Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

Jimmy Carl Black was also very complimentary about Mo Tucker's drumming.

Saw documentary, loved it, could watch that footage for hours more. Got the sense from my co-viewers that it's a bit frustrating if you don't have a foothold already (one quit about an hour in, saying 'I don't even understand who's in the band at this point'). I liked that about it - the slightly disorientating sense of enacting A Scene, like you've somehow turned up at the factory and obviously everyone's on first name terms and what do you mean you don't know who Paul is?

pathetically sneering at druggies throwing away their lives while he literally committed suicide on cigarettes

he literally did no such thing

Prostate cancer

> , like you've somehow turned up at the factory and obviously everyone's on first name terms

OTM, such an appropriate way to portray this kind of band. They weren't four classmates in a garage!

It was like the "Uptight" book, in film form..

The Zappa vs Lou doesn't seem to be much more complicated than two competitive assholes on the same label with the same producer and both having sort of the same audience ("freaks"). Trying to parse why those two liked or disliked any other human being seems like a fool's errand.

As for Zappa/Cohen trying to delay the VU record, that's always been the rumor but it seems more likely it was the delays in producing the peel off banana cover

Thought the doc was great btw

Yes, your first post is about right.

Saw it tonight. I think a lot of my thoughts on it have been well covered. I did think it pretty much turned into a standard issue rock band doc once Warhol and Cale were out of the picture. Couple of things I learned. Firstly that Cale's father was actually English, I knew he couldn't speak Welsh but most people in Wales can't speak Welsh, I have the feeling John had been keeping that one quiet! Secondly that Lou's father had pretensions to be a writer but was forced, or persuaded, to take up accountancy by his mother - that seems pertinent in some way!

The idea that Cale couldn't communicate with his father during the early years of his life was an interesting angle

Wow at Jonathan Richman in general but his 1-2-3-4-5 seconds bit on "Sister Ray" was just <3

agreed

Secondly that Lou's father had pretensions to be a writer but was forced, or persuaded, to take up accountancy by his mother - that seems pertinent in some way!

Yeah, that really stuck out...I've never found Anthony DeCurtis's writing or criticism to be especially good, but should I check out his Reed bio? I imagine it's definitive in terms of information, but I can see it being a pretty bland read.

It’s fine actually. Still waiting for the Will Hermes bio though, if that ever comes now.

I too don’t recall hearing either of those telling dad facts before.

Here's his sister, who is a therapist, I think:
https://medium.com/cuepoint/a-family-in-peril-lou-reed-s-sister-sets-the-record-straight-about-his-childhood-20e8399f84a3 Her take, of course.
Also, if you go here, wow at pix and links---to the above, also to a Hollywood Reporter piece re Lou's documentary, Red Shirley, about his cousin, then 99, from Poland, getting involved in civil rights struggle, so real Americans knew she was a commie (think there is or was an clip here, but haven't tried to watch yet)
https://www.google.com/search?q=lou+reed+sister&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=eDqcco07v8_XvM%252Cgz_BkmBLrKePQM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kSFRE2PR4zT9Ovbw1LPfyed--H3ZQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi23qu83uvzAhUAmmoFHW7MCPwQ_B16BAgLEAE&biw=1215&bih=567&dpr=1.13#imgrc=eDqcco07v8_XvM
If all that doesn't show up on one page, Google "Lou Reed's sister."

nice find:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Shirley

I did think it pretty much turned into a standard issue rock band doc once Warhol and Cale were out of the picture.

I wonder if this was intentional, to track with the band's shift to a (relatively) more conventional sound once Cale left

I think it reflected that the amount of interesting material available - visually and narratively - was much less once they stopped being an NYC art scene band, surrounded by filmmakers and weirdoes, and became a rock band doing rock band stuff like going on tours and playing in Boston a lot and Cleveland a lot etc.

yeah it's maddening that the only video footage of the post-Cale era is that brief clip from Dallas

basically this should have been an hour longer, lol

Angus MacLise got short shrift here as well, which was kind of a bummer

Might have been some interesting encounters out there---Cale said somewhere that if they traveled far enough, they got to places where the audience thought Warhol was in the band. So, as not to disappoint, Lou coulda, "Hi, I'm Andy, how do you like my new hair?"

Warhol was VERY Famous, even to poor lil boys like me, down in the boondocks. Everybody luved his soup cans and funny answers to The Media.

I wonder if this was intentional, to track with the band's shift to a (relatively) more conventional sound once Cale left

It was probably intentional mainly in the sense that once the Velvets let go of Cale and Warhol and stepped away from the NY art culture, it made less sense for the film itself to feel apiece with the work that came out of that world.

They didn't put this in the film, but when a reporter from Rolling Stone asked Reed if Warhol had gotten tired of the Velvets, Reed responded, “No. Andy passes through things but so do we. He sat down and had a talk with me. ‘You gotta decide what you want to do. Do you want to just keep playing museums and the art festivals? Or do you want to start moving into other areas? Lou, don’t you think you should think about it?’ So I thought about it, and I fired him.”

Andy got red, and he called him a rat!

Cale said somewhere that if they traveled far enough, they got to places where the audience thought Warhol was in the band. So, as not to disappoint, Lou coulda, "Hi, I'm Andy, how do you like my new hair?"

Warhol was co-billed on some occasions yes:

https://lanemusichistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/VelvetUnderground_web-e1445816806403.jpg

^^ from 1969

there was also a fake Andy Warhol:

https://greg.org/archive/2007/04/06/the-fake-warhol-lectures.html

Just saw the trailer for Spencer (i.e. the Princess Di biopic) and Reed's "Perfect Day" performed by a children's choir provides the entire soundtrack. On its own the recording would've felt pretty tacky, but paired with that movie....yeeeeesh.

how is this happening just now as well? promo for the documentary?

https://boingboing.net/2021/10/27/1000-warhol-drawings-were-sold-at-250-each-but-only-one-was-real.html

I like that they illustrated this article with a photo of a waxwork of Warhol.

I think it reflected that the amount of interesting material available - visually and narratively - was much less once they stopped being an NYC art scene band, surrounded by filmmakers and weirdoes, and became a rock band doing rock band stuff like going on tours and playing in Boston a lot and Cleveland a lot etc

See, I would find a doc about a rock band - any rock band - on tour a lot more interesting than the same band hanging out with a bunch of artists & weirdos, so I regret this imbalance, although as you say I guess it's inevitable given the amount of footage available. I haven't seen the doc yet but I read somewhere that it doesn't even get to WLWH until 40 minutes before the end, which is a shame.

The DeCurtis bio is excellent, yes, because it dovetails with DeCurtis' strengths: reporting not writing.

DeCurtis bio was the only one I actually read. Steered cleared of the Howard Sounes for one because he seemed kind of mean-spirited, although I do seem to remember not minding his Dylan book too much.

So many Lou books out there: Aidan Levy, Mick Wall, Peter Doggett, not to mention Victor Bockris let alone Bettye Kronstad’s book.

the Bockris bio is garbage though

Quel surprise.

ffs

His co-write with John Cale, What’s Welsh for Zen, is pretty good though, although at least one ILX0r, not me, thought Cale came off pretty bad.

Haven’t read the one he wrote with Bebe Buell so can’t comment on that.

Pretty sure John avoided mentioning his father was English on that (xp)

Yes, I don’t remember that being in there either.

the Bockris bio is garbage though

One might have suspected that he wasn't an impartial observer when he referred to Lou Reed as "simian" and misquoted "Heroin" in his earlier Burroughs biography.

Haven’t read the one he wrote with Bebe Buell so can’t comment on that.

It's the worst "junk" book I've ever finished; the highlights are her selling Johnny Winter's beard shavings as cocaine and her listing of Elvis Costello's nasty nicknames for Prince. (Worst "serious" book I've ever finished: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.)

Ugh

The Bockris bio of Warhol is shite as well.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

lol I remember reading that when I was 20 and trying really hard to 'get' what it was about, but it's bullshit.

What about some of the other Warhol bios?

The Bob Colacello one is quite good and revealing in its way. Holy Terror.

I'm not a huge DeCurtis fan either but I thought his Lou bio was surprisingly good and perceptive

The Warhol diaries are pretty good for skimming. I think there's an index which makes combing through it for notable names easier.

Thanks. There are also Wayne Koestenbaum and Blake Gopnik.