pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

I only found out about this yesterday, so I have zero idea what I would've voted for.

Haha shit, I just read the Wikipedia entry on it too. Didn't sleep last night, I'll blame that. Not too bothered by Bayou/River not being on there.

i dig that the whole s&m thing is a little dated but the sound of that track is so amazing to me still

sonically it's the most arresting/groundbreaking cut on the first album

I guess your copy doesn't have "European Son" on it

how do you feel abt Heroin? seems also kinda dated transgressive but I still love that as well

Venus in Fears is incredible, sonically it's still in its own universe

Heroin's dated for sure but that's one where my vibe feels in line with most Velvets fans - it meant so much to me as a teenager, it still hits those same nostalgia spots when I hear it. I knew a bunch of live versions before I got my hands on the banana album and listening to it was such a revelation, that I-IV riff - I mean anybody who knows me knows I-IV is basically where I lived for fucking ever and the sheer power of that riff had a lot to do with it. I tend to prefer the versions everybody doesn't like though i.e. where Steve Hunter's on guitar, banana album version is a good first look but the song gets better live as it ages for at least five years

Heroin was the first VU song I ever heard, it's inclusion on The Doors movie OST is an underated milestones in the over grounding of 80s indie rock culture

Goddamn it would've been so good if The Doors OST was the #1 pitchfork album of the 1960s

European Son is basically a bo diddley riff. Venus in Furs is ... something else.

Xxp

not picking the Doors soundtrack as the best album of the 60s def another sign that Pitchfork has sold out since Conde Nast bought them, $$$chreiber &co. don't have the stones to Ride the Snake.

Venus in Furs is ... something else.

a Brecht pastiche?

I've always wondered about the connection between "Heroin" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Weirdly similar two chords, very similar subject matter ...

Hmm:

"Of perhaps more note is that the Velvet Underground are confirmed to have directly influenced an actual well-known late 1960s Rolling Stones recording. As Mick Jagger confessed to Nick Kent of NME in June 1977, "Even we've been influenced by the Velvet Underground. No, really. I'll tell you exactly what we pinched from (Lou Reed). Y'know 'Stray Cat Blues' (from the Rolling Stones' 1968 album Beggars Banquet)? The whole sound and the way it's paced, we pinched from the first Velvet Underground album. Y'know, the sound on 'Heroin.' Honest to God, we did!"

How is "European Son" "basically a Bo Diddley riff?"

Best thing I've read yet in these blurbs by Zoe Camp:

Instead of endless possibility or untapped potential, frontman Jim Morrison’s notion of infinity suggests an ever-present, invariably destructive cosmic malaise filled with agonizing bar crawls, sordid hook-ups, and, of course, death. How marvelous, then, that as the void closes in on the album’s crown jewel, “Light My Fire,” the predominant mood is cathartic rather than catastrophic.

"debut is a lot of good songs that'd be better with a better drummer"

oof...

watched a youtube video that pointed out that the building where the glass box is doesn't exist - the aerial shot of Lower Manhattan in the first episode shows the building in place of Trinity Church, which was severely damaged and very nearly destroyed on 9/11. from wikipedia:

During the September 11 terrorist attacks, as the first World Trade Center tower collapsed, people took refuge from the massive debris cloud inside the church. Falling wreckage from the collapsing tower knocked over a giant sycamore tree that had stood for nearly a century in the churchyard of St. Paul's Chapel, which is part of Trinity Church's parish and is located several blocks north of Trinity Church.

flappy is that for the peaks thread

fuck

Hahahahahah. ilx problems

Flappy bird is to 9/11 what Roger Waters is to WW2.

How is "European Son" "basically a Bo Diddley riff?"

it's not, at all, but when Shakey gets going on this stuff he says stuff like that, just a bit of fun

Venus in Furs is amazing. for some reason ive never really been impressed with "Black Angel Death Song" or "European Son" for that matter.

VU+N is great and the highs are insanely high but i feel like there is some filler here that WL/WH or VU doesn't have.

The bass run at the top of "European Son" = all-time

I have tried multiple times to get into Velvet Underground and... I can't. Most of the music on VU&N sounds like a bunch of people who can't play their instruments entertaining themselves while high to me; while it might be fun for others to go along on the ride, to me it just sounds self-indulgent and insular. There is a permanent, omnipresent wall between me and the music they're making and I don't think at this point they'll ever connect with me.

Venus in Furs is amazing. for some reason ive never really been impressed with "Black Angel Death Song" or "European Son" for that matter.

These are basically my three favourite songs on the album.

DJP, try this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969:_The_Velvet_Underground_Live

The fact that VU&N is at #3 on the RYM charts is still astounding to me, it's such a polarizing album

The fact that Madvillian is in the Top 100 on the RYM charts is still evidence that you should probably not give too much thought into the opinions of the type of people that populate RYM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaumyfPx3Ao

― frogbs, Wednesday, August 23, 2017 10:03 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The fact that VU&N is at #3 on the RYM charts is still astounding to me, it's such a polarizing album

The fact that it's below a shitty Radiohead album is the true puzzler

oh don't get me wrong the RYM charts are mostly trash but still

I would guess the RYM 60s chart is pretty close to the P4K one. Not too much prog, metal or video game music back in the 60s.

lol I just looked at that RYM chart, that there is enormous trash

oh god, I just got to Wanda Jackson's Fujiyama Mama. this is hilarious and awesome but so wrong.

The Matrix Tapes might be my favorite VU now actually

"Most of the music on VU&N sounds like a bunch of people who can't play their instruments entertaining themselves while high to me;"

Sunday Morning, Femme Fatale, All Tomorrow's Parties, There She Goes Again, and I'll Be Your Mirror sound like this to you?

All of those songs under three minutes long too except for All Tomorrow's Parties. But I guess you can be self-indulgent and insular in two minute pop rock songs.

"I have tried multiple times to get into Velvet Underground and... I can't."

Not even Loaded? Such a great well-made rock album with lots of awesome harmonies and melodies for choir fans.

Or the third album, which is lovely.

My guitar teacher plays in a band that covers a different act each month, perfectly replicating the studio versions of the songs. Steely Dan to the Band to the Replacements, Smiths, Neil Young, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Prince, etc.. It's usually pretty packed but he told me the smallest crowd they ever had was for the night they did the Velvet Underground.

yeah but everyone in that crowd went and started their own cover band

lol

ha

VU&N is a predictable pick for #1 but I'm not going to complain, that and the 3rd album are the two VU albums I still really enjoy. I definitely get Joan Crawford's point about the lyrics to Venus in Furs but sound-wise it's something else.

Favourite surprising thing about the list as a whole is all the jazz, especially the high placing for Out to Lunch.

Least favourite surprising thing is Sweetheart of the Rodeo placing all the way above Notorious Byrd Brothers (with Younger Than Yesterday nowhere to be seen).

yeah but everyone in that crowd went and started their own cover band

Ha!

sweetheart is better than notorious

I'm not a Gram Parsons fan (bar maybe Gilded Palace of Sin), not that much of a country fan in general. Notorious Byrd Brothers is all-time for me.

i think i just forget that there are people who don't love them. collectively they were so brilliant. and that includes mo. wishing they had a different drummer is like wishing the beatles had a different drummer. she was an integral part of their thing. i'm still so impressed when i hear something by them even after all this time.

i was playing my video game on the ps4 recently and i put on spotify and listened to live stuff for hours and there were so many HOLY SHIT moments. they still make my jaw drop.

No Shangri-Las on that list - no credibility

Mo's drumming on "Foggy Notion" alone!