The Velvet Underground 3rd album poll

my vote: Candy Says
what will probably win: pale blue eyes (?!)

Always liked What Goes On myself, that endless chugging riff.

you realize that we're polling the entire VU discography right now, right? Guess I'm Polling in Love: The Lou Reed Memorial Velvet Underground (and solo material) Ballot Poll Thread

i mean, no big deal, but running threads like these at the exact same time almost feels like spoilers.

ok but there's a difference between "entire discography + solo material" and a specific VU record poll

Love the WGO live 69 version.

and i don't think it will spoil the ballot poll results because of that difference and because of the different methods of voting on each poll

what goes on(anonanonanon)

I'm Set Free vs What Goes On, tho Beginning to See the Light is also awesome

My favourite, with the quirk that I'm not very big on its two most famous songs, "Candy Says" and "Pale Blue Eyes." (At least I think those are the two most famous--maybe they're just Ellen Willis's two favourite in her Stranded essay.) The rest I love. 1. "What Goes On," 2. "Beginning to See the Light," 3. "Jesus."

Can't vote for "What Goes On" because the Live 1969 version blows it (and most other music) away. I especially love "I'm Set Free" but... difficult to choose one. One of the best opening lines to an album ever!

No love for "Some Kinda Love"? It's been my most recent favorite, not decided if I'll vote for it though.

This is an album I pretty much always play in its entirety. Greatly sequenced.

"Some Kinda Love" has more good lyrics than any rock song I've heard.

lots of solid stuff, but c'mon it has to be after hours

xp except "put jelly on your shoulder".

This album is the best. I bought it yesterday for a friend's birthday. I'm of the opinion that she'll never be able to thank me enough.

Can't pick a song to save my life; they're all too good, and each is so integral to the whole record. Even "Story", which will probably (and deservedly) receive no votes, without which the arc of the thing would be ruined. I'm tempted to vote for it, just to keep things balanced.

"jesus" (which inspired my favorite spacemen 3 song)

"put jelly on your shoulder" is the best line!

almost as good as "somebody cut off her feet/now jelly rolls in the street"

"The Murder Mystery" keeps this record from being all-time for me. I usually skip it, and when I don't, I wish I had. If it was half as long, I wouldn't mind it so much.

Voted SKL, but 1-7 were all contenders really. This fucking band.

at some point i think almost all of these songs have been my favorite. i went with 'What Goes On' because the obnoxiously loud and awesome guitar solo seems like a bookend to the the Cale era (even though he's not on it).

lots of solid stuff, but c'mon it has to be after hours

otm. One of my favorite songs of all time by anyone. (Well, that's actually true of several things on this album. But it's truest of that one.)

Amazing song--always reminded me of Jim Lowe's "Green Door" (later covered by the Cramps).

... No. 1 hit in the UK for Shakin' Stevens

... in July 1981 (not 1956 or something)

Beginning to See the Light -> I'm Set Free might be my favorite Side Two one-two punch ever.

i love every song on it, voted candy

basically "What Goes On" taught me rhythm guitar. Basically "Some Kinda Love" urged me to come out (I'm gay thanks to Lou Reed). Basically "Pale Blue Eyes" taught me loneliness. Basically "The Murder Mystery" taught me about failed experiments.

Voted "What Goes On", but c'mon folks, "Murder Mystery" is the underground nested in all that velvet. Completely integral to the *idea* of the band, especially with Cale gone. And I adore the pianos during the closing, fighting to stay sweet and tonal.

That's it though – the band didn't need Cale anymore or his notions of underground. Plus, this album in its quiet way is as subversive as songs about domination or songs helmed by a flat-voiced Teutonic iceberg.

Yeah, the pianos are great, but the song overstays its welcome long after the point is made.

xp

Cmon guys stop saying cmon

lol wasn't there a poll what goes on the beatles vs the velvet underground

oh man all these riffs. some kinda love is so great, with the way the guitar just bounces around against the steady beat. just this mix of propulsive and surprising, a whole different notion of the drone at work here. "let us do what you fear most".

guitarwork is also the secret weapon in pale blue eyes. lyrics and melody almost just a bonus. all the solos on this album are heartbreaking.

As far as avant-collages go, "The Murder Mystery" is the third-Velvet-Underground-album of sound collages- jangley guitars tossing about, voices talking over each other in a conversational tone, happy little pianos. I'm surprised to find that it's longer than "Revolution 9".

I really like the murder mystery, and After Hours is sweet, but What Goes On is too mighty to ignore.

Feeling this as Jesus vs Some Kinda Love rn

Really down to "Some Kinda Love" vs. "Pale Blue Eyes" for me. Ended up voting the latter and now wishing I could take back my vote and vote for the former. I don't know.

How did ppl ultimately feel about the closet mix vs the valentin mix anyway

When Peel SLowly and See came out I didn't like the closet but I might feel differently today

What Goes On i guess, looking at the tracklisting now there are no real standouts but it's probably their most consistent album

the closet mix is vile -- they sound like demos. I want my guitars having sex like they do on the original "Some Kinda Love."

SKL.

Also, I like the closet mix just fine. Have copies of both and listen the on the reg.
Prefer the SKL take on the Valentin mix better though.

Which of the two SKLs has Lou improvising some "La de da da"s, closet mix or non-?

"i'm set free", no hesitation. followed closely by "what goes on", of course.

SOME KINDA LOVE

Closet mix is alright, marred heavily by the substandard take of SKL that was substituted in.

OK, is anyone going to vote for either "The Murder Mystery" or "That's The Story of My Life"? Because if someone will vote for one, I'll vote for the other. Just because no song left behind.

mm has one vote

"Story" it is.

The VU thing definitely came via Bowie.

I think "Live 1969" wasn't released in the UK until the late 70s and then Peel played it a lot and Orange Juice and all the Postcard people went apeshit over it.

I remember the frustration of being in high school c. 1984 trying to get into this mysterious group and ALL of their stuff was out of print, despite the countless indie bands wearing a VU influence on their sleeves. iirc the VU comp of unreleased material was the first thing to finally appear, then the banana album in 1986 and (again iirc) White Light not till '88 or so.

yeah, on my FB wall a few months ago a nice conversation started about the ripple effect of the 1985 VU comp: it was for many college students their first exposure, and it became a quiet hit (#85!).

I had that compilation above for a couple of years...long story as to why I had it and why I ended up trading it to a friend.

unbeknownst to me it was the closet mix, which I listened to for years & thought was the real album.

Which version do you prefer now?

"pale blue eyes" has fucking amazing lyrics, cf. the "down for you is up" verse

also for me the closet mix is superior

Josefa: I wrote a long thing many few years ago about exactly what you say, the frustration of trying to piece together a collection in the mid-'80s. (Back that up about five years for me.)

http://phildellio.tripod.com/records-v2-w1.html

It was indeed VU that changed all that: suddenly you could buy the first two albums (I don't think they r-ereleased the third, I can't quite remember) at mid-line prices, usually $4.99.

morrisp, mostly I like em about equal, I like the closet mix of 'what goes on' a tiny bit more, but the Valentin version of 'Some Kinda Love' is 100x better imo.

The closet mix has the "Some Kinda" love with prominent cow bell, right? I dislike that one.

lol "Some Kinda Love"

yeah cowbell and only one guitar

love with prominent cow bell

Song title alert.

Weird, I never knew there were two mixes of this but just now listening to the "Some Kinda Love" closet mix I actually think I prefer that to the Valentin mix that I've been familiar with for many years. It's more intimate and I don't miss the second guitar. Don't know about the rest of the songs.

i think some kinda love is the only one that is a 100% alternate take iirc

Reed "fixes" one of the awkward lines on it, which is another plus

xp that's correct, different takes on that one

i prefer the closet mix version of some kinda love, sounds like lou sang and played it while laying on the floor

i think you can hear him wetting his lips between lines, haha

haha he also wets his lips in "Satellite of Love."

Lou ASMReed

i’ve got one of those ’80s UK vu reissues, the s/t actually. bright red polydor labels and an inner sleeve with a skull n crossbones over a cassette that says HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC

Home taping was the best thing that ever happened to the VU

Not Many People Home-Taped Velvet Underground Albums, But Everyone Who Did Started A Band With The People They Made The Tapes For.

Grew up with the Valentin mix & when the closet mix was made available on “Peel Slowly” I didn’t fuck with it. Bought an OG vinyl copy & it’s charms became super-apparent. Love that both versions exist. I give the edge to Valentin but that might just be the nostalgia talking.

We all 'grew up' with the closet mix, to the extent that when I heard there was another mix, I had to get the pricey Japanese edition to hear it, as that was the only 'on catalogue' version of it.

Should have waited one year...

Yes, I'd never heard the Valentin mix until recently, I was just listening to it on YouTube and it's completely unfamiliar to me.

my copy of 3rd album came via that peel slowly and see box so i always listened to the closet mix until i started recently playing VU on spotify A LOT (i've 'rediscovered' a lot of my favourite classic albums from when I was a teen 'horses', 'transformer' and I like them more now than i did then). I had never liked some kinda love and suddenly its like my favourite, it took a relisten to the closet mix before I realised why. that fn cowbell, the missing guitar. Its wrong.

It's fuckin' great is what it is.

nah

More intimate, it's like Lou is actually pouring jelly on your shoulder.

for me the correct version of any VU song will always be "the one with the highest # of guitars"

Not sure if I've ever seen the full Lester Bangs' review of this looks from Rolling Stone before (one of his earliest bylines):

ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW

The Velvet Underground are alive and well (which in itself may surprise some people) and ever-changing. How do you define a group like this, who moved from "Heroin" to "Jesus" in two short-years? It is not enough to say that they have one of the broadest ranges of any group extant; this should be apparent to anyone who has listened closely to their three albums. The real question is what this music is about — smack, meth, deviate sex and drugdreams, or something deeper?

Their spiritual odyssey ranges from an early blast of sadomasochistic self-loathing called "I'm So F***ed Up," through the furious nihilism of "Heroin" and the metaphysical quest implied in the words "I'm searching for my mainline," to this album, which combines almost overpowering musical lyricism with deeply yearning, compassionate lyrics to let us all know that they are finally "Beginning to See the Light."

Can this be that same bunch of junkie — f***ot — sadomasochist — speed — freaks who roared their anger and their pain in storms of screaming feedback and words spat out like strings of epithets? Yes. Yes, it can, and this is perhaps the most important lesson the Velvet Underground: the power of the human soul to transcend its darker levels.

The songs on this album are about equally divided between the subjects of love and freedom. So many of them are about love, in fact, that one wonders if Lou Reed, the malevolent Burroughsian Death Dwarf who had previously never written a complimentary song about anybody, has not himself fallen in love. The opening song, "Candy Says," is about a young girl who would like to "know completely what the others so discreetly talk about." The fact that this and about half the other tracks on the album are ballads marks another radical departure for the Velvets. The next track is a deep throbbing thing in which he chides perhaps the same girl for her confusion with a great chorus: "Lady be good/Do what you should/You know it'll be alright." John Cale's organ work on this track is stark and spare and, as usual, brilliant — this time as much for what he leaves out as what he puts in.

Then there is "Some Kinda Love," a grooving Latiny thing, somewhat like Donovan but much more earthy, and with words that will kill you: "Put the jelly on your shoulder/Let us do what you feel most/That from which you recoil/Uh still makes your eyes moist."

Perhaps the greatest surprise here is "Jesus," a prayer no less. The yearning for the state of grace reflected ther culminates in "I'm Set Free," a joyous hymn of liberation. The Velvets never seemed so beautifully close to the Byrds before.

The album is unfortunately not without its weak "tracks though. "The Murder Mystery" is an eight minute exercise in aural overload that annoys after a few listenings, and "Pale Blue Eyes" is a folky ballad that never really gets off the ground either musically or lyrically. On the whole I didn't feel that this album matched up to White Light/White Heat, but it will still go a long way toward convincing the unbelievers that the Velvet Underground can write and play any kind of music they want to with equal brilliance.

~ Lester Bangs (May 17, 1969)

Lolz at him not 'getting' PBE.

Don't know where that 'looks' came from.

Also: his misattribution of Cale playing on WGO = The first printed slight to Doug Yule?

The songs on this album are about equally divided between the subjects of love and freedom.

boy, it's odd reading writers in their embryonic phase.

Never seen that either. Considering his love for WL/WH, and also that he would have been 21 at the time, I think that's an okay review. I've always been so-so on "Pale Blue Eyes" myself (aware that I'm very much in the minority there).

I'm in the same boat with "Pale Blue Eyes", beautiful playing but some of those rhymes are real groaners even by Lou standards imo

an early blast of sadomasochistic self-loathing called "I'm So F***ed Up,"

what is this referring to?

I had the same question

Weirdly enough--I'm sure it's the very thing most people love about "Pale Blue Eyes"--I've never warmed to the melody...Not sure about "I'm So F***ed Up" either. I thought at first it was a bootleg recording, but surely those are all known and catalogued extensively by now. Maybe it's meant as a joke title for one of the album tracks.

Peter Laughner had a song with that name and was an early VU freak. I thought he and Bangs didn't know each other til a few years after this, but maybe it's an in-joke?

"Jesus" > "Pale Blue Eyes"

If Bangs had seen them live by 1969, maybe it was an off-the-cuff title given to a jam?

I'm in the not-so-fond of "Pale Blue Eyes" camp, along with Sterling Morrison, who thought it was too personal for the band to play.

Don’t really know how much I like “Pale Blue Eyes” either but I just located my letter never sent ballot for the VU poll from seven no eight years ago and it was on there so I guess there must be something about it that does appeal to me.

btw I still like "Pale Blue Eyes," I'm just burned out.

Right, maybe that’s it

Man, I love "Pale Blue Eyes" - the solo alone is absolutely beautiful.

I always associate the studio recording with Andy Warhol's famous footage of Nico from Chelsea Girls - the song wasn't used in that film (which was released a few years earlier), but there's at least one documentary that paired it up with that footage to great effect. It may be a mismatch of VU eras, but they fit each other so well.

That solo is a vibrating dewdrop.

xpost yeah, the South Bank Show thing.