Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

yeah I'm kinda amazed there aren't more. waiting for him to die I guess.

lou will outlive us all.

the comic book told me so
http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/yy201/Aramchekster/LouReedLivetheBackHolesInSpacemagpg05.jpg

Another amazing cover:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/50b4c3b2b26705a7ed716ffb7c7ce798/2103097.jpg

"Franz Schöler präsentiert die Velvet Underground Story"

cover connection, xp:

http://moonsetgallery.com/catalog/images/Dianogah.jpg

Who the fuck is going to sit in a library and read a Lou Reed bio all day.

lol 18 y.o. underrated a would have gone back to the library every day for a month until he had the whole book memorized

just requested the Bockris book through interlibrary loan ... I'm Waiting for My Librarian

Ha, aero otm

lol 15 y.o. zappi went to library & looked through microfiche for any references to Warhol/Factory/Velvets or anything even vaguely related. then Up-tight came out, hoo boy.

Will read my copy of the Unterberger book while awaiting my turn out the community ILX copy of the limited edition memorabilia book

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa72/vulcangascompany1969/sunn_amps.jpg

http://blog.chron.com/bookish/files/2012/04/seeing-the-light.jpg
Got this one at the library today.

I've been eyeing that.

I just finished the two Bockris books, Up-Tight (nice photos, other contents superseded by the Unterberger book imo) and Transformer (lots of entertaining dirt but ultimately overwhelming in its Lou-ness; after finishing it, I felt like I had been listening to different versions of "Heroin" on repeat for a few days).

nice cover on the jovanovic book, though he really isn't a great writer, having read his big star and pavement books. what's the angle on this -- just a history?

Looks like that. Claims "exclusive" interviews.

I put a notify in it to pick up at the circ desk once it has been processed.
It just feels good in my hands. Not sure how interested I am in actually reading it.
Never read this guy before.

nice cover on the jovanovic book, though he really isn't a great writer, having read his big star and pavement books. what's the angle on this -- just a history?

― tylerw, Monday, April 23, 2012 10:38 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If I'm thinking right that's from a photoshoot from L.A. when the Exploding Plastic Impossible crew went out there. there's a photo of the band with reflection in a window in the photobook version of Uptight which I wish i still had. From what I remember, they're dressed almost exactly the same which is why I'm thinking it's from that shoot. Always stuck in my head at least partially cos I loved Lou's boots in the photo.
Not sure how much i like Uptight without the 60s photos.

The South Bank Show on them from the mid 80s was also pretty tasty.

yeah that must be the same photo shoot that pretty much every VU book uses for its cover. i guess it's one of the few that features everyone (incl. warhol and nico).
http://www.arrakis.es/~e.miquel/rnranimal/images/books/uptight.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sUa3al8-L._SL500_AA300_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/711VMZHJYVL._SL500_AA300_.gif

http://www.avclub.com/articles/visiting-the-highschool-auditorium-that-introduced,82633/
sort of the ultimate link for this thread. but kind of fun anyway.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/524435_10151061126258791_637989788_n.jpg
won't be buying this, but it looks cool!

Is that new/soon-to-be-released?

Targeted for Late October according to the Sundazed FB page (which I reccomend "like"ing; Irwin is good about answering questions and such).

Of course, they also spout out lines like this in regards to their product:

You may think you have these albums, but unless you have absolute first pressings, have the first four records in mono, have them all cut from the absolute original masters, and have the rare "closet mix" of the third LP, you really don't "have" these albums.

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

have the first four records in mono

rolling my eyes, 3rd LP was never in mono (some of the singles were)

I remember reading in The Velvet Underground Reader that the mono WL/WH is basically all noise, pure headache music. "The Gift" suffers in particular.

You may think you have these albums, but unless you have absolute first pressings, have the first four records in mono, have them all cut from the absolute original masters, and have the rare "closet mix" of the third LP, you really don't "have" these albums.

I "have" these albums.

Also:

I remember reading in The Velvet Underground Reader that the mono WL/WH is basically all noise, pure headache music.

And this is bad how?

There seems to be some debate about the "mono" 3rd album.

It seems it's the "closet" mix, but it's a 'genuine' mono, not a 'fold-down' of the stereo.

But there seems to be no confirmation about it.

"The Murder Mystery" in mono would seem to defeat the purpose.

it's weird, and kind of awesome, that the Velvet Underground, whose catalog was either OOP or cut-out bin for a good while, has become one of those bands whose stuff can be repackaged & rereleased again & again & again and people will just keep right on buying it

And David Fricke will just keep right on writing about it.
mostly curious about the tracklisting they've cooked up for the 1969 sessions (and whether those mixes are markedly diff from VU and Another View).

the Velvet Underground, whose catalog was either OOP or cut-out bin for a good while

you sure about this? afaik none of the three canonical albums have ever gone out of print, which would also mean that they have never languished in cut-out bins

I thought the 1985 reissue program was the first time the first 3 records were back in print for at least a few years?

technically I don't know. I do know that for several years you used to be able to hit up Rhino, Music Plus, the Wherehouse, Licorice Pizza, and Tower in SoCal and not be able to find anything except the debut & Loaded. And, as we all know, Loaded is a piece of shit and doesn't even count lol

lol
in other news, its sterling morrison's b-day today
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_68orX32dobI/TPRrFdqS3dI/AAAAAAAAC70/NTzHDxIyf5M/s320/SMorrison.jpg

I thought the 1985 reissue program was the first time the first 3 records were back in print for at least a few years?

Nooh.

You always had the choice of New pressings on the red "Polydor" label, or second-hand versions on the old MGM label, for not-too-much-money.

Or, of course, the "verve" editions for a chunka-change.

I do remember a line in The Book of Rock Lists where Lester Bangs complained about Verve/MGM's horrible repackaging of Velvets records; just didn't know what the timeframe was.

First album got the "can't peel" banana
Second one got the "soldiers" front cover
Third album escaped the re-design

There's also the unforgettable
http://991.com/NewGallery/Velvet-Underground-Velvet-Undergroun-361886.jpg

pretty weird. is that an actual warhol design?

I think so, yes. That comp was actually my first ever VU record so I have a soft spot for it. It also seems to be rather rare.

The first three were long out of print, at least in Canada--I bought import copies of the first and Loaded sometime around '78, then spent the next few years going from used store to used store, trying to find reasonably priced copies of #2 and #3. I wrote about this never-ending search once.

I think so, yes. That comp was actually my first ever VU record so I have a soft spot for it. It also seems to be rather rare.

Ditto.

The first Velvets comp I had was a German double from the early 70s, with a green cover with a sort of sub-Roger Dean design on it. It also had tracks from "Chelsea Girl" on it.

The comp with the Warhol cover gets a mention in Julian Cope's "Head on" as both his and Ian McCullough's intro to the Velvets, around 1973.

My copy of Loaded:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/0a2054f6bb8977ea4a69ad46a602eb82/674127.jpg

I found decent copies of the Verve originals for ~$10 each around 1990 at Rockaway Records of Los Angeles. Actually, now that I think of it my 3rd version may not be original, because when I first heard the closet mix of "Some Kinda Love" I was like "uh...... wtf?!?!!??!"

i got used copies of all the original VU lps in the 90s for fairly cheap -- can't imagine I paid more than $10 for any of them. not that they were in great condition or anything. only half a banana ;_;

just realised that i've never heard the non-closet mix of the 3rd album, is it really that different?
only know i have the closet mix on vinyl cos someone remarked upon it when i played once

on the non-closet version, some kinda love is a totally different (imo superior) take of the song. other differences are negligible to my ears.

here's the non-closet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh-GNnCwHj4
and the closet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc8kMbL7y3o

actually my fave version of that song is probably on live 1969