Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxaCZZcECE8

Or who sung what! The Matrix boxset helpfully has Lou's guitar in one speaker and Sterling's in another, for those for whom the guitar playing is an area of confusion.

(xp)

Wham-bam, who shot Sam?

Spot on about the air of mystery! This is probably why I don't much rate Lou's solo work, he ended up the most averse to mystery. Even Tucker's solo work emanates from this domestic indie hovel that's mysterious compared to Reed's street life. Nico is all mystery, and Cale tears himself in every direction.

I saw Sterling sing the line "People going into the stratoshphere"..

I was like "whoa, was that him on the record?"

(Should have asked. Didn't.. Oh well.)

first time hearing velvets was through a friend who had heard they were good. they bought Live MCMXCIII, so we listened to that.

i don't remember being impressed at all, but i didn't understand that it was a reunion for a 60s band, and i'm not sure i knew what those roman numerals added up to either

ah, just before the internet. good times

lou was right to keep the band from writing new material for the reunion phase. that likely would have been awful, and to the extent that the four of them played on the first albums, they were perfect

WOO BABY JANE SHE IS A CLEERK

first time hearing velvets was through a friend who had heard they were good. they bought Live MCMXCIII, so we listened to that.

I remember reading Ira Kaplan's endearingly giddy writeup in Spin of one of the early shows on that tour, and really looking forward to the live record. It's weird how well some songs worked ("All Tomorrow's Parties") and how definitely-not-well others did ("I Heard Her Call My Name"). The highlights for me were "Hey Mr. Rain" (for me, if they'd done nothing else, this alone would've justified the reunion) and the audience cheering leading up to the climax of "The Gift." But yeesh, Lou's delivery is just horrible throughout.

I just listened to the first two tracks and couldn’t continue, sorry.

Sterl's solo for "Rock and Roll" was the best moment.

I bought one as a souvenir. I enjoyed the gig but not the album afterward.

Actually, tell a lie it was the dvd I bought.

The best discovery story is Alan Sparhawk saying he heard both the VU *and* Joy Division for the first time on the same night in (iirc) college. Explains a lot.

"Coyote" was another seemingly new reunion song, but "Last Night, I Said Goodbye To My Friend" is the one I remember, not from the xpost R&RHOF induction ceremony, but documentary footage, somewhere else on TV: think they were sitting--in somewhere like a hospital waiting room?!--looking at each other and singing, Reed playing guitar----maybe intended for a doc in the making to go w reunion tour and album----looked kinda Pennebaker, and when I met him in the 90s, when he was traveling with The War Room, about the first Clinton Presidential campaign, he told me about several things he'd been filming (also some completed/cut from complete works, like Don't Look Back) that never did come out, far as I can tell---might be some VU footage still in the legacy vaults---

Oh yeah: some amazing Warhol etc excerpts recently on Books on the Velvets, Edie Sedgwick, Factory, Andy Warhol etc??? Incl. Lou's going-away present to Nico, which suggests to me that he could be a dick even when maybe trying to be nice.

Which I relate to.

I have to a deep dive into Pennebaker's filmography once (released and unreleased/unfinished films as well). I don't recall any VU-related films though. (Ziggy Stardust has a VU cover, if anyone wants to count that.) I know they did a Victoria Williams film, but I only saw part of it - I don't think Lou Reed was in it, but at the time he was supportive of her, they were pretty good friends. (Williams was at Lincoln Center's Reed tribute after he died.)

*I have done a deep dive

Maybe somebody influenced by him (incl. me, memory-wise)

Got it. FWIW, I know countless projects have been pitched to Pennebaker over the years, but unless there's a log of all them available to the public (and there may be - I know he was looking for a buyer to take his archives some years ago) it's impossible to keep track. It's crazy, there's like a jaw-dropping Who's Who of greats (at least in music) who have been in talks or trying to do something with him, and for any number of reasons (money, the artist in question flaking out or losing interest, etc.) they never really got off the ground. Such is the business, the same can be said for other high profile documentary filmmakers like Albert Maysles and probably Alex Gibney. Like it's hilarious Maysles had all this amazing, vintage Marlon Brando footage sitting on a shelf until R.E.M. came along and asked "want to do a music video?" Nowadays, everyone wants a doc made on them, but when the reality of it sinks in (who's got control, who's funding it until you get a buyer (and most indie docs don't get buyers until they're done!), where else can we get funding from), it's a whole other matter.

So! A fine and often moving documentary, and I stress the "document." For about an hour Todd Haynes's split screens create a tantalizing, dialectical experience: what these people say now versus what they looked like then, complemented by that fabulous music. Then it gets straighter -- in every sense.

I enjoyed it, but yes, there's a noticeable shift as it moves into the Doug Yule years. It feels like Haynes ran out of things to say, which is a shame because those later albums are also great and deserve more attention than they got.

I agree about the Yule years -- I felt like the film just ran out of time. You can only make a documentary that is x-long before someone says TOO LONG. idk why but i was expecting to see more live performance footage but i can't say why i thought i would see that aside from very wishful thinking. i wanted to SEE the band playing throughout the years.

Regardless, I enjoyed watching this movie A LOT.

also, not that Haynes is this type of filmmaker, but it was very nice to watch a movie about a classic band without needing to see, idk, Flea or whomever say they were great.

a pity Justin Timberlake didn't pop up to explain how he learned chording from Sterling Morrison's work on "Foggy Notion."

LL otm. Lol at Flea mention.

It was a lot different from the Sparks doc that's for sure

Haven't seen that one yet.

Well hopefully at least a Billie Eilish or equivalent shows up to let the viewers know that young people still listen to them

On can always have a dream, you gotta have a dream, if you don't have a a dream, or at least wrap your troubles in one.

I enjoyed this, my first Todd Haynes non-Carpenters film. It was a little cold (which is something I’d always heard about his work) and really warmed up for me at the point in the film where The Primitives formed.

As someone who had never read about the band and barely heard anything after the second record - I just fast forwarded to Lou solo for whatever reason in my listening - it was educational and has me wanting to learn more.

Waronov and Richman MVPs for sure

The first weekend of my sophomore year of college I wound up hanging out with and wandering around a graveyard with this freshman hippie girl who, after that, I barely ever spoke to again. She loaned me “The Velvet Underground & Nico” on cassette and never asked for it back.

Not too much later a buddy burned me a CDR of White Light/White Heat, and I got comfortable with that.

Unconsciously maybe I didn’t want to dispel the mystery so didn’t read more, seek out more info, etc. Didn’t start really pursuing Lou solo until maybe … 2007 or thereabouts?

I love the Velvets but have heard very little of Reed's solo work (basically just 'Perfect Day' and 'Satellite of Love') and for some reason have no desire to check out any more of it. Something about his persona just turns me right off.

Wonder what that could be

The third album is essential and is just as mysterious and deep as the prior albums. All the rest is terrific and great, but Loaded, VU, live stuff all show them as a real BAND. As opposed to a broadcast from a drug den at 5am.

Liking the Velvets does not guarantee an appreciation of Lou solo. I’ve been relistening to them in anticipation of the documentary, and it’s great how expressive Lou’s voice was back then. Eventually he settled into that grumbly monotone. I guess he became Lou Reed, the character.

Got to admit I'm kind of amazed at people not having heard the Velvets beyond the first two albums and only two songs by Lou Reed!

See also: Robbie Robertson, although he couldn't sing in the first place.

The one Lou solo song that a Velvets fan should definitely hear is “Street Hassle.” That’s what I would hope 70’s VU would sound like. It is a stunner.

I guess I just don't... I mean I guess some people just aren't as old as us, Tom.

The Velvets were completely consistent, "I'm Gonna Move Right In" on "Another View" was the first time I'd ever heard a track by the Velvet Underground and not liked it. In contrast, Lou's solo career is all over the place.

^you don’t dig The Chooglin’ Underground?

In terms of personal history—I was listening to Lou before the Velvets, and was satisfied for years with that one Velvets comp that doesn’t have much from WLWH or Loaded. It wasn’t until after college that I actually checked out the albums themselves.

The Velvets were completely consistent, "I'm Gonna Move Right In" on "Another View" was the first time I'd ever heard a track by the Velvet Underground and not liked it. In contrast, Lou's solo career is all over the place.

^you don’t dig The Chooglin’ Underground?

I do but that particular example of it was pretty underwhelming.

Have we talked about how the Woodstock version of “Born on the Bayou” sounds like “Lady Godiva’s Operation” yet? Maybe I am off a bit on which songs it is but still.

There was exactly one other person in the theater with me to see this, which was depressing but not shocking.