Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

Whoa, "Instruments Drop Out" indeed!

thanks! I've got some newspaper coverage photos from an EPI show that I figured I'd send along.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND – THE COMPLETE MATRIX TAPES

LIMITED EDITION, EIGHT-LP VINYL BOX SET

TO BE RELEASED ON JULY 12

Box Set Includes 43 Live Performances Capturing The Band’s Legendary Stand At

San Francisco’s Fabled Club

“A historic set of high-fidelity 1969 recordings capture the band at a pinnacle of white-hot guitar jams and streetwise poetics.” “it’s one of the band’s defining documents” – Rolling Stone (4 out of 5 stars)

“Fascinating sound of a band stretching out” – The Guardian (5 out of 5 stars)

June 27, 2019 – The Velvet Underground toured extensively in 1969, but set up shop in San Francisco in November and early December for a series of 18 nights over four separate engagements, the first at the Family Dog, the rest at the fabled North Beach club the Matrix, opened in a one-time pizza parlor by Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin in 1965. Over the course of their residency, which began November 11th, the club’s four-track recorder, manned by owner Peter Abram from a booth at the side of the stage, was rolling through much of it.

The Complete Matrix Tapes captures the highlights of two nights – November 26, the day Richard Nixon authorized a bill to create a draft lottery, and November 27, Thanksgiving – as detailed in Rolling Stone editor David Fricke’s liner notes in the box set booklet.

Originally released as a CD box set, The Velvet Underground – The Complete Matrix Tapes (Polydor/UME) makes its vinyl debut as a limited edition, eight-LP, 43-track box set and will be available worldwide on July 12 and exclusively available in the U.S. through shop.velvetundergroundmusic.com.

These shows, taped several months after the release of the third, self-titled Velvet Underground album earlier that year, and before heading to the studio to record Loaded the following spring, featured the post-John Cale incarnation of the band, with newest member Doug Yule on bass and keyboards joining Lou Reed and remaining members guitarist Sterling Morrison and percussionist Maureen Tucker. Some versions of these performances, taken from soundboard mixes, were first issued in 1974 by Mercury Records as part of a double LP, 1969 The Velvet Underground Live, while other audience recorded versions released were taken from cassette tapes made by the late Bob Quine, a huge fan and, at the time, a St. Louis law student who later went on to play guitar for both Richard Hell and Reed. Quine was at a number of the shows during their stint at the club, and his cache eventually was released in 2001 as The Quine Tapes.

The Velvet Underground – The Complete Matrix Tapes features 43 recordings that have been mixed down directly from the original in-house multi-tracks, including the 18 tracks featured on a Super Deluxe Edition of the Velvets’ third album and nine previously unreleased performances marking the first time all the available tapes will be released commercially. As can be heard, the shows were intimate, and features early versions of yet-to-be-recorded songs like “Sweet Jane,” “New Age” and “Rock & Roll.” Set One includes previously unreleased versions of “Some Kinda Love” and “Sweet Jane,” while Set Two’s rarities include performances of “There She Goes Again,” “After Hours” and “We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together.” Set Three’s highlight is the almost 40-minute-long “Sister Ray,” previously heard on the Super Deluxe Edition of Velvet Underground. Rare live takes of “Venus in Furs” (one on Set One, the other Set Two) and Set One’s “The Black Angel’s Death Song” (according to Fricke’s liner notes, the first time Yule had ever played the song) are also notable for their inclusion here.

Concludes Fricke about The Velvet Underground – The Complete Matrix Tapes: “On one hand, [it] is just two nights, in one room, in the life of a working band. It also has everything they aspired to and achieved on stage, every night, everywhere: the magnificent aggression and determined joy; the fictions shot through with truth; the lasting bonds established in almost total, commercial blackout. You can easily walk into the music and never want to leave – a perfect definition of both a great rock & roll gig and a history that keeps on giving.”

Track Listing:

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND – THE COMPLETE MATRIX TAPES LP BOX

LP ONE

Side 1

I'm Waiting For The Man (Version 1)

What Goes On (Version 1)

Side 2

Some Kinda Love (Version 1)

Heroin (Version 1)

LP TWO

Side 1

The Black Angel's Death Song

Venus In Furs (Version 1)

There She Goes Again (Version 1)

We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 1)

Over You (Version 1)

Side 2

Sweet Jane (Version 1)

Pale Blue Eyes

After Hours (Version 1)

LP THREE

Side 1

I'm Waiting For The Man (Version 2)

Venus In Furs (Version 2)

Some Kinda Love (Version 2)

Over You (Version 2)

Side 2

I Can't Stand It (Version 1)

There She Goes Again (Version 2)

After Hours (Version 2)

LP FOUR

Side 1

We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 2)

Sweet Bonnie Brown (It's Just Too Much)

Heroin (Version 2)

Side 2

White Light/White Heat (Version 1)

I'm Set Free

LP FIVE

Side 1

We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 3)

Some Kinda Love (Version 3)

There She Goes Again (Version 3)

Side 2

Heroin (Version 3)

Ocean

LP SIX

Side 1

Sister Ray Part 1

Side 2

Sister Ray Part 2

LP SEVEN

Side 1

I'm Waiting For The Man (Version 3)

What Goes On (Version 2)

Some Kinda Love (Version 4)

Side 2

We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 4)

Beginning To See The Light

Lisa Says

New Age

LP EIGHT

Side 1

Rock & Roll

I Can't Stand It Anymore (Version 2)

Side 2

Heroin (Version 4)

White Light/White Heat (Version 2)

Sweet Jane (Version 2)

Hope they reissue the CD set at the same time. Or maybe I'll be able to get it used.

marking the first time all the available tapes will be released commercially.

unless I'm missing something, the 4CD set has 42 of these 43 vinyl-box tracks

Hoping the CD gets a repress as well. But the vinyl is already out some places. Fuckin' stupid format for 40+ minute tracks.

Or even 37 minutes.

agree 100%, I hate that

What it lacks in convenience, it makes up for in sweet, sweet analog warmth. It's like if "Sister Ray" was a quilt.

Quilter Ray still shouldn't be broken in two

crazy that the CD box is so expensive! just put that back in print, come on now.

I didn't know it went out of print...prices are fucking nuts.

It should be reissued in tandem with the Miles Davis Plugged Nickel set.

Glad I grabbed that CD box when it came out.

Any chance we'll see the '69 Dallas tapes as a copyright extension this year?

how does this compare to the Quine tapes? - that has foggy notion unless I am missing something and also just sounds generally wilder which means I vote Quine

I'm still kind of shocked when I remember that Lou Reed is dead. :/

(xp) How do the Quine Tapes compare to Live 1969? I don't think there's any comparison, The Quine Tapes are worse sound quality than most bootlegs, these recordings are pristine.

Ugh, I ordered this because I know I’ll kick myself if I don’t... but I don’t really return to the Matrix CDs all that often because how many versions of Heroin and the languid Waiting for the Man do I need to hear in one sitting?

As many as humanly possible?

otm

mmm that makes me remember that the best slow druggy version of that is on the Quine Tapes and is like 11 minutes long

(Waiting For The Man that is)

it's on the matrix tapes too! (same performance)

oh right, jeez this shit is so confusing. there's two Sister Rays on the Quine box that are NOT on the Matrix tapes though, right?

yeah, it is confusing haha. there's the family dog sister ray and the ohio sister ray/foggy notion on the quine tapes that are not on the matrix tapes.

(and tbh the difference in recording quality on that long slow "waiting" is so major that they are almost totally different experiences altogether for me. both are awesome).

whoa -- even more Dallas 1969 footage (this time with sound!). still very brief, but amazing. and a sterling morrison interview!

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2019/06/28/lost-film-flashes-back-dallas-forgotten-1969-vietnam-war-protest-starring-velvet-underground

!!!!!

that is just so fucking far out

holy moley

So weird to see Moe & Doug on opposing sides of the stage, was that always their set-up in the latter years?

The VU is good, but did The Nazz blow them away that day? Maybe it's my lack of coffee this morning...

Holy hell. Thank you for posting that, tyler!

erik "ez snappin" actually directed me to it ...

I love how people are just milling around, hanging out, chatting, and I'm thinking, "BUT THAT'S THE VELVET UNDERGROUND! RIGHT THERE! YOU SHOULD BE FREAKING THE FUCK OUT!"

"who played at the protest?"

"some band from New York with a weird name, I forget"

"an old lady in a sweatshirt"

lol

"but then later Dr. Heavy And His Blues Vagabonds came on and totally rocked, so it was cool."

that vinyl box is half price on amazon france. or it was earlier today, anyway.

Quilter Ray still shouldn't be broken in two

― EZ Snappin

thanks i needed a new DN

and yeah whoever that generic blues band were kind of blew them off the stage, sorry but they were such sleepy hippies by fall of '69...

sleep hippie vu is still kickass

Too lazy to itemise - anyone know what’s on the vinyl that ain’t on the CDs?

Wait, was the other band The Nazz or not?

Not the Nazz
Just a buzz
Some kinda temporary

Matrix tapes on vinyl has the same tracks as matrix tapes on cd.

yeah but the vinyl has all the CD tracks except they’re on vinyl

The numbering for the tracks is a little different because of Sister Ray being split. There is no exclusive content to the vinyl.

ah THAT'S why there's 43 tracks instead of 42, thanks

Thanks, I had assumed that was the reason. I would have been pretty ticked off after buying the same tracks 4 times on 1969 Live, Quine Tapes, 3rd album 45th anniversary and then the Matrix CDs.