I take it all the people going for 5, 10, 11 didn't rate the third album very highly, but loved the second.
― OutdoorFish, Monday, 4 November 2013 22:58 (ten years ago) link
Different days of the week, bro.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 November 2013 22:59 (ten years ago) link
love them allxpost
― nostormo, Monday, 4 November 2013 23:02 (ten years ago) link
WL/WH is my favourite Velvets album but on the debut I prefer the more straightahead material...and VIF.
― snoop dogey doge (seandalai), Monday, 4 November 2013 23:05 (ten years ago) link
also , White Light sound different from 5,10, and 11
― nostormo, Monday, 4 November 2013 23:06 (ten years ago) link
eh I've always felt like the last 10 minutes of this album start to get a bit grating tbh
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 4 November 2013 23:08 (ten years ago) link
Venus. 2 is rock n roll, but ViF is so alien, so strange, and that's before you even ponder the lyrics
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Monday, 4 November 2013 23:41 (ten years ago) link
'european son' is the only song here i don't love. sounds like they wanted to do 'sister ray' but hadn't figured out how to do it yet.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 4 November 2013 23:45 (ten years ago) link
Oh, the "Waiting for the man" thing:
I'm sure you all know the 'bang bang bang' of the piano, the surprise is that the mono version has the piano mixed right back and the guitar being the loudest instrument. I guess Lou was in for the mono mixing session then..
― Mark G, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 00:15 (ten years ago) link
this is as tough as a poll gets.
i had to go with "sunday morning" though. painfully gorgeous, it anchors the whole record, ushers it in, creates space and a sense of anticipation, between the opening celesta and the bass, for all the noise, midday hustle and nocturnal weirdness to come later. it's a cliche to say that vu&nico changes lives, but it's true, and that change starts right there, with those opening notes...so you can't forget that. i can't. there's nothing subtle about it at all.
― never have i been a blue calm sea (collardio gelatinous), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 00:27 (ten years ago) link
I love wlwh, I love booker t so much and I heard her call my name is brilliantly crazy, as is lgo in a totally different way. I think the third album is overall too soft for me as a whole, although it had brilliant songs. Taking the best track tracks from both albums, you have an album that rivals the debut. I prefer tge noise songs on wlwh to 10, 11 on this, concur with jd
― OutdoorFish, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 00:42 (ten years ago) link
Today it's "All Tomorrow's Parties"
― brimstead, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 02:06 (ten years ago) link
"waiting" for me, despite good arguments here and elsewhere for many other tracks, because it's the one song on here that, when I heard it for the first time, I said "my God, this is the greatest rock song ever written."
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 03:11 (ten years ago) link
always gonna be "all tomorrow's parties" for me
― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 03:19 (ten years ago) link
How can this not have been polled before? Heroin.I met a lady named Rosebud at a museum opening tonight who claimed to have introduced Lou and Andy. She was the filmmaker Harry Smith's "wife" in the OTO--that Crowley Thelema religion where Smith was a high priest--and she was going on about Ludlow Street and how she thought Maureen was the most beautiful boy the first week she knew her and all about the Cafe Bizarre residency, etc. She said she went to Andy and said, "you gotta hear them, they are the future!" I gotta admit, she was strangely convincing but there are probably 100 people walking around who claim the same thing
― Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 03:33 (ten years ago) link
love all these songs, but the for me the definitive versions of lots of them are elsewhere. waiting would be my no. 1, but the cale solo performances are how i think of it. second is mirror, but there are more delicate versions elsewhere, including lou reed solo.
sunday morning, venus in furs, all tomorrow's parties, and heroin are the four tracks that feel like they belong on this album and nowhere else. and of those, venus is just too self-important and ridiculous to vote as the best. of those i gotta go with heroin because it works as a song as much as a performance, but where this particular recording is the one where everything works -- the weakness in the voice, the uneasy un-groove it un-settles into, the hesitant toms. still just fucking thrilling.
― lollercoaster of rove (s.clover), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 03:52 (ten years ago) link
oh god and cale strangling his viola in early art-freakout mode without that being the only point of the song. it has that balance that he followed for the rest of his career.
― lollercoaster of rove (s.clover), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 03:56 (ten years ago) link
"All tomorrow's Parties" has such a harsh yet glorious ringing sound.
― brimstead, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 04:10 (ten years ago) link
It's gorgeous.
― Treeship, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 04:12 (ten years ago) link
This is one of those albums that I really wish I could have heard with no preconceptions. I can't imagine picking it up at random and trying to make sense of the band from "Sunday Morning" onward.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 04:39 (ten years ago) link
When i was a teen/tween i loved all the twee VU tracks and was mystified by the noisier, more challenging stuff. When it all "clicked" after i reallly felt the last minute or so of "heroin" it was world-exploding. I think a lot of listeners are similar: they form a relationship with some songs, with nico, and then are more willing to be led into artier music for the first time.
― Treeship, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 04:44 (ten years ago) link
so otm
cale's so great because he he's this bizarre mix of compromise and uncompromise
― reckless woo (Z S), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 04:45 (ten years ago) link
Yeah I think Heroin is the best at offering everything that this record has to offer
― they're not chanting Lou, they're calling you 'boo' (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 04:58 (ten years ago) link
Waiting over Heroin.
Q: how many people listened to Heroin and thought, I'll have some of that please VS those who thought, this is amazing and all but thanks for the warning, never going to do that.
― that's not my post, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 06:34 (ten years ago) link
"sunday morning, venus in furs, all tomorrow's parties, and heroin are the four tracks that feel like they belong on this album and nowhere else."
otm
― nostormo, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 06:48 (ten years ago) link
"How can this not have been polled before? "
see also the 3rd VU record
― nostormo, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 08:08 (ten years ago) link
the noisy -ahead of it's time- guitar in the 2nd part
I think that's viola you're hearing there but I'm not sure what you mean by the 2nd part tbh
― Thomas K Amphong (Tom D.), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 08:57 (ten years ago) link
there is perfectly fine stuff on everything after WLWH but i don't think of it as the VU
― i have no ass and i must twerk (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 09:24 (ten years ago) link
In my first term at university this is one of the handful of albums that my new clique of friends could agree on so I heard it dozens of times. At first my favourite was Venus in Furs because it was weird, then Heroin because it was terrifying, then Sunday Morning because it was beautiful, then I wasn't sure. When this poll came up I wasn't going to vote because what's great about this album is that every track is a distinct entity, almost from a different band, so choosing a favourite becomes an apples-and-oranges situation, but when I did my ballot for the big Lou Reed poll I surprised myself by choosing I'm Waiting for the Man as my #1. It's just so relentless and perfect and startling, coming after Sunday Morning, and it tells you everything about Lou. His literary ambitions really make sense here - these could be the first lines of a novel. He doesn't just write explicitly about drugs, he gives you an address and a price tag. He puts you right there on the corner.
― Deafening silence (DL), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 09:51 (ten years ago) link
VU in the 1969 is exactly what I think of as the VU
― Thomas K Amphong (Tom D.), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 10:36 (ten years ago) link
the first is + Nicothe third and fourth are - Caleso WLWH is the only real VU record..
― nostormo, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 10:39 (ten years ago) link
as if the terminology makes a difference..
― nostormo, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 10:40 (ten years ago) link
"he noisy -ahead of it's time- guitar in the 2nd part
I think that's viola you're hearing there but I'm not sure what you mean by the 2nd part tbh"
the part after "and it's my wife haha" and yeah, it's a viola, but still, the SY/Les Rallizes Dénudés sound is ahead of it's time..
― nostormo, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 10:45 (ten years ago) link
the jamc once said in an interview that heroin was the best song ever, apart from the violins
― OutdoorFish, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 11:15 (ten years ago) link
Guys I checked allmusic and it turns out all of those albums are by the velvet underground xps
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 11:22 (ten years ago) link
even squeeze
― nostormo, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 11:23 (ten years ago) link
Sure why not
(
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 11:32 (ten years ago) link
Have never heard it)
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 11:33 (ten years ago) link
JAMC also said I Wanna Be Your Dog was the best song ever "apart from that fucking horrible guitar solo". I used to love JAMC interviews.
― Deafening silence (DL), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 12:05 (ten years ago) link
Voted Sunday Morning.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 12:10 (ten years ago) link
that's not my post otm
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 14:58 (ten years ago) link
they were a better band with Yule imo. I could listen to "Foggy Notion" and Live 1969 all day.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 15:03 (ten years ago) link
eh scratch that. Like Roxy, they weren't a better or worse band with the loss of an essential member, just different.
I take it all the people going for 5, 10, 11 didn't rate the third album very highly, but loved the second.― OutdoorFish, Monday, 4 November 2013 22:58
i like 3rd a lot
― Bart get out I'm piss (am0n), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 15:19 (ten years ago) link
(xp) My thoughts entirely, though tbh I listen to the Yule era about 100 times more often than the Cale era, although there is a lot more to listen to
― Thomas K Amphong (Tom D.), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 15:43 (ten years ago) link
Venus in Furs and European Son and maybe maybe Run Run Run are the only songs on this album that I occasionally skip. The rest is perfect. I voted Heroin even though the recorded version is just about the worst version of it in existence.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 15:49 (ten years ago) link
curious what you'd pick as better versions? i sort of feel the opposite way about it.
― lollercoaster of rove (s.clover), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 15:53 (ten years ago) link
Same here
― Thomas K Amphong (Tom D.), Tuesday, 5 November 2013 15:56 (ten years ago) link
Basically any live version. I even love the version on the Live '93 disc, although I think most people don't.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 15:57 (ten years ago) link
Basically I think it's a much better song when the drums are in sync with the rest of the music.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 5 November 2013 15:58 (ten years ago) link