The Velvet Underground & Nico poll

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.

Heh first time I ever heard 'Sister Ray' was on 'Closer' by Joy Division. Seeing the name Morrison in the songwriting credits, I thought it was a Doors cover.

Anyone else got this compilation? It was my introduction to the VU. For some reason it seems to be quite rare.

http://eil.com/images/main/Velvet+Underground+-+Andy+Warhol%27s+Velvet+Underground+Featuring+Nico+-+DOUBLE+LP-361886.jpg

Oops, sorry, I didn't see that it was mentioned just upthread.

ward, you mean Still

i do, i do

Anagram, yep, me too. This was the only thing available for that time where the LPs seemed to be 'unavailable/missing', along w/ "Squeeze" at the time.

Heh first time I ever heard 'Sister Ray' was on 'Closer' by Joy Division. Seeing the name Morrison in the songwriting credits, I thought it was a Doors cover.

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 09:44 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and so did I. To my 'older, cooler' friends. They were kind....

Goddess on the mountain top
Burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS8VcNy1c6uF6qcmdjuFHUMJEBTjH7pH8y2g3TPSs08eFU8yleupLE-mOc

That one needs a varispeed turntable

anna magnifying glass

My sister had this (and I assume still has it):

http://images.45cat.com/the-velvet-underground-inside-your-heart-aeb.jpg

"I'm Waiting sounded very strange to me. the melody was good, but i didn't know what to think about the minimalist monotonic drumming.
obviously, the ONE ONE ONE drumming is what makes the song special. otherwise, it would be a garage number like There She Goes."

as demonstrated in the 1969 live record

Anagram: I bought that double in the States in the early '80s, I think right after I left a French import of WL/WH in a car trunk after some drunken escapade (not a stupor, though)--I think it contained the whole album, or very close. I kept it for a while, then traded it to a friend and resumed looking.

ppl who call it overplayed--Don't think you could ever say that about any of their albums. Over-written-about, over-name-dropped, etc., yes, but unless you're overplaying it yourself--in which case you shouldn't be complaining to yourself about yourself--no one else is in any kind of a public context.

I think what people are referring to is overexposure. that's not my opinion, but how I interpret overplayed. I did get thst sense with nevermind, however.

Guys, Gerard Malanga is giving a reading at the Jefferson Market library tomorrow.

Or maybe he is just introducing a reading.

Will he bring his whip?
Will he bring his cigarette buttss?

None of that was mentioned on the poster.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted for the obvious choice.

Yeah, I went with "Heroin" too.

But since this record is longer than 45 minutes, my dub of my older brother's cassette cut off the ending to "European Son." Still weirds me out to hear it follow through to its conclusion.

'european son' is the only song here i don't love. sounds like they wanted to do 'sister ray' but hadn't figured out how to do it yet.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 4 November 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not as intense and pleasing as an experience as Sister ray (more to do with length), but they sure figured out a lot if European Son is the result.

Used to feel exactly the same way about "European Son" but the bass line has grown on me over the ears.

years

pulled out my used vinyl copy, playing now. still has the sticker on it:

Venus Records (long gone) $5.00

wow, Nico really does sing CLON

Reminding me of that bit from Sleeper.

Didn't Venus move from 8th Street near 6th Avenue over to St. Marks Place where it hung on for a while?

yeah

now BLEEEEEED for me

Venus was on St Marks for the better part of a decade, i think?

Yes. I guess those decades flew by fast.

hey Yo La Tengo uses opening bass riff of "European Son" in "Moby Octopad"

... and Julian Cope pointed out the similarity between it and the bass at the start of Can's "Father Cannot Yell"

Clinic used the bassline as well

Are you excited to find out Heroin as the winner in a couple if hours?

no that would be as boring as hell