav files for listening and/or burning to CD. There are some music players that will play flac files direct but it's a bit hit-and-miss.

That said I note there are some comments on the blog saying the files are corrupted or some such. I haven't tried downloading them so don't know whether it's true or not.

yeah, i think i had to use unrarx to get these files, they're uploaded kind of strangely.
i dunno if they're better quality than the Quine Tapes -- maybe the January show is. But they're a big improvement over the versions that have floated around in past decades -- a lot more listenable.

I've unzipped them using 7-zip with absolutely no problems at all. That's an excellent little bit of software, does what you want it to do with no fuss.

I've used Winrar and 7-zip and they both keep asking for a password. Does anyone know what the password is?

says it in the blog

lol thank you, can't believe I didn't see that

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=lKhbmRwBA50&feature=related

i can definitely hear the influence of denny vertigo here...

Haha, I came on this thread to post that.

word gets around quick with such a momentous find!

Are people taking that seriously?

Lou was so far ahead of his time you'd think he had a time machine

how can anyone bear to listen to such crappily recorded minutiae, the mind boggles

i consider myself a huge VU fan, and i cant even listen to the quine tapes very easily

I consider myself a huge VU fan, and I love it.

Yeah, Lou was so far ahead of his time you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's a fairly well done spoof recorded in 2010 and passed off as a street-sale find.

Found at a street sale in Hoboken, NJ last week

as if I needed any encouragement to continue cratedigging, jeez.

acetate quality would upset me more if this wasn't "Do The Ostrich" with different lyrics.

Yeah, Lou was so far ahead of his time you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's a fairly well done spoof recorded in 2010 and passed off as a street-sale find.
sorry, thought my post was dripping with sarcasm, but I guess not! yes, obviously a spoof tie-in with the human centipede movie that came out a little while ago.

oh, I was a little slow on the uptake there

bummer.

well, speaking of the pickwick years, this stuff is tantalizing:

December 3, 1964
Walter De Maria's Bond Street loft, New York City, New York

John Cale - Tony Conrad - Walter De Maria - Lou Reed - Jimmie Sims

1. Won't You Smile (1st take)
2. The Ostrich (1st take)
3. The Ostrich (2nd take)
4. Won't You Smile (2nd take)
5. Johnny Won't Surf Anymore
6. Teardrops In The Sand
7. Sad Lonely Orphan Boy
8. Shame, Shame, Shame

A full review of this Primitives rehearsal tape is available in Beyond The Dream Syndicate - Tony Conrad and the Arts after Cage by Branden W. Joseph. Won't You Smile is an early version of Why Don't You Smile Now. Shame, Shame, Shame is a Jimmy Reed's cover.

May 11, 1965
Pickwick Studios, near Long Island City, New York

John Cale - Lou Reed - Jerry Vance or Jimmie Sims

1. Buzz Buzz Buzz (one complete take + a couple of attempts breaking down)
2. Why Don't You Smile Now
3. Heroin (take 1)
4. Heroin (take 2)
5. Untitled Piano Piece 1
6. Untitled Piano Piece 1

A full review of this demo tape is available in White Light/White Heat - The Velvet Underground Day by Day by Richie Unterberger. Buzz Buzz Buzz is a Lou Reed original, not a cover of the 1957 hit by The Hollywood Flames. Untitled Piano Pieces are by John Cale alone.

i'm sure Lou would never let it happen, but a *real* career-spanning box set of his work would be great. one that started with the early doo wop stuff, went into the pickwick years, the VU, the solo years, etc. There's Between Thought & Expression, but that's pretty old now -- only goes up to Mistrial I think and doesn't have any VU or pre-VU stuff.

Tyler, it wasn't a dig at you honestly; I could tell that you'd got it. What I couldn't tell from the tone of the other answers was whether people were taking it seriously or whether people knew it was a spoof.

ha, no worries! it's not a bad spoof though! i mean, for someone with obviously too much time on their hands ... :)

so has anyone actually bought this Quine Tapes on LP thing from Sundazed? No way I could afford it, but I'm curious to know if the fact that "this set has been newly mastered by Bob Irwin from the original source material" makes any significant difference sound-quality wise. Samples sound good, but I can't really tell. http://sundazed.com/shop/vu_quine.php

Hello. I made that Primitives Human Centipede thing & I'm very proud of myself. Anyhoo, I came on here the other day & found out about the Nuns Are On The Seawall blog & downloaded an LP off there but now whenever I try to get on it says "No" & that I've not been invited or somesuch. Does anyone know how I can get on there?

Also my group The Loves' new LP has got Doug Yule on it as the voice of Jesus. Really.

that I've not been invited

Damn. Me too.

I can't believe anyone thought it was anything other than a spoof! Although my obsession with the Human Centipede and friendship with a couple of Loves may have helped me recognise this fact.

ha, nicely done, simon. you got a link for info on this Yule/Jesus album?