Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

I’ve gone through Lou’s solo output chronologically (altho I think I missed a few albums & I have to admit it was a bit of a chore at times). There’s precious little there I care to revisit much, whereas I still can’t stop listening to the VU over & over.

The Blue Mask used to be a favourite, but there’s some awfully cringey writing on it. I think I’d like it better as an instrumental album.

I think I could probably do a CD-80 of the high points of solo Lou & be forever satisfied (except for Metal Machine Music, which I genuinely enjoy as ambient skronk)

Ecstasy is a helluva album to go out on if you don't count The Raven.

Transformer and MMM are perfect.

My take is very close to hardcore dilettante’s.

In general I love Alfred’s posts and his lists but not going to follow him on this one, sorry.

With Lou vs. John I guess it’s many moments of genius saddled with too high self-regard as misunderstood genius combined with careless and busted technique vs. overall better musicianship, interpersonal skills and articulated aesthetics along with quite a few moments of inspiration and some boring but harmless moments easy to avoid and not propped up by a cult of followers.

No apologies about a CD-R r playlist. Mine would be one in which 1982-2000 dominated (M&L excepted; that one's a slog).

Cale in the '70s >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Reed in the '70s

Reed in the '80s and '90s >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cale in the '80s and '90s

I love "Turn To Me" so much

idk if I think Cale's higher points are higher than Lou's but god damn Cale had an amazing run in the 70's and was/is sporadically great thereafter

lol xposts

Didn’t really intend to use genius twice in such rapid succession, but hey, I’m just an average with an average vocabulary and typing skills, unlike Moe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS8oyl1gygs

Wait, Lou wrote a song about that? How did he know? He got the jump on my psyche once again, the way only a true artist, ordained by a genuine poet, can.

That one's just blah, so point for you.

"Secret Corrida" by Cale (1996) and "Ecstasy" by Reed (2000) are great "late" songs that anyone who likes any era of their music should hear.

(admittedly neither would have fit on White Light/White Heat

Someone made a comment elsewhere, I believe it was noted John Cale enthusiast La Lechera, that one of the things that makes Cale’s use of the English language so appealing is that he is not a native speaker.

Yet another thing Iggy and Bowie do better than Lou, in addition to reading a lot and remembering what they read, is playing the role of Average Guy when it suits them.

At least Lou was not as prolific as Bob Pollard which makes the mixtape playlist thing a little easier.

"Secret Corrida" by Cale (1996) and "Ecstasy" by Reed (2000) are great "late" songs that anyone who likes any era of their music should hear.

Linking this Quine interview for the umpteenth time: http://www.furious.com/perfect/quine.html

Found Walking On Locusts on YT last night (LP not on Spotify), and was disappointed to discover the album take of "Dancing Undercover" pales in comparison to the Leno version.

Cale also torn shit up on a Game Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mqO-xsRyTM

Which I believe is the beginning of the doc, or nearly so.

My favorite video of John Cale is the Old Grey Whistle Test version of "Dying on the Vine" with Ollie Halsall on guitar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-q-GGiAt8Q

Cale’s use of the English language

I've been listening to Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood, and it reinforced that, as a lyricist, Cale excels at setting a scene, and convincing you that something is at stake. "Scotland Yard":

When the hungry days are gone
Then came the hungry nights
Holding on to what you've got
Standing in the spotlight
They'll show you mostly
What they want you to see
Walking the city at midnight
And whistling in the dark

or "Mary":

There's a window in my mind
You can see in
Just look and you'll want to sigh
It inspires you to look away

I guess to describe him as a non-native speaker is not quite correct. His father was an English speaker but he himself only spoke Welsh at home for the first several years of his life.

That one's just blah, so point for you.

On the "I've Got a Secret" segment from the doc, it was fascinating and incongruous to see who was on the panel that was watching John Cale play: Betsy Palmer, who 17 years later played Jason's mom in the first Friday the 13th movie, as well as Bess Myerson, the former Miss America who became a criminal in the 1980s.

Sounds hot, will have to look her up (on the Google that is)
Welsh accent, from land of coal mines and bards, serves him well, w the rasp and lilt (thinking of having seen him touring behind Sabotage/Live: "Now Deeerfrance is gonna help us out here..." sometimes surfacing on records too)
Lots of good talk here too:John Cale S/D

Bess Myerson was also the first (and only) Jewish Miss America, and later acted as an alleged beard for Ed Kotch.

Deerfrance? Don’t know much about her but sending her warm thoughts through the mental theremin since her husband just passed. Also just found this song she did about Nico.

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

criminal in the 1980s
Because of her relationship with Andy Capasso. Almost forgot about that.

Myerson also had a shoplifting problem, which I’m willing to overlook, because who among us…

.

I meant "Street Hassle" the song as being the only solo Lou moment that is absolutely essential for a Velvet fan to hear. Not the album. I love the whole thing, it's his best solo album. But it does have filler and I can't recommend an album that has "I Wanna Be Black" without some sort of warning and a signed waiver absolving me of any blame for being triggered. "Street Hassle" the song is kind of a bummer because there's nothing else like that in his catalog. In my mind that is when Spacemen 3 were born.

The album that best captures the essence of classic Lou is Take No Prisoners.

The Velvets are the only band who I have wanted to hear EVERYTHING from. Any fucked up wobbly bootleg is welcome in my ears.

I’d throw “The Bells” (song) up there as well for VU fans

Thanks for the clarification. “Street Hassle (The Song)” is so great because it is kind of like the plot of a Warhol movie without dropping Andy’s name, the hard shiny, shiny surface of the storyline colliding with Terms of Endearment-level sentimentality, all tied together with those embodied cellos borrowed from the pre-Petra Haden sung cello lines of that earlier tale of Redemption Through Bad Romance performed by those crisscross trend line favorites on JoJo’s graph, The Who’s “A Quick One, While He’s Away.”

Some good stuff on this thread: In Praise Of...Lou Reed "Take No Prisoners"
Including links to one guy’s excellent blog such as this one: https://damienlove.com/writing/babe-im-on-fire-the-making-of-lou-reeds-street-hassle

"Street Hassle (The Song Suite)"

Forgot about it being used in The Squid and the Whale, closing credits was it.

Just went further down the Balloon Farm rabbit hole. Will spare you for now.

Or you could just read this yourself: https://www.mikeappel.com/Balloon%20Farm%20story.pdf

I can't even interest the Velvet Underground thread in the Sunday Morning / MITM link :(

I hear the similarity! No intel to offer, sorry

oh good, I just needed a sanity check!

MITM?

"Mary in the Morning" upthread

Ta. Will check it out

I found the Elvis version, the intro there has a similar chord setup. I don't hear any similarity in Glenn Campbell's.

Heard American Poet (the live album recorded in 1972 with the Tots on the Transformer tour) for the first time yesterday . -*It's really pretty good!

• The sound quality is a lot better than I expected.
• Lou's voice is expressive and he's in fine form playing guitar.
• He fired the Tots halfway through the 1973 tour for some reason.
• The name "The Tots" makes me laugh.
• Lou says "Work it" after every chorus of White Light/White Heat.

that's the WLIR Ultrasonic concert, right? with the interview segment? "where's doug yule now?" "uh, dead i hope." i think i listened to that in real time.

^pvmic