Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

i can't remember which parts of the matrix tapes have been excerpted & what's new but i'm listening to waiting for the man on npr & it isn't a zillion times different from the tumbly live 69 cut but still: it's so much fun

nb like twelve minutes through http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2014/10/28/359407473/new-mix-the-velvet-underground-belle-sebastian-grouper-more

The Matrix Tapes on this are O_O

Just was listening to that NPR broadcast and of course they repeat the canard about how unknown the VU were: "only 72 of us" were fans they claim here. Has anyone ever addressed whether this kind of thing has any basis in fact? Or is it all just relative - ie they were obscure compared to the Byrds but bigger than the 13th Floor Elevators but since no-one knows anything about the 13th Floor Elevators we'll just pretend that the VU were the epitome of obscurity?

eg. in late 1968 they played two four-night residencies in my city in a venue that still exists, so I know it's quite a big venue that can hold almost 1,000. Other acts that played at the same time were Muddy Waters & Bo Diddley. Why is this supposed obscurity always so heavily stressed with the VU?

Elevators had a local radio hit

charted on Billboard and everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wouIoj2p3hY

The Matrix Tapes on this are O_O

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, October 28, 2014 5:46 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

squeeeeeeeeeee!

13th Floor Elevators only got to play live in Texas and (for a brief period) the San Francisco area.

i think the velvets were pretty well-known but i imagine their rep was bigger than their sales

I finally took the plunge and bought a copy of Sweet Sister Ray for about £90 recently and it turns out it's worth every penny. Can't stop playing it.

Are there any other 'must have' VU bootlegs of this intensity or quality? Any advice gratefully received.

Even taking into account the usual VT hype, this one sounds p mouth-watering:

https://www.volcanictongue.com/artists/show/1613

Cool cheers. I've heard that Praise Ye The Lord, the one with the black and white photo of Mo Tucker on the front cover is really cool as well.

guitar amp tape has an amazing "Sister Ray", the Hilltop festival boot is good as well

The Guitar Amp LP has the same recording of Sister Ray as Sweet Sister Ray, so I already have that but if I can find anywhere in the UK that sells it, I'm going to snaffle that one up.

they're all great! get them all!

pvmic

lol

other essentials:

Gymnasium show
"Chic Mystique" or whatever it's called on the "Caught Between The Twisted Stars" 4CD set which is also pretty great although basically a compilation of various boot tracks
slow drugged-out drumless version of "Train Comin Round The Bend" from the 2nd Fret show in Philly
Columbus 1966 obviously, I think this got officially released on one of the VU & Nico anniversary sets

Yep, Gymnasium is on the WL/WH anniversary set, and Columbus is on the VU & Nico set.

pvmic
heh heh.
it's funny, there are several VU boots on spotify for some reason. always wonder how those things slip through the cracks.

oh and hey here's my little bit of VU trainspotting for the week: http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2014/10/30/the-velvet-underground-candy-says-boston-dec-12-1968/

Wow, thanks for posting that! Lou's singing is beautiful, but Doug's has a certain fragility and an almost naive innocence otherwise underrepresented in their oeuvre.

Also, this was one of the dates where the MC5 opened:
http://makemyday.free.fr/68/68poster63.jpg

i know! so crazy that they were playing that kind of thing after the mc5. not that the VU did not blow the house down elsewhere in their set.
whole show is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCNWcnTVCkw

!!!

Thanks!

I thought I read that Lou (or Sterl) addressed the crowd at the beginning by saying they didn't want to be associated with the 5 (or, more accurately, with the East Village Motherfuckers who were trying to hijack the show)...maybe that was at a different show.

yeah, this recording makes it hard to understand exactly what the VU says - think it might be a different show where they admonish the MC5.

A lot of those boots are on torrent sites like Dime in decent quality.

I know I'd read a Sterling interview where he made negative comments about the 5 and wondered what the story was for years. Think I remember it having something to do with that Motherfuckas night.

so weird that the motherfuckers incident is the one thing completely absent from that MC5 doc

There's a lot absent from the MC5 doc (like any mention of their influences including, but not limited to, Coltrane, Sun Ra, and Motown).

Looking through the Boston Tea Party schedule, yeah, the Velvets played there a lot:
http://www.theamericanrevolution.fm/boston-tea-party-schedule-1967---1970.html

I haven't seen it since it originally circulated but I coulda sworn they namecheck Sun Ra and James Brown?

xpp

all the vu boston tea party shows are worth hearing -- definitely seems like the place they were most comfortable playing. annoying that none of them were recorded via the sbd though.

I know I'd read a Sterling interview where he made negative comments about the 5 and wondered what the story was for years. Think I remember it having something to do with that Motherfuckas night.

It's in Up-Tight

Think I read the whole interview on Olandem, Electricity Comes From Other Planets or whatever it's called.

&isn't there a quote in Uptight about Boston becoming a home away from home once they gave up on NYC. What was the story there? Dom being given away while they were in California or something & them no longer having a place to play?

yeah there weren't really places for them to play -- they were kind of on the outs with the fillmore/bill graham scene. think it was also a part of their manager's overall strategy.

O. Landemaine bought my copy of "Sweet Sister Ray" when I sold it on ebay, back in the day

I haven't seen it since it originally circulated but I coulda sworn they namecheck Sun Ra and James Brown?

You'd think, but no, no mention of either. Even more egregious, no mention of Motown.

I know I'd read a Sterling interview where he made negative comments about the 5 and wondered what the story was for years. Think I remember it having something to do with that Motherfuckas night.

I think the story was members of some radical group or other, who were doing their best to attach themselves to the MC5, threatened to burn down the venue and Lou (I assume) said onstage something like "We'd just like to say we don't agree with anyone burning this place down, we love playing here for you people". But probably in a more Lou way. Steve Sesnick owned the Boston Tea Party, is that right?

what's the song at 9:08 in Tylers last youtube post? it's right after Heroin

Pretty sure that's "I'm Gonna Move Right In." Studio version at 2:57 here:
http://youtu.be/NOetcB02esg

yeah, must be. thanks

under what name does tyler post on you tube?

psst!, over here!

thanks, man.

It's so nice to finally hear the bass on the 1969 Live songs.

Also, two different 1969 closet mixes of "Beginning to See the Light", because why not?

New mix of "I Can't Stand It":
http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/11/unreleased-velvet-underground-song-i-cant-stand-it-surfaces-listen/

(not an "unreleased song," nor was the VU version a "rough demo," but this is still pretty interesting. I prefer the 80s mix, though; it was the first Velvets I ever heard and suddenly everything everywhere was different forever.)

i dig it -- dunno if i prefer it to the VU mix, but it's definitely different, and probably truer to the band's actual 1969 sound.

and yeah, it's nitpickery, but man "i can't stand" the way people are reporting about this set -- just full of inaccuracies.

I think when you hear the 2014 mixes alongside the original 1969 mixes on the set you'll appreciate the new mixes more. They did their best to give them some consistency and coherence. The 80s mixes next to the 69 ones really do sound like a different band.