Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

xxxxp me? no, i wish. i didn't start seeing concerts until 1972 and those were the types of shows my dad could drive me to.

Richman's.

I think I posted this before: some graph Jonathan Richman made before anybody knew who he was (reproduced in Ryan Walsh's Astral Weeks).

https://phildellio.tripod.com/richman.jpg

you wonder if vu would have continued to asymptotically approach beatles or if they would have crossed.

Seems like he cooked the books by omitting Squeeze.

I finally heard Squeeze this year and I was bummed out that it wasn't WORSE, it was just such an anonymous early 70s $4 rock record, not really bad but just indistinctive, would have preferred a disaster of some sort

fortunately Berlin was around the corner

Over in the corner

Yes, "Squeeze" is just fairly dull.

Okay, I liked the docu & it was all well done and stuff but I'm not sure I prefer it over the BBC South Bank Show (1986) one that's on the youtubes

The worst thing about Squeeze, for me, that distinguishes it from, say, American Flyer or something, is how nakedly it apes some of the worst stuff on Loaded like “Lonesome Cowboy Bill,” as though that was the aspect of the VU that was worth perpetuating.

So where would American Flyer be on that list? And did George Martin produce every group with America in the name?

On that chart

Another annoying omission: Jonas Mekas (and others) went on at length about how exciting the various art scenes were in NYC in the early '60s, but no mention was made of Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman et al. Maybe a minor point, but that music was a major movement in NYC at the time, some of those artists were massive influences on the Velvets, and Lou said "Sister Ray" was his attempt to do in rock 'n' roll what Cecil and Ornette were doing in their area of activity.

Yeah, and I seem to recall at least one member of Ornette’s band recording with Lou.

Yep, Don Cherry worked with Lou at one point in the '70s.

La Monte Young and Allen Ginsberg as well!

And no I am not talking about Tanya Haden’s a cappella rendition of Metal Machine Music.

dammit JR I was so hoping that was real

Hah, sorry! Maybe we can find a way to request it.

A lot of people don’t know I deliberately chose my screenname initials to match Jonathan Richman.

Tanya already paid tribute to at least one artist on that graph, why not another.

no I am not talking about Tanya Haden’s a cappella rendition of Metal Machine Music.

read this as Tonya Harding

XPS but everyone who did ended up contributing to the 'rejected jbr screennames' thread.

Lol.

Let me check.

Perhaps you are referring to this run: rejected JBR screen names
2
Warning: does not work in Zing.

Yeah, and I seem to recall at least one member of Ornette’s band recording with Lou.

One more iteration:
Put Cherry on your shoulder

I have this bootleg on vinyl pretty fun

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/unauth/lou-reed/at-the-roxy-with-don-cherry/

the inclusion of Jackson Browne in this doc threw me for a loop at first. Had no idea he was playing w Nico etc.

the inclusion of Jackson Browne in this doc threw me for a loop at first. Had no idea he was playing w Nico etc.

Yeah, IIRC they had a fling - but after hearing her cover of "These Days" (beautiful cover too) it was less of a surprise when I read about it.

Yeah limiting it to people who were actually involved with/playing with the group was key. We were spared Dave Grohl etc.

The one exception, of course, should be Cher, regardless of whether she's changed her mind or not.

yeah he plays on Chelsea Girl! and wrote a song on it iirc

xxp

one hour until showtime!

He also wrote Fairest of the Seasons

Browne even get a short entry in Lillian Roxon's encyclopedia (1969), largely because of his Nico connection (also mentions songs of his on a Steve Noonan album, who I now want to hear).

yeah he plays on Chelsea Girl! and wrote a song on it iirc

xxp

(xxp) Berlin was more successful than Transformer in the UK, in terms of chart positions (it reached 7, Transformer got to 13). Transformer probably sold more though. You can thank David Bowie for both, I'd say.

thanks david bowie for both of them!

Love the story of Ian Hunter being disgusted by Lou’s microphone technique when Bowie brought him in to sing “Sweet Jane.” Probably read that in Trouser Press, who knows what issue./pvmic

thanks david bowie for both of them!

I love how Haynes finally got to work with Bowie in this film. Briefly and, on the latter's part, unsuspectedly.

Multixp Transformer had legs in the UK and was certified platinum in 2913, poor old Berlin stuck at silver.

2013 that is.

was gonna say, legs indeed!

McNeil?

This discussion has me increasingly interested in seeing the doc, despite familiarity w subject and the director's previous tendency toward gimmickry---speaking of Browne and Noonan, (from Jackson Browne - C or D?
(according to something long ago in Goldmine---an epic trek into the early daze of BOC and Soft White Underbelly etc---Meltzer and classmates, one of whom was from Cali. seized control or some of it of the campus concert committee, so first East Coast shows of several Frisco bands and the Orange County Three, Buckley, Browne, and Steve Noonan---and Browne stayed around and hung out with Meltzer, Pearlman, and so on, eventually meeting Nico (I think that was it).

― dow, Saturday, February 6, 2021 6:23 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

(They may have been advertised as the Orange County Three, but sep sets on the same bill, I believe.)

― dow, Saturday, February 6, 2021 6:25 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh yeah, here's the 1968 Cheetah Magazine consideration of thee so-called Orange County Three:
http://galacticramble.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-orange-county-three.html

― dow, Saturday, February 6, 2021 6:30 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Cover model Michael J. Pollard!

― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, February 6, 2021 6:47 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Second two-page spread of that piece eerily foreshadows Yacht Rock

― baelien (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, February 6, 2021 6:56 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

birdistheword, I do find that attribute (that I might call plain-spokenness) in some of Browne's work, like The Only Child on The Pretender.

I've wanted to read the Paul Nelson compilation/biography, but haven't encountered it yet.

― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, February 6, 2021 7:23 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

XP ...and the final paragraphs provide a harbinger of Browne's asshole friends.

― "what are you DOING to fleetwood mac??" (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, February 6, 2021 7:26 PM (eight months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ah, okay, here's Noonan, and some stuff about the "Three"'s origins, in Unterberger's liner notes for reissue of s/t debut: he and their high school buddy Greg Copeland wrote "Buy For Me The Rain," Top 40 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band hit. also, Noonan, very extensively quoted here, says that he and Browne wrote things first recorded by Tom Rush etc., attributed to JB only, and he mentions "The Fairest of the Seasons," which I know is on the Nico LP and I think is the one w typo, "Browne-Copland,"confusing me until I heard of Greg Copeland: with all them strings and the melodee, it had me wondering if based on something by Aaron C. Noonan mentions seeing boy Browne as accompanist for Nico and El Cohen (singing together, I hope): http://www.richieunterberger.com/noonan.html

― dow, Saturday, February 6, 2021 Noonan makes it clear that he fought w producer of first album, was not pleased w results (although claims that it has a following: which, why not, every album has some kind of following, as Internets remind us---might be good; some of the producer's ideas seem kind of promising)

I reckon Berlin was like Scott 3, people bought it on the strength of the last album(s) and were like, "Jesus, this a bit depressing, I don't think I'll bother with his next one".

.. in the UK, that is, I assume nobody bought it in the US.

haha…the National Review movie critic is not impressed

Liberals hold to a fantasy of bold oppositional attitudes, so Haynes celebrates VU’s dubious revolution. The Velvet Underground indicates that what Bob Dole later called “the culture of depravity” has won. When Warhol actress Mary Woronov talks of “where the artist comes in, because he’s not with society, he’s different,” she recalls a different world from today. Yet Haynes ignores the fact that, 50 years on, and many pop evolutions after VU infected the culture, Millennial pop today tends toward compliance, conformity, and elitism. All those negatives that now accrue to VU’s legacy describe why Haynes’ tribute fails.

National Review movie critic = Armond White