Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

Oh yeah, The Jesters did cover it and have some kind of minor hit with it.

Zappa was another big fan of The Spaniels, it's true.

a Welshman who tried to mail himself home in a box in 1965, I wonder if Cale read about it at the time
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/08/thinking-inside-the-box-the-welsh-teen-who-tried-to-post-himself-home-from-australia

Lou hated the Airplane(?)

I would imagine so, given what I've read about the rivalry w/ the Fillmore etc.

Think that was one of his top two hates, the one he didn’t induct into the RnRHoF.

Plus I believe they played a lot of blues licks

lol

I have wondered in the past - if you gave me a time machine and a ticket to see only (1) of those bands on their best night, which would you choose? - and man, that thought experiment is some Fillmore Jive.

You could have seen the Fugs, the Dead and the Velvets all on the same night in Pittsburgh in 1969.

sold

Unfortunately all three bands performed nothing but Englebert Humperdinck covers that night.

Lou hated the Airplane(?)

I assumed Zappa hated them too, because said he hated all the SF bands for being folk rockers with no groove, but then he's on one of their albums I think?

would you like a snack?

i do have a memory of reading somewhere or other zappa giving some sort of praise to the sf bands for doing interesting things musically with the caveat that they didn't actually know what they were doing or that they were doing it (or something along those lines)

You could have seen the Fugs, the Dead and the Velvets all on the same night in Pittsburgh in 1969.

hot damn! would go.

when the question is "did zappa hate ____?", the answer is always yes

With a handful of exceptions to throw you off the trail, but yeah.

big mystery:

http://velvetforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=145988

Hmm, interesting.

That one could get matched to the instrumental studio take

wild! i guess I'm not *entirely* convinced that crowd noise at the beginning + end is genuine but who knows ... it's definitely a different vocal and solo than any other versions? I think?

Definitely. It does sound a bit like a solo Lou Reed demo with a recording of the band way back in the the mix.

Think what Dylan may have meant, at least in part, by that B. B. King shit was this kind of constipated->squeezed out, agonized artistic offerings of totally received solos that Bloomfield (like some others) did play sometimes, like on Super Sessions---if he found Dylan's order confusing, so much the better, worked out great.

(Not that all of Super Sessions was like that, but v. noticeable when ever he of all high-flying 60s cats lapsed thus.)

xxp seems like it could be a soundboard/PA recording from a small room, just the gtr & vox going through the PA, the bass & drums are clearly there just not patched in. still doesnt explain the obviously fake crowd noise though?

Someone is trying to convince you it's from the Marvi/Tammi show 'Upbeat'

when the question is "did zappa hate ____?", the answer is always yes

https://alextemplemusic.com/2015/08/the-man-who-hated-everything/

When Frankie’s in town

Did we talk about this yet? Released in October:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/07/the-velvet-underground-review-todd-haynes-doc-gets-under-the-art-rockers-skin

Um,…oh wait, it’s a documentary? Okay, then, game on!

The Velvet Underground: A Documentary Film by Todd Haynes

Would it have killed Haynes to choose even a slightly sexier title(?)

i get the impression there's gonna be a lot of stuff about Nico/banana album in this

I'm not expecting too much about Doug Yule.

He gets a film of his own, at Christmas.

I want a ten hour doc on Billy Yule

Just Wait’ll We Get Our Haynes on Yule

Yule be sorry if you don't watch this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWq7a8Tin8g

I wish this had been made when at least Lou Reed was still alive

Watched it last night. Overall pretty good. Long interviews with the likes of John Cale, Moe Tucker, Jonathan Richman, Pickwick producer Terry Phillips, Sterling's wife Martha, Lou's sister, Merrill, Lou's Syracuse girlfriend, Shelley Albin, along with the a few other friends from long ago. Oh yeah, Mary Woronov does her shtick too. Doug Yule gets a fair enough shake. John says he was aware the Yule era but gracefully avoids commenting. Visually there are lots of Chelsea Girl-style splitscreens of avant-garde NYC film from the era to round out all the Warhol. JBL/R wrote a great thread on Friendbook about seeing it at Lincoln Center.

Cale said in the early 70s that the only song from that era he liked was "Sweet Jane". He was also the only member of the group who wanted Yule to join the 1993 reunion, largely so he wouldn't be stuck playing bass.

He plays on one of the (many) versions of "Ocean", I could see him liking that one.

Cale's on a couple of tracks on "Loaded", including the unused "Ocean". (xpost)

There's a list of the tracks he played Piano on, contradicted by Doug who played piano on some tracks as well, as in "that's much better playing that I can do, that must be John.."

I thought Ocean was the only thing he played on?

In the same way Cale avoids talking about Doug, Merrill demurs from discussing the family drama/shock treatment side of things, saying it would do a disservice to Lou and their parents. I can see her point and you can always (re)read her take about it here: https://medium.com/cuepoint/a-family-in-peril-lou-reed-s-sister-sets-the-record-straight-about-his-childhood-20e8399f84a3

very psyched to see this film

Ha, would love to hear your take on it.

considering an Apple TV subscription

What else would you watch?

Velvets all day.

B-b-but what about Beastie Boys?

I'll ch-ch-check it out.