Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

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.

Not quite as many people as were there with me to see the debut of The Last Waltz then.

Similar number here now at MoMI to see The Bride of Frankenstein.

No, it was those two songs, at least according to my previous two posts on the subject.

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.

i appreciate the audacity of the last sentence, but those first two albums have lots of great "band" moments. sister ray is a 5am kind of song but it's also all about the velvets both listening and playing off each other and also going off on their own individual tangents. that is a very "band" song, a result that come only come about from a group of people making it happen in real time together, as a band.

"Oh Lord, suck waiting for my man in Lodi again..."

I thought that was just rhetorical flourish. Although I appreciate your rebuttal. Actually tbh I agree with that other post, but probably also your post as well. How can that be?
xp

lou reed albums i have listened to many times:

transformer
coney island baby

some times:

street hassle
rock n' roll animal
sally can't dance
lou reed
new york
berlin

once or twice

songs for drella
lulu
metal machine music

No blue mask ever?

it's true that they become more of a "band" 4-piece kind of jam band as they go, particularly after yule joins and cale leaves. but there were always elements of that there. i think cale's presence added another element to the jam band thing, and he was also playing with reed when reed was still fresh from his pro songwriter period, dashing off little 2-3 minute gems like all tomorrow's parties with an absurd frequency. maybe the original version of art pop, especially considering their origin story?

No blue mask ever?

i don't think so! i'll check it out. i gotta say, i very much sympathize the view that lou reed's voice was unbearable after a certain point, and i'm not sure at what point in the 80s it happens but it always makes me like him less so i stick to the earlier stuff

I actually cooled off on The Blue Mask over the years. Much as I love Quine, but not going to argue with those who still love it.

I kind of agree with Cow_Art that Street Hassle is the best, or the one most like, most evocative of The Velvets, or something like that, but even that one has a little filler, although I can live with it. Also like Karl’s top two a lot, Coney Island Baby being another one with a standout title track that makes the whole album ( although maybe I prefer the live version on Take No Prisoners ) and Transformer for being enjoyably commercial-sounding without being too slick, with the kind of session players that really, um, add value. Anton Fig isn’t on it, at least least time I checked.

I've never found any useful way to explore the fact that "Sunday Morning" sounds extremely similar to "Mary in the Morning" (at least Glen Campbell's version). The banana album came out 12th March 1967 and Al Martino's (first) version of MITM came out in May 1967 (recorded April 5 apparently, written by Johnny Cymbal and Mike Rashkow before that, Library of Congress registration says "Appl. states prev. reg. 14Mar67") so it's hard to infer plagiarism. Am I crazy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N0be6N0n6s

listening to blue mask now, it's great! will immediately leap to near the top of the "some times" tier, i think.

"coney island baby" is my favorite solo song

i don't think so! i'll check it out. i gotta say, i very much sympathize the view that lou reed's voice was unbearable after a certain point, and i'm not sure at what point in the 80s it happens but it always makes me like him less so i stick to the earlier stuff

― typo hell #14: neanderthal started writing it not know how it (Karl Malone), Saturday, October 23, 2021 6:23 PM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I actually cooled off on The Blue Mask over the years. Much as I love Quine, but not going to argue with those who still love it.

― Double Chocula (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday,

I only started to care about Lou Reed in the 1980s.

I like Sally Can't Dance and Coney Island Baby and half of Transformer, but he really got going in the '80s.

well, i only stopped caring about him in the 80s, so

He mastered the offhand gesture in the '80s. Shit like this! I love it. He nails a mood and vibe. He knew how to write and sing songs for men.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4SYBROfHTA

sorry to break the chain, but just finished listening to Another View, and – gawd, that single-chord strum/solo/breakdown in this take of "Rock 'n Roll" is just... *chef's kiss*