just as long as you realize that their "weakest" is better than most people will ever make. their weak beats your career.
― scott seward, Friday, 30 March 2012 00:54 (1 hour ago)
oh yeah this is a given
― Flat Of NAGLs (sleeve), Friday, 30 March 2012 02:54 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, i couldn't get into american flyer at all
― buzza, Friday, 30 March 2012 02:57 (twelve years ago) link
I listen to Loaded the most if I listen to VU, but I'll take the Dead over the first three VU records, now those bootleg Sister Ray 20 minute jams might be better than any of their records.
― JacobSanders, Friday, 30 March 2012 04:04 (twelve years ago) link
ANd Nico sounds half dead most of the time, main reason I haven't listened to their first record since I was 20.
― JacobSanders, Friday, 30 March 2012 04:05 (twelve years ago) link
she totally works on those songs. i've always thought. the half dead thing totally works. i mean astrud gilberto was really big back then.
― scott seward, Friday, 30 March 2012 04:07 (twelve years ago) link
But Astrud makes it sounds sexy!
― JacobSanders, Friday, 30 March 2012 04:08 (twelve years ago) link
i dunno i'm a fan of hammer horror vampire living desd girls.
― scott seward, Friday, 30 March 2012 04:15 (twelve years ago) link
"dead" girls. living dead girl one of my alltime fave movies.
plus, i just love the delivery. damn, if YOU'RE my mirror, i'm fucked!
― scott seward, Friday, 30 March 2012 04:16 (twelve years ago) link
Lol
― dies irate (loves laboured breathing), Friday, 30 March 2012 05:09 (twelve years ago) link
oh hell yeah, me too. has there been much jean rollin discussion on ilx?
― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Friday, 30 March 2012 06:31 (twelve years ago) link
their weak beats your career.
Ha! Loaded reignited my VU love a couple of years ago following a long stretch where I stopped listening to them (though I was delving into the solo careers a fair bit). I'd rank it below the 1st and 3rd albums but yeah all four are such great records. I've had that a lot recently, getting back into things I thought I'd completely played out, it's great.
― Gavin, Leeds, Friday, 30 March 2012 08:39 (twelve years ago) link
My VU 'in obtain order' was:
Double LP "Andy Warhol's VU featuring Nico" http://eil.com/images/gallery_50x50/361886.jpg"
Which has all the first album apart from "I'll be your mirror", and all the second apart from "Lady Godiva's op", about half of the third album, and none of "Loaded" onwards.
I got a cheap http://991.com/images/thumbnails/455201b.jpg after that.
Left the third for a while, knew I'd like it more, so saved it..
― Mark G, Friday, 30 March 2012 09:05 (twelve years ago) link
"Ramble Tamble" is their "What Goes On."
"Keep On Chooglin'" is their "The Gift"!
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Friday, 30 March 2012 11:48 (twelve years ago) link
Could imagine 'Heard It On The Grapevine' done in the style of 'Sister Ray'.
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Friday, 30 March 2012 11:53 (twelve years ago) link
Talking of introductions to the VU, my sister had a live tape and some demos of a punk band she knew and when the punk band's own stuff finished the tape went into "Sister Ray", about halfway through, that sort of weird mellow bit with almost raga guitar from Lou - and for about a year I had no clue what it was and I'd never heard anything like it before! This is despite the fact that my sister had the 1st album and I knew it like the back of my hand.
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Friday, 30 March 2012 11:56 (twelve years ago) link
Definitely associate CCR with post-Cale VU, sort of stripped down rock with a minimum of flashiness
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Friday, 30 March 2012 11:57 (twelve years ago) link
My introduction to the Velvets was the Joy Division version of Sister Ray on Still and that put me right off for the longest time.
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Friday, 30 March 2012 12:05 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, similar.
― Mark G, Friday, 30 March 2012 12:44 (twelve years ago) link
Some of the stuff on VU (my intro to them) would not sound the least bit out of place on a CCR record ("I Can't Stand It," "Foggy Notion").
xp
― Dancing with Mr. T (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 30 March 2012 13:32 (twelve years ago) link
I was in 9th grade I think; had just got the big orange book SPIN's Alternative Record Guide and was kind of obsessed with the list of albums in the back. VU & Nico was #3; I had heard of the Velvets before but was never that interested, but soon after I started reading that book I got my dad to buy me that album and fell in love w/ it instantly
― what is a dog-robber? (loves laboured breathing), Friday, 30 March 2012 13:55 (twelve years ago) link
my intro to VU was 1969: VU live, which i bought used when i was about 17. took me a while to get the hang of it. at the time, the only VU/reed songs i knew were the 70s rock radio staples and new sensations, which i'd heard the year before. the live album didn't sound anything like that stuff. a close friend picked up VU the next year and loved it to death, especially "stephanie says" and "foggy notion". that's really what spurred me to track down the proper studio LPs.
― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Friday, 30 March 2012 14:29 (twelve years ago) link
make that "and i loved it to death", tho she did too
― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Friday, 30 March 2012 14:30 (twelve years ago) link
Sweet Sister Ray is a good jam boot, haven't heard The Lord's Prayer. Peel Slowly And See collected several good jams, like "Melody Laughter." Forget which of their posthumous has "Booker T," but that's real good too; it's also the background music for "The Gift." Was always fascinated by the downhome roots, bluesy infections, "the devil's "third" etc w avant-associated dissonance, ditto Mo Diddly's minimalism. Especially in versions of "What Goes On and "It's Just Too Much" on the Live 69 double LP, w the latter bringing out the Chuck Berry suggestions (or lifts) and Long Guy Land Lou, exclaining, "Take me back down/Where Ah bee-long/Evah-thing Ah DOO is wrowng!" So I was ready for Gun Club and the original Flesh Eaters, w members of X and the Blasters. Was a long thing by them on YouTube for a while, maybe too long, but good enough. Of course, once I thought about it, was a theme at least as far back as the 60s: Mingus, Beefheart, Paul Butterfield Blues Band finding their way into "East West", Henry Threadgill's Air playing Jellyroll Morton, Trane's blues elements, Archie Shepp, some of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time tracks, Sonny Sharrock ("All Blues" got him into guitar, "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground" got him into slide) Tom Waits from Swordfishtrombones on, etc. etc.
― dow, Friday, 30 March 2012 14:39 (twelve years ago) link
"Peel Slowly" also has Booker T.
― Mark G, Friday, 30 March 2012 14:40 (twelve years ago) link
I actually hear VU as a proper studio LP. It seems selected and sequenced as such, and never sounded to me like an odds-and-sods compilation, like Another View does.
xxp
― Dancing with Mr. T (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 30 March 2012 14:40 (twelve years ago) link
you can hear the vu combine european son & suzy q here. this is 1966 tho, so it's not a CCR reference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx2Tj7S5xlw
― tylerw, Friday, 30 March 2012 14:51 (twelve years ago) link
Always liked Cale's li'l Tex-Mex organ bit in "Sister Ray" too--hola Augie Meyer!
― dow, Friday, 30 March 2012 15:38 (twelve years ago) link
^otm
― what is a dog-robber? (loves laboured breathing), Friday, 30 March 2012 16:18 (twelve years ago) link
The organ-guitar duels generally!
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 March 2012 16:19 (twelve years ago) link
someone told me that back in the day the live album was the only velvets album that stayed in print, so it was the one that people would usually hear first.
― the penultimate prophets (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 30 March 2012 16:58 (twelve years ago) link
Yes, that's exactly the case. 1969 Live was the first one I bought...finally found a copy of Banana at the Vinyl Solution in Tuscaloosa in 1982, then 2 and 3 were rereleased in 1985, the ones with the Kurt Loder liner notes.
― Whiney Houson (WmC), Friday, 30 March 2012 17:08 (twelve years ago) link
I think I found Loaded in late 84 or early 84.
― Whiney Houson (WmC), Friday, 30 March 2012 17:09 (twelve years ago) link
Some of Cale's Sun Blindness Music discs have some duel-icious guitar-organ dueling, only it's with Sterling instead of Lou.
― Dancing with Mr. T (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 30 March 2012 17:13 (twelve years ago) link
I bet this woulda been fun:http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_krdkn9t3mi1qa5w86o1_500.jpg
(although it wasn't, according to Sterling)
― Dancing with Mr. T (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 30 March 2012 17:14 (twelve years ago) link
the ones with the Kurt Loder liner notes
lol forgot about these. Loder wrote a lot of reissue liner notes.
― You big bully, why are you hitting that little bully? (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 March 2012 17:18 (twelve years ago) link
bong loder
― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Friday, 30 March 2012 17:21 (twelve years ago) link
I generally wouldn't give Loder the time of day, but "withering guitar flipout" was a great phrase that has stuck in my head ever since. (re "I Heard Her Call My Name")
― Whiney Houson (WmC), Friday, 30 March 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
The Velvets rehabilitation in the 80s was rapid and stunning. In 1984, I'd read about them, but go to the shops, and all I'd ever see was the double live record tossed in the generic V section. It looked so slapdash, like a Historia De La Música Rock import, didn't want to sink my money into it. Then I finally found Loaded at the Harvard Coop. But by 1987, I'd see VU& Nico pretty often among the dozen CDs owned by the kids who owned CD players, nestled between Avalon, Staring at the Sea and Brothers in Arms.
― bendy, Friday, 30 March 2012 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
Loaded and 1969 Live were always in print. For the other albums I had to take the R train to 8th street and wait for the cool record store dudes to stroll in around noon to sell me the imports.
― Singularities Going Steady (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 March 2012 17:46 (twelve years ago) link
The Velvets rehabilitation in the 80s was rapid and stunning.
I think a lot/most/all of it can be put down to the 1985 reissue program coinciding with R.E.M. and U2 mentioning the Velvets a lot in interviews.
― Dancing with Mr. T (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 30 March 2012 17:56 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, that was what did it. Didn't work out quite as well for Flipper when Cobain came along a few years later.
― bendy, Friday, 30 March 2012 18:03 (twelve years ago) link
I think a lot of it had to do with they are amazing records
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Friday, 30 March 2012 18:17 (twelve years ago) link
otm. Love what Robert Quine said about them in this interview: http://www.furious.com/perfect/quine.html
― Singularities Going Steady (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 March 2012 20:34 (twelve years ago) link
The albums were being mentioned by punks and critics circa 78 and 79 too. I remember as a college freshman in fall '79 being scolded at my university radio station by the program director (who wanted a job in commercial radio and thought even college radio should just be about imitating commercial radio) for playing "Heroin," during my 3 to 6 am dj slot. I had found the VU albums back in the station's record library.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 30 March 2012 20:43 (twelve years ago) link
Those '85 reissues showed up in my nowheretown reoord store at EXACTLY the right time for me, a year after reading Lester Bangs' (and Fricke's and everybody's) various Velvets-raves, and a year before going off to lol college
― Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Friday, 30 March 2012 21:31 (twelve years ago) link
I don't know about REM and U2, but I think that bands like the Jesus & Mary Chain were probably quite important in raising the profile of the Velvets in the mid-80s, at least in the UK press anyway. Lloyd Cole too maybe.
― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Friday, 30 March 2012 22:18 (twelve years ago) link
i'd say live 1969 > 3rd > loaded > vu & nico. weird as vu & nico is one of the best albums of all times.
― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 30 March 2012 22:24 (twelve years ago) link
"jangle" as a thing was often framed as the legacy of the VU by the US music press, esp in ref to stuff like REM & the feelies
― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Friday, 30 March 2012 22:25 (twelve years ago) link
I always forget the jangle thing was CA; VU worship was more about the drone
― what is a dog-robber? (loves laboured breathing), Friday, 30 March 2012 22:38 (twelve years ago) link