Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

wow that cale "heroin" version is great, love the poppier vibe (no pun int) of the organ & drums

yeah almost sounds like ? and the Mysterians haha

I think in 1985, the craze for period-authentic releases hadn't taken hold yet. Someone at the record company might also have hoped that "I Can't Stand It" was going to get heavy airplay next to "We Built This City" and needed the sonics to match it.

I don't doubt it. And I don't think that line of thinking has disappeared - anything mixed or mastered for streaming today would brickwall it, regardless of when and how it was recorded. I think this came up in the Tom Petty thread, but that Wildflowers went the extra mile of doing something everyone should be doing - mastering vintage music differently for the format it was intended for. It was also based on decisions made with Petty before he died, but basically they wanted the stuff to fit in with anything streaming, but they understood the compromises they would have to make to do that, so they had three different masterings where they mainly differed by how much compression and limiting was applied. There's the "loud" one for streaming and downloads, a better and more dynamic one for the CD's, and then one without any additional limiting or compression (except what was in the original recording or mix) that they saved for hi-res downloads and I think the vinyl release.

I think those '80s mixes sound great. I guess "I Can't Stand It" ...stands out a little, but I like the effect. It never occurred to me that they're mismatched or whatever.

Is that Cale lead vocal thing the set from when Lou wa sin hospital with hepatitis. I think I heard that the central riff to Sister ray was chanced on during the gig.

Looking back, I don't think I'd even heard the Velvets before the early 80s (I heard lots of other 60s-70s rock as it was coming out, including some Lou singles and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, but not the Velvets) ... in the left-of-the-dial context where I first encountered them, that mix of "I Can't Stand It" fit right in. It was a long time before I realized the banana album is older than Are You Experienced? and Sgt. Pepper's.

that 80s mix of “can’t stand it” really threw me off, I was like “oh wow so the velvets invented martin hannett’s joy division sound too????”

Another View. It's only taken me 35 years to realise this is a pun.

Ha. Sort of got it from the beginning although I had to think about it for a second just now to recall it again.

if it helps, ZZ, i'm right there with you. and even then, i'm saying the word "view" to myself out loud a few times, to compare. sigh.

was lou involved in Another View? remember this is the person who wrote "Isle of You", say that 5 times fast

Is it seen as a 2nd instalment of the missing 3rd lp compi which I think I always still pronounce as 2 letters anyway. I think that's the chronology anyway.
I mean slight refraction in pronunciation like. Don't you wind up with voo if you try to read it as an acronym.
But yeah think I got it when I heard of its existence.

I’ve always considered Another View to be considerably inferior to VU (notwithstanding a few good tracks) – but I revisited both today, and VU wuz kinda stale while AV sounded just great!

I remember thinking the version of "I'm Gonna Move Right In" on "Another View" was literally the first boring Velvets track I'd heard.

remember this is the person who wrote "Isle of You", say that 5 times fast

Doesn't work with my accent.

that 80s mix of “can’t stand it” really threw me off, I was like “oh wow so the velvets invented martin hannett’s joy division sound too????”

― brimstead, Wednesday, April 7, 2021 9:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

That reminds me of when I was doing a mix and was playing "I can't stand it" off VU, and cued up "Love Vigilantes" New Order up next, and the timing was so on that it sounded like Mo had decided to carry on playing past the track end, with the New Order track!

Frightened me, at the time!

was lou involved in Another View? remember this is the person who wrote "Isle of You", say that 5 times fast

Personally I'm wondering if audio will ever turn up from the Velvets' performance at the Isle Of Lucy festivl

That reminds me of when I was doing a mix and was playing "I can't stand it" off VU, and cued up "Love Vigilantes" New Order up next, and the timing was so on that it sounded like Mo had decided to carry on playing past the track end, with the New Order track!

Frightened me, at the time!

LOL

That reminds me, I always wanted a box set tracing the direct influence on the Velvet Underground. Something like 100 tracks by 100 different bands, in chronological order beginning with the Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner," then the Stooges, etc. and it could be called 100/10,000 as sort of a play on Eno's famous quote, "The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."

*direct influence of the Velvet Underground

Any idea why “Ride into the sun” is greyed out in US Spotify but all other tracks in Another View are available?

no, but did notice it

It's a die-hard Yes fan seeking to direct you to Lou's solo version, with Steve Howe's amazing guitar solo.

Greyed out there but can be found on deluxe edition of the third album

*direct influence of the Velvet Underground

I’d be even more interested in a set doing what you originally typed – tracing direct influence on VU.

I’d be even more interested in a set doing what you originally typed – tracing direct influence on VU.

Yeah that would be good too, but listening to those disparate elements sequenced together can feel pretty academic. It makes for a fascinating study, but a mix of stuff influenced by the band tends to have a better flow simply because there's more of a commonality in the music even when the bands are very different.

barring the cale tunes crowbarred into VU, it seems like the stuff cut at these sessions, "I Can't stand it" and "Foggy Notion" in particular, were intended as good time-y shit the band thought might stand them in good stead with audiences wishing to boogie… whereas Another View has by most lights at least two cuts that are way way way more daring…"hey mr Rain" I and II and "Guess I'm falling in Love," the drum sound on which made my jaw drop as a teenager, Mo turns into Bonzo…Bonzmo? I noticed that Lou liked to claim that the band had a no blues licks rule: but almost every song on VU dome runneth over with blues licks…

ha yeah ive always thought that the no blues licks rule, if it truly existed, seems like it was kinda toothlessly enforced

Really? I mean, they might use various bluesy scales but I don’t hear much in the way of blues licks. Same as The Modern Lovers.

It's not that bad a solo.

otm

As far as the solos go, Lou´s were more outside and Sterl´s were kind of fiddly without being bluesy. Guess Doug played the more traditional stuff on Loaded.

You don't look like Martha & The Vandellas.

Are the VU mixes used on that Velvet comp released in the late '80s that for many of us Columbia House subscribers served as intro? If so, great! "I Can't Stand It" leapt out of the speakers, deservedly

Someone at the record company might also have hoped that "I Can't Stand It" was going to get heavy airplay next to "We Built This City" and needed the sonics to match it.

This wasn't happening.

i'd say that both Lou and Sterling's playing is deeply bluesy (without falling into cliche) — they may have had a very specific definition of what a "blues lick" was.

A bit like Lou's "No street slang" rule, because Street slang dates a thing.

And yet....

Are the VU mixes used on that Velvet comp released in the late '80s that for many of us Columbia House subscribers served as intro?

Yep. These were the only mixes available until the 2014 3rd album box.

We talkin' this comp?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/VUBest89.jpg

If you like...

i'd say that both Lou and Sterling's playing is deeply bluesy (without falling into cliche) — they may have had a very specific definition of what a "blues lick" was.

― tylerw, Thursday, April 8, 2021 12:58 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm reminded of what Dylan supposedly said to Mike Bloomfield: "Play whatever you want; just don't give me any of that B.B. King shit." That always confused me, and probably confused Bloomfield, who revered King.

Someone at the record company might also have hoped that "I Can't Stand It" was going to get heavy airplay next to "We Built This City" and needed the sonics to match it.

Wasn't completely crazy, and they probably were trying to get it slotted next to REM, Smithereens, Cars and the other VU'ish rock of the time. The songs weren't that old yet, sorta like remastering the Knife's "Silent Shout" to get played next to Weeknd or something.

We talkin' this comp?

Yes!

And y'all are crazy if you think it sounds like, I dunno, Tears For Fears.

OK, but the drum sound could be off of Mellencamp's Scarecrow, for instance.

i'd say that both Lou and Sterling's playing is deeply bluesy (without falling into cliche) — they may have had a very specific definition of what a "blues lick" was.

Lou played whatever he could manage to play. Sterl definitely could pull out a blues lick if required.

Lou's chaka-chaka rhythm parts on Live 1969 are some of my favorites by anyone.

David Fricke: There is that little guitar quote from Marvin Gaye’s “Hitch Hike” in “There She Goes Again,” on ‘The Velvet Underground and Nico.’

Lou' A nice little introductory thing, right? The thing is, we actually had a rule in the band for a while. If anybody played a blues lick, they would be fined. Of course, we didn’t have any money to fine anybody with. But that was because there were so many of these blues bands around, all copping on that. And while I really liked the stuff for singing, I can’t sing that. I had to find my own way. So all the arranging and stuff, those R&B kind of parts might be in the back of the mind, but it came out white.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/lou-reed-the-rolling-stone-interview-2-174015/

How widespread is "fining" among bands? I know James Brown and Prince used to fine people for musical mistakes. Prince would sneak the money back into the person's pocket somehow after they learned their lesson. I want to say James Brown did too, but I can't recall where I would have read that, and furthermore I can see him just keeping the money given how his entire band quit on him.

Apparently, the fines went towards paying for the end-of-tour party.

Basically most rock music is going to be bluesy in some fashion, lots of flat sevenths, for one thing. Blues cliches is more like what Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington would play on airbass on Welcome Back, Kotter.

Electricity comes from other planets!

I think Lou wanted to also incorporate more hidden or overt doo wop influences- there is some quote in Uptight or somewhere about "We musn't forget people like The Spaniels," as well as trying to avoid a "Can Lou Men Sing the Whites" situation.

Think the VU-like Vulgar Boatmen did a similar thing. Hey, VUlgar Boatmen!