White Light/White Heat vs. Third (Sister Lovers)

I said Chilton on the other thread, but Sister Lovers is my least favorite of the Big Star albums, so WLWH wins this one.

Third by a wide margin for me.

I have just never been that into side 2 tbh. Sister Ray is fun but also ridiculous.

like, I really don't need/want to listen to it for 20 minutes

WLWH by a wide margin for me

voted WLWH too but that album is top 10 for me...Third is def. Top 30 though...

re: Sister Ray, I need to listen to it for 40 minutes, and they always leave me wantin' more

i would like to hereby reserve the bandname ENDLESS SISTER RAY for a future (self-explanatory) project of mine.

and yknow, no shit on third -- its a great record, too. basically i agree w DRUGS A MONEY except the numbers may be a lil diff...

WLWH by a wide margin for me

― gospodin simmel, Wednesday, November 3, 2010 6:45 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark

I exaggerated. Third is great but I just can't love it the way I love 5/6 of WLWH (have little use for The Gift these days).

I have Sister Lovers but don't know it that well; my two or three favorite Big Star songs are on the other album. There are probably only a couple of dozen LPs in the whole history of pop music I'd vote for over White Heat, so, no insult to Big Star, not even close for me.

(Two of which would be VU albums #1 and #3!)

Third/ SL

Why these two anyway? why not third against third? or second against second?

my favorite vs. my favorite...the weird difficult ones.

comes from my corny indie fuxx0r roots!

Tough! I usually rank WH higher on top whatevers of whatever lists, but honestly I listen to Third a lot more.

Any Other Velvets Album would easily beat Any Other Big Star album for me, though

I could see maybe a Radio City vs. VU & Nico poll as well, since those two tend to be canonical/consensus...

In the context of the Velvet Underground, I sometimes think their third (my favorite) is the weird, difficult one--weird because, "The Murder Mystery" aside, it's so willfully unweird. At the time, I would think that anyone who loved the first two would have been taken aback to some degree by the third one.

I tend to think that VU's third album gets more fans who are subsequently taken aback by WL/WH...

tbh I love the Velvet's first two albums so much, that I tend to give their third one short shrift, but I do think it's awesome...at the very least, What Goes on is top 10 VU, & from Jesus to That's the Story of My Life is one of the most well-sequenced album chunks ever...really attests to Lou's intelligence as a songwriter. But Some Kinda Love & to some extent Pale Blue Eyes don't really do anything for me; sort of the beginning of a direction for Lou that I don't really like...

but definitely I think Big Star's Third matches up aesthetically much better with WL/WH than the Velvet's third album...

third, one of my very favorite albums. prefer it to the two "real" big star albums, though i recognize that it isn't anywhere near as good/classic. bombed out vibe just gets me. can totally see the connection to WLWH, which, for the record, is going to DESTROY this poll. like 5 to 1 ruination or some such. almost no point in it.

considering the excellent VU&Nico cover that appears on Third, an argument could be made that that would be an even more apt contest.

I've never cared for "Pale Blue Eyes" either--I think Ellen Willis called it her favorite or something close to that in her Stranded essay. That and "Candy Says" are the only two songs on the third I don't love (i.e., I do love "Some Kinda Love").

White Light/White Heat. Never warmed to Third despite trying every five or six years.

almost no point in it.

this tends to be the kind of poll that I excel in creating...

I love Third and Big Star but voted for WLWH, probably a top 20 all time for me...Third is a situational album, WLWH kicks ass no matter my mood.

In the context of the Velvet Underground, I sometimes think their third (my favorite) is the weird, difficult one-

OH, yeah, I agree, but I'd go further: it sounds even weirder and more "difficult" beside other albums released the same year.

As much as I love the only Big Star album I still play, it's WL/WH.

this is a toughie, though i'd probably lean more toward white light if someone held a gun to my head. might've voted big star if it was radio city.

so I'm the lone dissenter here. I could mount some kind of defense I suppose, but why bother...

You don't like Sister Ray. Hard to like WL/WH id that's the case.

id = if

i could probably be convinced either way, really. same w/ lou reed vs. alex chilton.

^^^^^
xp

No. I pulled out WLWH for the first time in years recently, and had to take it off after the first few minutes of SR.

Big Star win this one hands down for me.

WLWH

You don't like Sister Ray. Hard to like WL/WH id that's the case.

I like Sister Ray fine - but to me it's just more of a goof than a TOWERING MUSICAL ACHIEVEMENT, which I know is the minority view. I like WLWH a lot but usually I only listen to side 1 tbqh.

I think how much you appreciate Sister Ray is directly proportional to how much you are invested in the appeal of "transgression" within popular music, and if you don't really care about that kind of thing, it's appeal is fairly limited.

dunno, i like SR as a batshit, rollercoaster rock song.

Yeah, Sister Ray works on the same level as the best of Chuck Berry or James Brown. It's a massive body song

Eh. It's a good that may or may not be a Towering Achievement. I love it.

I don't think Chuck or James ever allowed their band to get quite THAT sloppy

WL/WH, not close, love Sister Ray, wouldn't want it to be shorter.

tbf I am kinda reacting to some of the opinions expressed not on this thread but in the recently-watched Velvet Underground: Under Review DVD (the nature of which was cleverly disguised beneath a different title implying it was an actual documentary and not just a series of rock critics' talking heads), wherein various people rhapsodized about Sister Ray as being THE defining moment of VU, the avant-garde breakthrough, etc.

xp

maybe, but it doesn't hit me as a successful art-rock experiment, it hits me as a successful (if a bit eccentric) rock and roll song

I was replaying to your earlier post

a good JOKE, I meant, for being smutty and stoopid.

if i could live like WLWH sounds, i'd do it. Third sounds too much like my life already.

I don't think Chuck or James ever allowed their band to get quite THAT sloppy

Chuck did, definitely.

if i could live like WLWH sounds, i'd do it. Third sounds too much like my life already

Lol, but wryly

I've never been able to get into Third. I dig me some melancholy shit, but for some reason I just don't care much for that album despite really loving the two prior Big Star LPs.

WLWH is not my favourite VU record (that would be the third one - closet mix, please), but I don't dislike anything on it, and I love love love the title track, "I Heard Her Call My Name," "Lady Godiva's Operation" and "Here She Comes Now." (I remember reading that Sterling Morrison was unhappy with what happened to IHHCMN in the final mix. I wish I could hear an alternate version.)

So, yeah, WLWH.

I kind of link Sister Ray together w/Can's Yoo Doo Right (probably not an accident) and that would be two of my favorite songs, both based on a basic riff beaten into submission over a very long time. It's actually a strategy that has a pretty good track record, given a good enough riff and a distinctive singer.

Yoo Doo Right has less-concrete lyrics, and nobody ever expected Can to go top 40, so it doesn't seem to get the same backlash that Sister Ray sometimes does. Anyway, I agree that Sister Ray is a towering musical acheivment, even if you ignore context, lyrics, etc.

I'm fond of Big Star's 3rd as well, though lately I'm even fonder of Chilton's solo stuff, where he basically invents Royal Trux. A poll putting Sister Ray up against Take Me Home and Make Me Like It would give me some trouble...

I'd go with I Heard Her Call My Name as being the weirdest song on WL/WH, not Sister Ray. Sister Ray is just long and loud. The way IHHCMN starts off, and the mix, are really bizarre even now.

VU's my favorite band, but WL/WH ain't better than SL. No way, no how. O Dana? Stroke It Noel? Kizza Me? Nightime? Thank You Friends? fucking HOLOCAUST? No contest. Had Chilton's Third been up against VU's 3rd however...

wl/wh>radio city>big star 3rd>velvet underground>v.u.>velvet underground & nico>big star 1st>loaded

ridiculous crazy love for all the above, first two very strong always in the running for my fave alltime record

Third by the Soft Machine over both of these

wl/wh>vu & nico>big star third>radio city>velvet underground>loaded>#1 record

it becomes clear to me that the last two I ranked should've been the poll...

Third by the Soft Machine over both of these

Bollocks.

"Sister Ray" is a lot more than just a loud + long rock and roll song.

third > wl/wh > #1 > velvet underground & nico > velvet underground > v.u.> loaded > radio city

surprised at general equation of both bands, to what extent is this inspired by recent revisiting of the chilton catalog? i'd have assumed the velvet underground were seen in another category really, but i'm pleased anyway

I started this poll because of the Reed vs. Chilton thread

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Third/Sister Lovers" is much better than the horrible "White Light/White Heat", yet not even close to being in the same league as "#1 Album".

never change

I think I'd vote for "White Light/White Heat" over all but maybe 15-20 albums

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Third got a lot more votes than i expected. Deservedly

This poll came out weighted about exactly how I feel about those albums. 51:29 in favour of the Velvets.