The Velvet Underground & Nico poll

ATP

oh yeah, side one was the title track followed by sister ray, side two was call my name followed by the rest of side one

― OutdoorFish, Tuesday, November 5, 2013 2:48 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Weird! That's pretty much the worst/most anti-climactic imaginable running order for that record.

Is it true Velvet Underground albums were out-of-print in the early 80s?

out of personal reasons it has always been femme fatale for me. but sunday morning, run run run, all tomorrow's parties, i'll be your mirror and european son are as good or even better musically.

Very much so (xpost). I spent years assembling the first four, and my #1 and #3 are really oddball issues. I think it was Another View that sparked reissues in the mid-'80s.

Iirc, The two Atlantic/Cotillion album and 1969 Live were the only ones in continuous print.

^^this

Yeah i remember paying dearly for imported vu, in early eighties montreal

They were all out of print in Canada for about a decade. My copy of Loaded, bought sometime in the late '70s:

http://rymimg.com/lk/f/l/b0cf6ba57288f7161f51eed1e53a6530/1715872.jpg

I think there were reissues in about 1979. I know I was able to get the first couple of lps in the early 80s and remember Loaded being a mid-price lp.

There was an article on the band in NME in '79 or '80 that I thought coincided with reissues though maybe it was something else. Think I remember reading a review of various lps at some point in a set of music press that my elder brother had from the turn of the 80s.

I definitely remember reading an article on the best VU bootlegs somewhere in there too.
Really wish I still had that collection of the papers, had some very interesting stuff in.

Actually, it was VU that kicked off the reissue program in 1985. Their first 3 records were re-released simultaneously with VU's release. Another View came out in '86 or '87.

xp

No, I definitely got the lps new in the early years of the 80s. from racks that had a number of other copies.

But that was UK so may have been different on the other side of the Atlantic. Though surprised taht the label would miss there being some market for the material again.

First time I went to Amsterdam I was more amazed by all the VU records than the ubiquitous weed

a heady combination

aye sailor

According to Discogs & Nico has been issued 120 times around the world
including lp version in the US in 1978
& Netherlands and UK in 1981 & several European versions in 1983.

As I recall, there was a lot of talk about the VU in the early 80's - my knowledgeable friends were playing second-hand vinyl and making tapes for their friends. I think I got 'Loaded' on cassette in '86 or '87 or thereabouts.

I first saw the Velvets albums sometime before France declared war on Germany in August 1914; the tariff was so high at that point that I couldn't get a copy, so as the war raged copies around Europe vanished bit by bit.

VU, that's what I meant--the one with "I Can't Stand It."

My copy of the first one, which I also bought in '78 or thereabouts, is West German.

http://www.discogs.com/Velvet-Underground-Nico-The-Velvet-Underground-Nico/release/588673

(xpost) Okay, I must have one of those WWI copies.

When was Uptight published? That's early 80s sometime isn't it. Just wondering if that might be what prompted the NME article at the turn of the decade. Would definitely been covered anyway.
Maybe article was just band history on a group that was being talked about a lot. Not sure if previous 1973 version was deleted or still doing the rounds. Velvets were a band with large influence on punk & post-punk anyway.

Maya Deren let me look at her copy of White Light/White Heat, but she wouldn't play it for me. Said I wasn't ready.

did it have the peelable banana?

xxpost

WWI copies came with an actual banana, as the concept of 'peel slowly and see' still had kinks to be worked out.

Maya Deren let me look at her copy of White Light/White Heat, but she wouldn't play it for me. Said I wasn't ready.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), T

Maya Deren had reached her limit.

I take it it was peelable

collardio was like an octopus, vu albums all over the place

According to Discogs & Nico has been issued 120 times around the world
including lp version in the US in 1978

I think I can attest to this! I had a copy with no gatefold, no peelable banana, plastic inner sleeve. Bought new about a year before the reissues with the printed inner sleeve with Kurt Loder (?) liner notes came out.

"The Velvet Underground was a dark star in the giddy pop firmament of the 1960s."

Yep, that was Loder.

very tough poll but I really love Black Angel Death Song so there you go.

have lived w/ this record for over 25 years and ViF's patina of weird magic is still baffling & beguiling & rich w/ temporal distortion

ppl who call it overplayed and/or ridiculous and then pull the lever for heroin well I guess but I just don't know

I actually feel that more about 7 than 4

I found the NME article and it was a 1981 5 page thing based around an interview with Sterling, if that is indeed the same thing.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/magazines/magazinesenglish.html#uk
NME - 25 April 1981

The Lost History Of The Velvet Underground

Mary Harron

New Musical Express, April 25, 1981, p. 27-30 & 53

5-page article based on an interview with Sterling Morrison, with 8 B&W photographs - some rarely seen. Small insert on cover.

"The Velvet Underground were the first avant-garde rock band, and the greatest."

I had it my mind as being in the pretty much chronologically ordered pile around the same place as the first mentions of the Cramps. So could be this, with me trying to remember after 20+ years or could be another thing.

Sounds had a history in 1977. & Sounds was at pretty much the same level of popularity as NME & Melody Maker.

Velvet Underground starring Andy Warhol

Giovanni Dadomo

Sounds, May 14, 1977, p. 18-20 & 22

Full-page Velvet Underground cover: "The Velvets - A punk legend unpeeled". 4-page history by Giovanni Dadomo. Two other separate episodes about Lou Reed and solo.

Reproduced in Velvet Underground Scrapbook Volume 1.

"You wanna know about The Velvet Underground, is that right? I see, somebody told you that if you weren't for The Velvets there'd be no such thing as 'punk rock', or at the very least that today's teen rebels would probably look and sound one hell of a lot different if the V.U. had never existed. Not to mention the fact that without Lou Reed the people who make leather jackets and shades would probably have gone bankrupt years ago. Alright then, let me set you straight."

Hadn't realised that Uptight was as late as 1983 so I must have picked it up soon after it came out.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/books/books.html

& while I would have picked up the & Nico lp in late 1981 or 1982 I was already at least partially familiar with it from my elder brother's copy. I remember singing what I knew of Waiting For The Man as I walked around school when I was around 14.

I found the NME article and it was a 1981 5 page thing based around an interview with Sterling, if that is indeed the same thing.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/magazines/magazinesenglish.html#uk

NME - 25 April 1981

The Lost History Of The Velvet Underground

Mary Harron

New Musical Express, April 25, 1981, p. 27-30 & 53

5-page article based on an interview with Sterling Morrison, with 8 B&W photographs - some rarely seen. Small insert on cover.

"The Velvet Underground were the first avant-garde rock band, and the greatest."

====================================================================================================

I had it my mind as being in the pretty much chronologically ordered pile around the same place as the first mentions of the Cramps. So could be this, with me trying to remember after 20+ years or could be another thing.

Sounds had a history in 1977. & Sounds was at pretty much the same level of popularity as NME & Melody Maker.

Velvet Underground starring Andy Warhol

Giovanni Dadomo

Sounds, May 14, 1977, p. 18-20 & 22

Full-page Velvet Underground cover: "The Velvets - A punk legend unpeeled". 4-page history by Giovanni Dadomo. Two other separate episodes about Lou Reed and solo.

Reproduced in Velvet Underground Scrapbook Volume 1.

"You wanna know about The Velvet Underground, is that right? I see, somebody told you that if you weren't for The Velvets there'd be no such thing as 'punk rock', or at the very least that today's teen rebels would probably look and sound one hell of a lot different if the V.U. had never existed. Not to mention the fact that without Lou Reed the people who make leather jackets and shades would probably have gone bankrupt years ago. Alright then, let me set you straight."
====================================================================================================

Hadn't realised that Uptight was as late as 1983 so I must have picked it up soon after it came out.
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/biblio/books/books.html

& while I would have picked up the & Nico lp in late 1981 or 1982 I was already at least partially familiar with it from my elder brother's copy. I remember singing what I knew of Waiting For The Man as I walked around school when I was around 14.

Remember seeing this UK comp a lot when I was first getting into the Velvets in the early 80s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol's_Velvet_Underground_Featuring_Nico

Yeah, my sister had that, or borrowed it or something, that was where I first heard "Sister Ray". Lou Reed was not exactly an unknown in the 70s, so I don't think the Velvets were exactly languishing in obscurity until the 80s.

Heh first time I ever heard 'Sister Ray' was on 'Closer' by Joy Division. Seeing the name Morrison in the songwriting credits, I thought it was a Doors cover.

Anyone else got this compilation? It was my introduction to the VU. For some reason it seems to be quite rare.

http://eil.com/images/main/Velvet+Underground+-+Andy+Warhol%27s+Velvet+Underground+Featuring+Nico+-+DOUBLE+LP-361886.jpg

Oops, sorry, I didn't see that it was mentioned just upthread.

ward, you mean Still

i do, i do

Anagram, yep, me too. This was the only thing available for that time where the LPs seemed to be 'unavailable/missing', along w/ "Squeeze" at the time.

Heh first time I ever heard 'Sister Ray' was on 'Closer' by Joy Division. Seeing the name Morrison in the songwriting credits, I thought it was a Doors cover.

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 09:44 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and so did I. To my 'older, cooler' friends. They were kind....

Goddess on the mountain top
Burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS8VcNy1c6uF6qcmdjuFHUMJEBTjH7pH8y2g3TPSs08eFU8yleupLE-mOc

That one needs a varispeed turntable

anna magnifying glass

My sister had this (and I assume still has it):

http://images.45cat.com/the-velvet-underground-inside-your-heart-aeb.jpg

"I'm Waiting sounded very strange to me. the melody was good, but i didn't know what to think about the minimalist monotonic drumming.
obviously, the ONE ONE ONE drumming is what makes the song special. otherwise, it would be a garage number like There She Goes."

as demonstrated in the 1969 live record

Anagram: I bought that double in the States in the early '80s, I think right after I left a French import of WL/WH in a car trunk after some drunken escapade (not a stupor, though)--I think it contained the whole album, or very close. I kept it for a while, then traded it to a friend and resumed looking.

ppl who call it overplayed--Don't think you could ever say that about any of their albums. Over-written-about, over-name-dropped, etc., yes, but unless you're overplaying it yourself--in which case you shouldn't be complaining to yourself about yourself--no one else is in any kind of a public context.