Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

Didn't know anything about that. I have the closet version. I have no idea what it has to do with a closet.

Lou was in the closet iirc

pretty sure it's at least a different vocal take.

a lot of the inflections/line readings are *really* similar in each version, but I'm not sure

here's what sal mercuri says in his peel slowly review:
The box offers Lou's infamous 'closet mix', which is not better or worse than the more familiar Val Valentin mix, just different. The difference is one between an artist, and an engineer - one works to depict a personal vision, the other turns knobs and manipulates levers competently. As this box is intended to finally honor the band and their vision, it's only fitting that original mix be used. The most obvious variation is the alternate take of 'Some Kinda Love'. In the Valentin version, the take used features jangling guitars and straight ahead vocals typical of the band's live renditions of that song. The closet mix version sounds much more desperate, like Lou was lying on the floor, on the nod, with a microphone placed nearby as he mutters the virtues of all kinds of love.

What I mean is, if the words are identical in the two versions (which is what most of these posts indicate), why is one any more closety than the other?

Okay, sorry--tyler's long post seems to answer that.

sterling morrison coined the "closet mix" -- he said it sounded like it was recorded in a closet. i think he meant it as a compliment though!
since we're VU-ing it today -- here's something i just posted over on ye olde blog: a live show from march 1969. http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/30395247670/endless-revisions-in-honor-of-sterling-morrisons

There are a lot of differences between the two, but I only have the closet mix so I can't really rattle them off. I used to be friends with this guy who owned the Valentin mix who got really agitated when he was at my apartment and I played the closet mix. He basically gave me a live commentary pointing out all of the differences. I specifically remember him ranting about how the closet mix ruined "Jesus".

i just heard the valentin mix first so that's the one i prefer -- but the closet mix is fine too. feel like the drums are a little less prominent in the mix, the vocals are kinda higher above everything else. i mean, i don't care too much, it's an amazing record either way.

though i guess, according to sundazed, i've never really "had" this record.

sterling morrison coined the "closet mix" -- he said it sounded like it was recorded in a closet.

Okay--so it's a metaphorical closet, but also a physical space. I've got it straight. I mean, I get it.

even rarer still is lou's "i'm exploring my sexuality" mix.

same performances different mixes imo. mix is such a huge thing. prefer the weirdo closet mix but it's the one I had back when - the other one they sound like a jangly pop band with a bad singer, not a weird band that can't really be compared to anybody else

I’ve always preferred the closet mixes. They sound more intimate to these ears.

I'm new to ILM but have had suspicions that many of the posters here are as deaf as doorknobs, and reading all the posts that think that the closet mix of "Some Kinda Love" is the same performance as the non-closet mix absolutely confirms it.

Peter G. (aka "il queequeg")

haha! y'all been burned. yeah i think it's a diff performance too.

maybe we can get some real musicians in here to make the final judgement.

okay I A/B'd 'em (hard to sync em up with one being shorter than the other) and yeah they're different, albeit very similar, vocal takes. Dunno about the guitars, the closet mix seems to drop one of the guitar tracks altogether which makes it hard to tell.

yeah, if it's the same performance lou has (surprise!) mixed his guitar wayyyyyyy the hell up. but yeah, there are some different vocal intonations throughout.

Well, for starters, Lou begins the closet mix with "Some kinds of love," where as "love" is singular in the non-closeted version.

Oops, that's "kinds" is singular.

just noticed that the nuns blog is invite only.. anyone know how to get access?

I'm new to ILM but have had suspicions that many of the posters here are as deaf as doorknobs, and reading all the posts that think that the closet mix of "Some Kinda Love" is the same performance as the non-closet mix absolutely confirms it.
Of course they're different performances. I just prefer what are commonly known as the "closet mixes."
Having said that, I am as deaf as a doorknob. I blame that on a Clash show in '82.

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

^^^^i believe that's an early mix of white light white heat they've dug up for some soundtrack

yeah, it was a hillbilly cover all along?

Ralph Stanley returning it to its bootlegging roots, think he does that with a few songs on that s/trk.
Could be all thanks to having Nick Cave as musical director. Think he talked about it in that interview in that Observer last Sunday
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/aug/26/lawless-nick-cave-interview?fb=native

WTF at that Ralph Stanley version

maybe we can get some real musicians in here to make the final judgement.

I've recorded many, many albums & I'd wager that they're the same performance. Vocally & all. I think some of you don't really know just how different a mix can make a song. I could be wrong, but having gone through the mixing process many, many times, I don't think I am. You guys know that whole parts get taken out in mix that can be present in a different mix of the same performance, right? So, for example, the drum track & the vocal track can be the same while the guitars are different...or some vocal phrases can be dropped in or out, replaced with pieces from different takes...etc, etc. This was all doable by any local engineer when the track was recorded. Substantially, these are the same take, with some possible different mixing decisions about keeping or leaving out other stuff.

OTOH it is also true that I'm completely deaf.

haha, i *was* kidding, aero -- i know there are real musicians around here.

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/5200000/Steven-steven-tyler-5217884-385-480.jpg

huh, never knew about the different mixes. my LP is the closet mix.

http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/live/1968/vuad6805.gif

I just listened to both mixes. Vocals are different, the closet mix also has only one guitar which sounds to me like neither of the guitars on the original vinyl mix. The percussion and the bas could very well be the same though.

http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/live/1971-73/vu_ad_710501_youngstown_vindicator_april_29_1971.jpg

Steven, i know you have recorded many of Beantown's finest classic rock albums of the 70s, but seriously, ffwd to the final verse ("put jelly on your shoulder")... Lou does this elongated falsetto on the closet mix ("lie down upon the carpet"). the prominent guitar (not sure if that's lou or sterl) that's present on both tracks also does more blue note bends on the closet mix. NOTE: I am NOT A/B-ing this shit, I have heard both versions enough that they are ingrained in my brain.

Trust me for I am
Peter G. (aka "lil queequeg")

The guitar present in both mixes is Lou for the record. Sterl got the shaft in the closet mix, no wonder he named it so.

blue note bends

Yeah, this was the descriptor I was trying to come up with. Neither guitar on the original mix does this the same way, or as much.

Can I just say that doing my research for my previous post I had to revisit the reunion tour album which has to be without a doubt one of the biggest flaming piles of shit ever amassed?

the version of some kinda love on there is pretty bonkers. lou is terrible, but cale's piano pounding drowns him out at the end!

Chuckling at Ralph Stanley resolutely refusing to find a way to fit "tickles me down to my toes" into the meter every single time he reaches that line.

Steven, i know you have recorded many of Beantown's finest classic rock albums of the 70s, but seriously, ffwd to the final verse ("put jelly on your shoulder")... Lou does this elongated falsetto on the closet mix ("lie down upon the carpet"). the prominent guitar (not sure if that's lou or sterl) that's present on both tracks also does more blue note bends on the closet mix. NOTE: I am NOT A/B-ing this shit, I have heard both versions enough that they are ingrained in my brain.

ha, I will confess that I listened to the first two minutes A/B and said "these are the same performance for the most part," I haven't made it all the way through. I will] say that I remember plenty of blue bending notes on the French vinyl which was my listening copy during the eighties - it was one of the things I found most unusual about the song.

http://gawker.com/5938877/man-who-shipped-himself-in-a-box-to-his-girlfriend-nearly-suffocates-after-getting-lost-in-the-mail?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Someone who didn't pay enough attention to VU lyrics.

he was Chinese so maybe hadn't understood the song perfectly.
I mean since WL/WH is such a popular lp over there & all

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/265970_10151070886033791_1592168086_o.jpg

feel like leading off the 1969 LP is a good idea, not sure how i feel about it not ending with "I'm Sticking With You" ... but 'Ride Into The Sun' is rad too.

meant to say "feel like leading off the 1969 LP with Foggy Notion is a good idea"

As long as it leads off with the six guitar notes missing from every non-vinyl-VU release of the song.

also, leaving out ferryboat bill! COME ON.