The Velvet Underground & Nico poll

The Noise is much better on the album version

Run Run Run -- it's all about that groove, and especially about the way those first four notes of the guitar solo rip so invigoratingly through the surface of the song

how ironic, got the flatmates cd I ordered today, very good. thought it was finished, went out the room and a bit later I hear music. huh? what d'ya know, a hidden track cover version of femme fatale.

Think I prefer the Columbus Run, Run, Run cos it sounds more like a Dresden air raid

My older brother bought the cassette of this in 1985, but it jumbled the running order to maximize tape (as pre-recorded cassettes often did). "Black Angel's Death Song" is second, and "I'm Waiting For The Man" is 10th. I actually prefer it that way; "Waiting" feels like a more natural lead-in to "European Son."

So weird to go from Sunday Morning to Black Angel's Death Song imo

It didn't seem weird to me at the time (that is, for the first 10 years or so that I was listening to it -- I didn't know it was the wrong running order until Peel Slowly came out), but in retrospect, it does seem odd.

It worked, though; after the lilting "Sunday Morning" I thought, "Wow, what a nice pop song! Wonder what all the fuss was about? Why were they so reviled?" (cue "Black Angel's") "OH, I UNDERSTAND NOW."

yeah that is strange. my cassette was in the same order as the LP, but the cassette of wlwh was different from the LP. I heard her call my name opened the second side.

It does on the LP, too.

I bought the cassette in '85 too, and after playing "Sunday Morning" I wondered where the proto-punk noise was; then, instead of continuing through to "Watiting For The Man", I flipped it and got to hear the final few minutes of "European Son" instead.

I knew it was going to be an interesting trajectory from start to finish.

the way reed sings

oh
and i guess
i just don't know

at the very end of 'heroin' may be my favorite few seconds of vocal performance by anyone.

oh yeah, side one was the title track followed by sister ray, side two was call my name followed by the rest of side one

u spit on those under 21

european son is too short (the tune itself)

ATP

oh yeah, side one was the title track followed by sister ray, side two was call my name followed by the rest of side one

― OutdoorFish, Tuesday, November 5, 2013 2:48 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Weird! That's pretty much the worst/most anti-climactic imaginable running order for that record.

Is it true Velvet Underground albums were out-of-print in the early 80s?

out of personal reasons it has always been femme fatale for me. but sunday morning, run run run, all tomorrow's parties, i'll be your mirror and european son are as good or even better musically.

Very much so (xpost). I spent years assembling the first four, and my #1 and #3 are really oddball issues. I think it was Another View that sparked reissues in the mid-'80s.

Iirc, The two Atlantic/Cotillion album and 1969 Live were the only ones in continuous print.

^^this

Yeah i remember paying dearly for imported vu, in early eighties montreal

They were all out of print in Canada for about a decade. My copy of Loaded, bought sometime in the late '70s:

http://rymimg.com/lk/f/l/b0cf6ba57288f7161f51eed1e53a6530/1715872.jpg

I think there were reissues in about 1979. I know I was able to get the first couple of lps in the early 80s and remember Loaded being a mid-price lp.

There was an article on the band in NME in '79 or '80 that I thought coincided with reissues though maybe it was something else. Think I remember reading a review of various lps at some point in a set of music press that my elder brother had from the turn of the 80s.

I definitely remember reading an article on the best VU bootlegs somewhere in there too.
Really wish I still had that collection of the papers, had some very interesting stuff in.

Actually, it was VU that kicked off the reissue program in 1985. Their first 3 records were re-released simultaneously with VU's release. Another View came out in '86 or '87.

xp

No, I definitely got the lps new in the early years of the 80s. from racks that had a number of other copies.

But that was UK so may have been different on the other side of the Atlantic. Though surprised taht the label would miss there being some market for the material again.

First time I went to Amsterdam I was more amazed by all the VU records than the ubiquitous weed

a heady combination

aye sailor

According to Discogs & Nico has been issued 120 times around the world
including lp version in the US in 1978
& Netherlands and UK in 1981 & several European versions in 1983.

As I recall, there was a lot of talk about the VU in the early 80's - my knowledgeable friends were playing second-hand vinyl and making tapes for their friends. I think I got 'Loaded' on cassette in '86 or '87 or thereabouts.

I first saw the Velvets albums sometime before France declared war on Germany in August 1914; the tariff was so high at that point that I couldn't get a copy, so as the war raged copies around Europe vanished bit by bit.

VU, that's what I meant--the one with "I Can't Stand It."

My copy of the first one, which I also bought in '78 or thereabouts, is West German.

http://www.discogs.com/Velvet-Underground-Nico-The-Velvet-Underground-Nico/release/588673

(xpost) Okay, I must have one of those WWI copies.

When was Uptight published? That's early 80s sometime isn't it. Just wondering if that might be what prompted the NME article at the turn of the decade. Would definitely been covered anyway.
Maybe article was just band history on a group that was being talked about a lot. Not sure if previous 1973 version was deleted or still doing the rounds. Velvets were a band with large influence on punk & post-punk anyway.

Maya Deren let me look at her copy of White Light/White Heat, but she wouldn't play it for me. Said I wasn't ready.

did it have the peelable banana?

xxpost

WWI copies came with an actual banana, as the concept of 'peel slowly and see' still had kinks to be worked out.

Maya Deren let me look at her copy of White Light/White Heat, but she wouldn't play it for me. Said I wasn't ready.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), T

Maya Deren had reached her limit.

I take it it was peelable

collardio was like an octopus, vu albums all over the place

According to Discogs & Nico has been issued 120 times around the world
including lp version in the US in 1978

I think I can attest to this! I had a copy with no gatefold, no peelable banana, plastic inner sleeve. Bought new about a year before the reissues with the printed inner sleeve with Kurt Loder (?) liner notes came out.

"The Velvet Underground was a dark star in the giddy pop firmament of the 1960s."

Yep, that was Loder.

very tough poll but I really love Black Angel Death Song so there you go.

have lived w/ this record for over 25 years and ViF's patina of weird magic is still baffling & beguiling & rich w/ temporal distortion

ppl who call it overplayed and/or ridiculous and then pull the lever for heroin well I guess but I just don't know

I actually feel that more about 7 than 4

I found the NME article and it was a 1981 5 page thing based around an interview with Sterling, if that is indeed the same thing.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/magazines/magazinesenglish.html#uk
NME - 25 April 1981

The Lost History Of The Velvet Underground

Mary Harron

New Musical Express, April 25, 1981, p. 27-30 & 53

5-page article based on an interview with Sterling Morrison, with 8 B&W photographs - some rarely seen. Small insert on cover.

"The Velvet Underground were the first avant-garde rock band, and the greatest."

I had it my mind as being in the pretty much chronologically ordered pile around the same place as the first mentions of the Cramps. So could be this, with me trying to remember after 20+ years or could be another thing.

Sounds had a history in 1977. & Sounds was at pretty much the same level of popularity as NME & Melody Maker.

Velvet Underground starring Andy Warhol

Giovanni Dadomo

Sounds, May 14, 1977, p. 18-20 & 22

Full-page Velvet Underground cover: "The Velvets - A punk legend unpeeled". 4-page history by Giovanni Dadomo. Two other separate episodes about Lou Reed and solo.

Reproduced in Velvet Underground Scrapbook Volume 1.

"You wanna know about The Velvet Underground, is that right? I see, somebody told you that if you weren't for The Velvets there'd be no such thing as 'punk rock', or at the very least that today's teen rebels would probably look and sound one hell of a lot different if the V.U. had never existed. Not to mention the fact that without Lou Reed the people who make leather jackets and shades would probably have gone bankrupt years ago. Alright then, let me set you straight."

Hadn't realised that Uptight was as late as 1983 so I must have picked it up soon after it came out.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/books/books.html

& while I would have picked up the & Nico lp in late 1981 or 1982 I was already at least partially familiar with it from my elder brother's copy. I remember singing what I knew of Waiting For The Man as I walked around school when I was around 14.

I found the NME article and it was a 1981 5 page thing based around an interview with Sterling, if that is indeed the same thing.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/magazines/magazinesenglish.html#uk

NME - 25 April 1981

The Lost History Of The Velvet Underground

Mary Harron

New Musical Express, April 25, 1981, p. 27-30 & 53

5-page article based on an interview with Sterling Morrison, with 8 B&W photographs - some rarely seen. Small insert on cover.

"The Velvet Underground were the first avant-garde rock band, and the greatest."

====================================================================================================

I had it my mind as being in the pretty much chronologically ordered pile around the same place as the first mentions of the Cramps. So could be this, with me trying to remember after 20+ years or could be another thing.

Sounds had a history in 1977. & Sounds was at pretty much the same level of popularity as NME & Melody Maker.

Velvet Underground starring Andy Warhol

Giovanni Dadomo

Sounds, May 14, 1977, p. 18-20 & 22

Full-page Velvet Underground cover: "The Velvets - A punk legend unpeeled". 4-page history by Giovanni Dadomo. Two other separate episodes about Lou Reed and solo.

Reproduced in Velvet Underground Scrapbook Volume 1.

"You wanna know about The Velvet Underground, is that right? I see, somebody told you that if you weren't for The Velvets there'd be no such thing as 'punk rock', or at the very least that today's teen rebels would probably look and sound one hell of a lot different if the V.U. had never existed. Not to mention the fact that without Lou Reed the people who make leather jackets and shades would probably have gone bankrupt years ago. Alright then, let me set you straight."
====================================================================================================

Hadn't realised that Uptight was as late as 1983 so I must have picked it up soon after it came out.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/books/books.html

& while I would have picked up the & Nico lp in late 1981 or 1982 I was already at least partially familiar with it from my elder brother's copy. I remember singing what I knew of Waiting For The Man as I walked around school when I was around 14.

Remember seeing this UK comp a lot when I was first getting into the Velvets in the early 80s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol's_Velvet_Underground_Featuring_Nico

Yeah, my sister had that, or borrowed it or something, that was where I first heard "Sister Ray". Lou Reed was not exactly an unknown in the 70s, so I don't think the Velvets were exactly languishing in obscurity until the 80s.