Posted December 22, 2001
One of our favourite places to hang out is the Reverend Wayne Coomber's First Church of Holy Rock and Roll, where Ken Shimamoto frequently writes. Recently, Ken and the Rev had a long distance confessional recently, jointly reviewing the first dose of Robert Quine's Velvet Underground tapes. Here's the result:
The Velvet Underground: The Bootleg Series, Volume 1
The Quine Tapes
Shimamoto and the Reverend Coomers Take a Journey to the Nights of Their End
Recently, Brother Shimamoto and I decided to sit down in front
of our computers, synch up this latest in a recent line of multi-disc rawk
archaeological digs in our CDROM drives, and let the music take us where it
would, bouncing what we hoped would be interesting revelations off each other‚s
craniums. For me, the Velvets are like a perfectly aged single-malt scotch:
I only hit the bottle when I need a straight, potent, reliable smoky shot
to the system. I know Ken feels pretty much the same, so we knew pretty much
what to expect, though we weren‚t sure how nearly seven hours of tippling
was gonna leave us. Well, we came to what may or may not be, for you, some
unsurprising conclusions: a) this band played even more gloriously than either
official history or personal memory serves; b) their front man was just as
funny as he was wicked--if not more so; and, more to the point c) YOU NEED
THIS IN YOUR COLLECTION. Break out your pleasure-poison of choice, kick back,
and come on along....
(I'm leaning, Ken's standin'‚ straight.)
W: The romance of the artifact - packaging gets docked a notch 'cos the cardboard
box thing wants to pop open once you remove the shrinkwrap...coulda used a
slipcase like the Captain Beefheart or Coltrane Village Vanguard, but then
I guess it woulda listed for more than $28.
K: Packaging? Well, yep, but it's, um, environmentally sound, it brought
the price down, and it's a "bootleg." Kinda made me wonder what
Uncle Lou's thoughts on the matter were, particularly since he and Quine were
at loggerheads when their partnership ended.
Bob Quine is gonna be 60 next December. How fuckin' weird is THAT? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
What we have HEAH is...a very concentrated look at the VU during a month of
shows in San Francisco. One of the Matrix songs was on "1969 Live,"
my most-listened-to VU alb, altho prolly in a different version than this
(e.g., not from Bob Quine's cassette recorder). Sound quality is maybe a little
worse than that set, but still streets ahead of Cotillion's old "Live
At Max's Kansas City" set, which REALLY sounded like it was recorded
on a cassette player, prolly one that Brigid Polk was sitting on. Lou's vocals
are clear and strong throughout. What HAPPENED?
Let's start with a basic question: aside from fanatics like us, why does anyone
need this set? 'Cause, to mention some other examples, I thought the Revenant
Beefheart box was mostly an expensive rip-off (some of the earlier unheard
stuff was decent, and I dug the instrumental version of TROUT MASK, but there
was a ton of crap and disc that was too short for the money), and the Stooges'
FUNHOUSE SESSIONS a classic example of the law of diminishing returns: too
much fucking effort necessary to glean a little satisfaction. I'm playing
devil's advocate here, but how much do we need this? How different is it from
1969 VELVET UNDERGROUND LIVE (several performances are damn near identical,
one IS identical)? It's cheaper--though you get fewer goodies; as you've said,
the packaging is crap--it's packed with music, a song ("Follow the Leader")
is featured that only bootleg aficionados know,and they've thrown in familiar
songs few have heard VU perform live ("Sunday Morning," "Black
Angel's Death Song," and a couple more). Still, though--dim sound, one
song in three versions which take up 40% of the disc time and another in two.
A fair question. Depends, I think, on how big of a fan you are. Myself,
I have quite a different impression of the Stoogebox than you do (altho my
take on the Beefheart is about the same...I basically bought it for the TROUT
MASK "house sessions"). I think there's enough variation here to
make it worthwhile for a true VU fan...not just between the takes of "Sister
Ray," but in the different approaches to "Waiting for the Man,"
the songs that previously only appeared on "1969" (mighta been on
"VU"/"Another View" too, but I never got those), "White
Light," "Ride Into the Sun," etc. Casual listeners WOULD do
better with the original albs.
Dim sound: I'm not an extremely hi-fi kinda guy anyway. And as you pointed
out earlier, it's about on a par with "1969" (with the exception
of Disc 3's "Sister Ray"), which is fine by me.
Disagree w/you re: "Sister Ray." Extended speedfreak pandemonium.
These guys were the REAL psychedelic music. (Long attention span essential
to full enjoyment.) Cale might have been gone, but the dronage he brought
from the New York art-music claque remained (augmented with songcraft and
a rock sensibility that was notably absent from the baroque-sounding "VU
and Nico"). Think the band really only began to fulfill their promise
in the "road year" of '69...and this set documents the culmination
of that year.
When I think punk, I think "speed" vs. acid, so we don't necessarily
disagree on that. And I'll read songcraft as my "dynamics"; yours
is the more precise word. But I see completely what you mean about Cale still
being "there."
Maybe I'm just willing to cut these guys slack 'cos they're Long Island
boys (and girl)...Lou from Freeport, Sterl from Bay Shore (right down the
road from where I grew up), Mo from SOMEPLACE "out on the Island,"
Yule from Great Neck.
The first disc gets off to a damn good start. "Waiting for The Man"
rolls with an almost seductive laziness--not as intense as the other versions
I've heard, no desperation, but with a bemused "What? Me Worry?"
sense of humor.
Yeah, just compare "Waiting for the Man" with the pianner-pounding,
amphetamine-psychosis version on "VU and Nico"...a perfect example
of the variety I was talking about before. And this isn't even as "laid-back"
as they get with it on Disc 3...
Wayne Kramer said these guys sounded like folkies w/electric guitars, which
is SOMETIMES true when they're playing at lower volumes. What makes them more
than that (and what makes this set more of a value than your last assessment
would indicate) is the variety they were capable of within a fairly limited
stylistic THANG. They could veer from pop to avant garde, from song band to
jam band, from rhythm guitar chug to frenetic lead howl. Could IMPROVISE...almost
a lost art these days (away from the Phish brigade, which I LIKE). How many
bands do you know who could (or would bother to) play the same song three
times and make each one a different, unpredictable experience for the listener?
Yeah, those were indeed "different times."
"It's Just Too Much" follows: it's got some weird traditional
stuff (walking bass? on a Velvets record?), but continues the self-effacing
flow. These are the big, bad, S&M jelly-on-their shoulders boogie men,
chortling, hapless, ankle-deep in demimonde muck!
At their worst, these guys remind me of "musos" I usedta hear in
the dorms at college, plunking away at unimaginative I-IV-V's with the stiffest
whiteboy riddim imaginable. Remember where they were coming from, though --
Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Dylan...
Regarding "It's Just Too Much," I think of their bald-faced ripoff
of Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike" on VU & NICO--not the place you'd
expect to find a Motown steal! Plus, you have Lou's hit-for-hire years prior
to account for a lot of it. Still, the lyrics and loosey-goosey approach make
it very fun.
"There She Goes Again": RIGHT! I remember hearing that for the first
time and thinking "Wow, a Stones ripoff!" -- except Mick (and Marvin)
would never have sung, "You better hit her."
"What Goes On": "One of their greatest jam-songs. This version
isn't appreciably different than the one on "1969 Live" (altho I
don't THINK it's the same; will have to try the side-by-side thang later).
Works off the same kind of hypnotic (or boring, depending on your perspective)
riddim guitar chug. I'm looking forward to hearing some of the OTHER volumes
in this series...the Boston "guitar amp" tape, the New England "Hillside
Festival" tape...where they supposedly essayed roof-raising versions
of this toon.
Man, I love the hard rhythm-heaven speed-fueled strum of this song. I‚ll
listen to as many versions as Polygram want to cram down my throat. At 8+
minutes, it ain‚t long enough. And I love how Yule‚s organ weaves
around the solo, which--though it‚s almost all rhythm--takes you somewhere,
in the Coltrane sense.
Yule earns his pay with the organ solo here. As I've written elsewhere, I
think Doug was a worthy addition to the live VU (altho I haven't heard enough
live stuff with Cale to be able to make a fair comparison), and prolly a necessary
foil to Lou in the studio. I'll say it: I PREFER the post-Cale version of
the band! While the first LP's songwriting was great and its sonics innovative,
I think that overall, the sound of the band was almost laughably stiff and
white. Second alb was innovative, but pales in comparison with what followed
(Stooges et. al.). Other good versions: Dictators on their live "Fuck
'Em If They Can't Take a Joke;" uh, Bryan Ferry on "The Bride Stripped
Bare."
You've hit on a great reason to buy the record: the post-Cale group is the
best. It‚s like they said, "Fuck the trappings! Let‚s rock!"
though, of course, they do a lot more. They‚re just in love with thrusting
guitar energy and that flat, unadorned Mo Tucker beat.
Here's one reason I like the Velvets: Their drummer quits, so what do they
do? Put an ad in the Voice for some jazz shithead? Nahhh! Just call up JIM
TUCKER'S KID SISTER! ALWAYS ask the siblings of yr college chums to join yr
band!
Then we have the shining moment of the disc: "I Can't Stand It."
Not only peppier than previous versions--and they weren‚t slow--but Lou's
guitar (which we both fixed on early) is pure white light and white heat.
Now THIS is the REAL SHIT! If I had heard this at the time, I woulda agreed
with Tony Glover's "most advanced lead guitarist" comment about
Lou. He'd improved vastly since the "White Light" sessions. Gritty,
exciting, abandoned...everything I wanna hear from a gtrist. And the band
backs him to the hilt. Bro. Wayne shoulda heard THIS.
More ROCK than Lou's "ostrich gtr" on the first alb, as full-on
as the feedback-drenched blast on "Train Round the Bend," this is
something really new to the Velvets' recorded canon. Lou's tone here is closer
to the one he'd adopt in the "New York" era than anything I've ever
heard on a Velvets rec. This was the period when the Velvets were using Acoustic
amps, which are notoriously clean. Musta had a fuzzbox (like the ones Sterl
said got stolen at the airport before they recorded the third album). He's
actually playing melodic lines, too, not just choke-strumming and running
his fretting hand up the neck.
Definitely the big highlight of Disc 1! The thing you remember about 1969
LIVE is the rhythm guitar, so when the lead asserts itself, you listen up.
And I recall that, all things considered, you think Lou's overrated as a lead
guy (me, too--but God he LOVES guitar), so that means a lot. One thing I didn't
look forward to about the box was the three versions of "Sister Ray"
(the punk's "Dark Star"), but--and I'm just finishing Disc 2--the
"revisions" of the WHITE LIGHT version are just dandy. I wonder
if Lou ever got to the point of wincing during the "sucking on a ding
dong" line (I used to do a version of this with a band where I encorporated
John Cougar's colossally corny "sucking on a chili dog" line from
"Jack and Diane"). Also, I thought I'd miss Cale with 1969 LIVE
and I was wrong; same here. The dynamics, I guess, are the key here; Cale
loved that full-bore drone, but this version of the band ebbs and flows as
one organism (I use that phrase a lot with my favorite bands).
Sounds like they're singing "If Shirley would just come back..."
When I was younger and more concerned with the sexual orientation question,
I usedta think Lou was singing "Danny" or "Daddy" or....
Love those four beats Mo uses to start this. Sounds like a Motown jam...that
assured.
"Some Kinda Love." I mentioned "Fuck the trappings!"
but here they are--but again, this is maybe self-deprecating, or if not, it‚s
a Factory satire.
Yeah, they were less concerned with "what a rock'n'roll band is supposed
to look/sound/act like" than just doing what they did (in this case,
blowing up against the back wall of an auditorium). That's what I dig about
'em -- the lack of self-consciousness. Maybe that's the wrong way of putting
it, 'cos Lou was definitely a self-conscious artist -- measuring himself against
Delmore Schwartz, etc. -- maybe something like "lack of concern with
conventions/expectations" ('cos there was no blueprint for what they
were doing). No map.
This is one of the sexiest songs of all time. A good soundtrack for doing
whatever you think/feel with someone you love. Or just met. (It WAS the ass-end
of the sixties, after all.) A lot of Luna's stuff reminds me of this..
Yeah, except with Luna Wareham does'‚t project like Lou so the lyrics
catch you by surprise if they catch you!
Wareham: More like a cross between Lou and Doug. (And he visited Sterl
during his final illness.) I liked Lou's spoken intro on "1969"
better.
This was one of the first ADULT rock'n'roll songs about sex. Really says it
all. I think the songwriting on the third alb was as innovative in its APPROACH
to subject matter as that on the first was in the topics that it broached.
Here's something: I keep hitting on it, but Lou was a damned funny writer
at this stage. His take on the demimonde in songs like "Foggy Notion"
remind me a lot of Mothers-era Zappa on hippies. Was Reed more a demi-god
than Zappa was a hippie?
Zappa wasn't a hippie, he was a freak.
What they had in common: they were a little older than the average rock'n'roller.
Lou was 25 when "VU and Nico" was released, FZ was 25 when "Freak
Out!" was released. They were fringe players, outsiders in their respective
scenes. Before the Velvets, Lou had been Delmore's acolyte, a member of a
shitty fratboy band, a songwriting hack for Pickwick, an electroshock victim.
The Warhol Factory scene was JUST HIS MEAT: a living, breathing "Last
Exit to Brooklyn." FZ had been a Varese disciple, a student composer,
a member of desert R&B bands, jailed for a bogus obscenity charge. L.A.
freakdom gave him more room to move than Lancaster (where Captain Beefheart
and his Magic Band were LOCAL HEROES, remember).
"Femme Fatale": I love this song (and all the melodic Nico songs
on the first alb). "About Edie." Ironic? YOU decide!!!
Yeah, I think irony is the right word, 'cause, regarding the femme in question,
it kinda backfired. But I was reading recently in Please Kill Me that Nico
fucked everybody for the fucking. About her, too? "Hear the way she talks"?
I can! And this song is funny, too--remember the audience laughter at the
end of he 1969 LIVE version?
Nico: Sounds like my kinda gal. I think the Jackson Browne saga is hilarious.
Have you ever seen the short film she was in with Iggy? (Ann Arbor ca. '68?)
He's wearing a Rationals T-shirt. It's Goth-hilarious.
Lou's stage raps are a big part of the fun with these. A long way from
what he'd become on "Take No Prisoners" -- actually appears to have
some consideration for/rapport with his audience. I think this song was actually
about Edie Sedgwick, though. Remember Lou's "1969 Live" intro: "She
was later put in an institution for being one, and perhaps someday will open
a school to train others." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Yeah, my favorite is "I‚m glad the light show is behind me!"
One thing I think is neat about this Velvets period is that Lou is not
only nice, as opposed to coming across as a bitchy egomaniac, but he just
flat sings great.. He sounds totally involved, and, while the lyrics may at
times be sarcastic, you never get the feeling that he doesn't give a shit.
My first attempt at rockjournalismo (never pubbed) was an int with the guy
who recorded the End of Cole shows used on "1969 Live." One thing
he remarked on was how down-to-Earth and "regular people" the Velvets
(including Lou) were. Imagine that.
The thing about the Velvets music (commencing with "Sunday Morning")
that doesn't get a lot of comment is how infused it is with warmth and humanity.
Wouldn't want people to find out about THAT, y'know.
Besides being the engine room of the Velvets, Mo seems so much like the cheerleader
who wandered into the crap game, and I don't mean that as a jibe.. She provides
a human dimension to the band, a naivete in the middle of the twisted sex,
mainlining, and horror. And, by god, she believed in the band so much it's
still with her. You heard most of her solo records? "After Hours"
and "I'm Sticking with You" are really neatly sequenced on this
disc, particularly considering what's about to come roaring forward.
Mo was a NICE CATHOLIC GIRL. She usedta go to Mass on the road! I can picture
her wearing plaid skirts. All of the dyke-talk was spurious...she has something
like four kids now, for chrissakes! What could she have thought of some of
the stuff Lou was singing about? And as you say, she continues to believe...was
the one who worked the closest w/Sal Mercuri to make this series happen. A
keeper of the flame. Bless her.
I picture Mo rolling her eyes at Lou during some of these songs like Charlie
always does at Mick in Stones videos! Can you see her with jelly on her shoulder?
I see her reading in the next room and checking her watch!
"That Louie...such a card!"
"Afterhours" and "I'm Sticking With You" on the Matrix
disc are as, uh, cute as always; you can imagine her singing these songs while
working at her day gig as a keypunch operator -- maybe breaking a coupla mailroom
clerks' hearts in the process.
My new fave on Disc 1 is definitely "Sister Ray." Starts out slow
a la the classic '68 "Sweet Sister Ray" (FORTY MINUTES of meandering
gtr plunkage), accelerates to breakneck pace with fuzzy gtrs and organ, but
NOT Cale's monolithic wall of sound (an advantage, to my ears). But wait,
I'm only 7 minutes into the ride..."Ebb and flow" is right. (All
my fave music does too..."dynamics," I think they call it.) Amazing...a
version where you can actually understand the words! Is the world ready for
this?
The Velvets were really two different entities: the studio band and the live
band. The studio band was focused on selling the songs. The live band was
focused on getting off. It worked.
Getting off. Regarding "Sister Ray," that's right more goddam ways
than one. This version is snaky, punk-rock Ravel, sneaking up on you, bending
you over, then...boom! I absolutely dig this version. I posed the question,
"Why buy this?" THIS is why. Some of the lyrics make me wince, but
by God the music and singing and dynamics shut me up quick.
OK, professor, let's hear your objections!
You mean about the "wincing"? That "sucking on a ding dong"
line, well, maybe it's homophobia (very doubtful), and I have nothing against
fellatio, but, as a former lead singer, I have to wonder if Lou was inwardly
rolling his eyes after awhile. But--and now he's taking off on a pile-driver
solo, lightning cutting through thick air--like I said, he's shutting me up
quick about that.
So, Rev., whatthefuck do you think "Sister Ray" is about?
OK OK!!! I know it ain't just about the sucking on of ding dongs. I think
it's about the music more than anything else--that's what gets me off--and
about waking up in the middle of a nightmare that won't end, where every choice
makes the nightmare more frightening. The ultimate motherfucker of a bad trip.
Which, like you say, is the opposite of "All You Need is Love."
Love won't get you outta this. You forgive me?
Funny, I always thought he was singing about a baked good manufactured by
the Hostess company. Live and learn! I like to think of it as "Sloop
John B" on strychnine. Or a not-so-distant (altho less wistful) relative
of Van Morrison's "Madame George."
You got that right!!!
Lou‚s big problem now is his "professorial" demeanor. He needs
someone to knock the stuffing out of him!
No shit! Laurie Anderson stroking his ego is prolly the worst thing that ever
happened to him. Bring back the crazy Puerto Rican brawd! Or the 7-foot-tall
transvestite! What I hate most about Lou: his revisionist tendency. His magnanimous
remarks about Zappa at the R&R Hall of Fame made me puke. Back in the
day, they REALLY hated each other's guts.
Also, he seems to squeeze out any artistic foil who has any weight...happened
with Cale, Bowie, Quine. It's interesting that he hired Yule back as a sideman
in the mid-seventies. Mike Rathke and Rob Wasserman served him pretty well
in the early nineties, and Fernando Saunders in the late nineties.
Look at the quality of the guys he couldn't work with: Cale, Quine, and Saunders.
Jeez Louise! He should have been grateful to Quine for eternity for resuscitating
him!
He WAS grateful to Quine...until he got his confidence back. Then he went
out of his way to humiliate him, starting with mixing him down on "Legendary
Hearts." In the same way, the '93 VU reunion started out with, "Let
bygones be bygones" and ended with "I will never work with this
person again for the rest of my life." Then again, put the shoe on the
other foot....prolly the best thing that ever happened for Cale's career was
Lou agreeing to "collaborate" with him on "Songs for Drella,"
which Cale admits was mainly Lou's work.
I love their improvs. Infinite variety of. The three versions of "Sister
Ray" here really show what capable/versatile musos the Velvets actually
were -- give the lie to anybody who says they "couldn't play." The
'69 Velvets were a band in total command of their material, who could play
it anyway they wanted (long/short, soft/loud) depending upon the set and setting
and their own inclinations. This only happens when a band is accustomed enough
to playing together that the various musicians know each other's time and
style that they can ANTICIPATE EACH OTHER'S THOUGHTS. A rare thing, and always
a pleasure to hear.
The '68-'69 Velvets
(photo courtesy of All Tomorrow's Parties,
an unofficial--but outstanding--VU web page)
So, is that Lou or Sterling slow-picking in that"evil-Pharoah-dust-escaping-from-the-
pyramids" way?
Prolly Sterl, but hard to tell...they had the LOCK. The only time it's obviously
Lou is when he kicks on the fuzztone. Can you imagine how this went over in
the era of boogie blues "Ah wanna bawl yew awwwl naaaht long?" Although
like Ten Years After, at least a coupla the Velvets were acquainted with the
joys of speed.
Yeah, I can imagine...and THANK GOD! What band would you be missing most if
they hadn't launched their assault?
Probably the Stooges (upon whom they were a direct influence). But it's instructive
to remember that if it hadn't been for the Velvets, there woulda been no glam
movement in England, in which case there prolly would have been no punk movement
here (most of the early punkers I talk to were WAY into Bowie and Mott). The
early protopunkers that I loved so well (VU, MC5, Stooges) weren't heard by
that many people in their day (but as the old cliche goes, most of 'em started
bands).
I'd have to agree. No Stooges, no Pistols. No Pistols, no world. The Dolls,
too: Velvets stirred up with the Shangri-Las! Another thing is--I've been
waiting to get this in--do you remember in the early to mid-eighties when
damn near every new band (I'm thinking REM, Feelies, Dream Syndicate, Human
Switchboard, Galaxy 500) was on the Velvets train? Seems like only Luna and
the Strokes give a shit now. The Velvets, as uncool as Elvis?
The Velvets went from being a fringe weirdo obscurantists to THE MOST INFLUENTIAL
AMERICAN BAND. When that happens, backlash is inevitable. (I'm still waiting
for it to happen with the Ramones, but it might not -- too easy to imitate.)
The thing is, all the eighties bands you mentioned were only reflective of
one facet or other of the Velvets. I haven't heard the Strokes yet, but Luna
seems to have come the closest to having captured the totality (songcraft
+ guitarissimo).
I never saw the Dolls as being that VU-influenced. More Brit Invasion + girl
group.
I was thinking of David Jo‚s writing about the interrelations of a fucked-up,
born-to-lose subculture, and Thunders‚ nose-thumbing, exploding one-trick
guitar.
Yeah, Johanson was prolly cognizant of 'em. Genzale mighta been aware of him,
but I don't think he emulated 'em sound-wise...he was clearly a Keef disciple,
limited by his technique/imagination. I LOVED the Heartbreakers, prolly more
so than the Dolls, but I'm REAL tired of the brigade of JT imitators. The
orthodoxy of 'em is the opposite of everything I dig about the VU. All attitude,
no chops, no ideas.
"Follow the Leader": I can imagine the hippies out in S.F. doing
the patented hands- above-head Grateful Dead Ecstasy Dance (later co-opted
by the Phishheads) to this one. Sterl on lead, meandering enough to fit in
with the S.F. claque, guys like Barry Melton and Jorma Whatsisname.
Precisely what I was thinking. Even some "jazzy" shit in there...yearrrggggghhhh.
Lou's rhythm guitar ALMOST saves it, but the picking wills out. At least they're
LISTENING to each other. You can almost hear Reed getting impatient.
What separates the Velvets from contemporary wank-jam bands like Cream: the
willingness to venture outside the realm of tonality, the ability to write
good songs. But I LIKE "Follow the Leader." And yeah, they're definitely
ALL listening (and responding) to each other on the extended pieces. Hard
to find people who'll do that. That's one thing that makes 'em extraordinary.
It's not just about technique, it's about the ability/willingness to interact
with others -- the band vibe. Not many have it. What I LIKE here is the power
of the groove -- something the Velvets weren't exactly known for (altho any
version of "What Goes On" should be enough to convert the unconvinced).
Velvets as "groove" band!!! It‚s a very white groove (makes
me think about how Steve Jones and Joey Ramone drained everything black out
of their guitars--‚cept Chuck Berry), but ain‚t nuthin‚ wrong
with that!
"White Light White Heat": This is what I call a storming version--the
band's a train hurtling 'round the band just short of too fast. And Lou's
vocals--you were mentioning earlier how sad it was that he's lost this--are
roaring and passionate, to match his guitar. I prefer this to the studio version.
Lou on lead. More bluesy-sounding shit. His tone has a lot more dirt and sustain
than Sterl's, and his note choices are more interesting. He really goes for
the throat!
The band is way live on this Matrix stuff.
What makes the material from the Matrix shows great: Flow. Momentum. They're
playing at volume, stretching out, seeing where the tunes take 'em, letting
the grooves breathe. It's funny, that, because the Matrix was a small place,
and the conventional wisdom (based on Sterl's comments in the Bockris/Malanga
"Uptight" book) was that those qualities were more evident when
they played large rooms (like the Family Dog). Go fig.. Yeah, this is vastly
superior to the studio, vocally AND instrumentally. I really wish there was
more live stuff with Cale for comparison, but I think just about all the versions
of songs from the first two LPs by the '69 band cut the originals. Sorry,
John.
This stuff has an organic feel that the studio stuff can't match. You just
can't beat a real band interacting onstage in front of an audience. Some of
Lou's most adventurous lines without veering into "ostrich" territory.
No virtuoso bullshit, just The Lock...like four appendages of the same mind.
Yep, the organism moving, thinking, playing as one. One of my favorite metaphors
for my favorite bands, and this is one of 'em. Takes brains--and ears!
Not easy, but the best make it sound deceptively simple. Higher!
"Venus In Furs": I'll admit to always having found this song hilarious.
But I particularly love the transition to the bridge ("I am tired, I
am weary...") on the studio version. Cale's creaky viola playing blues
changes sounds as ridiculous as the Standells appearing on "The Munsters.."
There's laughter again. You know, so much has been made of the Velvets hating
the sun, so to speak, and being the antidote to peace, love, and crabs, but
he takes the piss of the street with a lot of gusto.. You‚ve mentioned
this to me before.
The people who saw the Velvets as DARK (Lillian Roxon was one) didn't GET
IT. (Of course, all those publicity photos of them scowling behind dark shades
wearing black turtlenecks didn't help, either.) One of the people I interviewed
who saw 'em at the End of Cole said they were "all smack freaks"
-- nothing farther from the truth! Proof positive (as if anymore is needed)
that Image Is Everything.
"Heroin": This is like a blues, albeit a very literate one. By "blues,"
I mean a gut-level response to the hardness of the world...maybe a more modern,
urban version of the rural variant. (Although I dunno where the "sailor's
suit and cap" come from.)
"Sailor‚s suit and cap"--ever seen Fassbinder‚s QUERELLE,
based on a Jean Genet novel? Came after the Velvets, but aggressively gay
and tied up in soul destruction.
Definitely a gay subtext there.
I'm fascinated by your comment regarding "Heroin" being a sort of
blues. Wonder if you'd clarify, 'cause it got me thinking about the old song
"I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground," which, though not a blues,
was one of those old mountain songs that caught the feeling. "If I were
a mole in the ground/I'd tear this building (root this mountain) down";
"...a railroad man/He'll kill you if he can/And drink up your blood like
wine"--not a long way from "dead bodies piling up in mounds."
And though the guys that sing this (Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Blind Willie Johnson)
communicate more aggression, it's a fantasy of aggression.
Lunsford and Johnson's disenfranchised hillbilly and sharecropper had to sublimate
their aggression in song, while Reed's junkie turned his inward on himself.
And that‚s the proof of the pudding regarding "Is Lou his characters?"
Reed‚s one guy who--drugs or no--ain‚t gonna self-destruct. Too
much of an egomaniac!
I question how in control he was of his persona back in the early-to-mid-seventies,
though.
This is true, this is true.
Never a speedfreak or junkie either! He was just doing SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH!
And Lou was NEVER a homo -- he read an article about it in the Post! But for
a guy who's so full of shit his eyes are brown, he can really make some transcendant
music once in awhile.
Here's an area where you and I will probably disagree: I really could see
this set taking the place of the studio albs for me, especially the first
two. Maybe even "1969." (Not that I'm gonna throw them out or anything.)
In the same way that the Stoogebox has supplanted the original "Funhouse"
alb in my listening (which some others I know still cling to). It changes
the way I hear this music...my expectations of it. Somebody wrote that "1969"
is great because it encapsulates so much human experience for a rock'n'roll
record. I'd say the same about this, but more so.
Actually, I see what you mean. I listen to 1969 LIVE more than the studio
albums anyway and, though I love the vinyl sound (I bought the CD version
and fucking pitched it like bad rubbish), this does beat it...by a mile. (Readers,
you still with us? There was your unequivocal directive!) By the virtues of
the two expectation-shattering "Sister Ray"s and "White Light/White
Heat" and "I Can‚t Stand It" alone, it gets there.
I'd also include "New Age," "Black Angel's Death Song,"
"Ride Into the Sun," and MAYBE the slow "I'm Waiting for the
Man." I can already tell this is gonna get more spins in my player than
the Stooges and Beefheart boxes put together.
"Imagine a HUNDRED guitars doing that at once?"
But tell me, if it‚s not too far off the subject, how you listen to the
FUNHOUSE box?
Usually one disc at a time. In small doses. Certain albums I cling to the
original sequence/ambiance of -- "Loaded" is actually one; so is
"The Who Sell Out" (vinyl no longer being an option for me, I ditched
the expanded, remastered '95 version in favor of a crappy original MCA CD).
Dunno why. Although I love the "Fully Loaded Edition," I VERY rarely
listen to any of it except the original alb.
Back to "Heroin": You can't beat that plagal cadence (the IV-I "Amen"
sound). Still maybe Lou's greatest song.
Plagal cadence? You got me on that one--like the advance of decimating plague?
Or is that muso talk?
Muso talk. Like at the ass-end of a hymn, the chord change when the choir
sings "Amen." Another example of a plagal cadence: The Modern Lovers'
"Roadrunner." Those two chords.
"Sister Ray" (version 2): Actually, I hear a KICK DRUM on the Matrix
"Sister Ray." Something I've never heard from HER before. Mo Tucker
is a marvel...hard to believe she played all of this STANDING UP, on one or
two drums and a cymbal! I don't think Lou has ever improved on this band,
even with Quine. The "Rock and Roll Animal" guys had superior chops
and provided a certain lyrical edge, but I hear some of that on this set too,
particularly from Yule.
Just goes to show you: technique ain't shit! Imagination, thinking like a
kid picking up crayons for the first time, feeling the groove (surrendering
to "The Lock"--the music is first, my band is second, and I am third...HAHAHAHA!!!!!).
Steve Howe never got to this--never knew it existed..
Music/band/self: Outstanding. Thank you, Gale Sayers! Here's one for ya: We
know that Polygram had access to at least some of the Matrix tapes back in
'74. Why the fuck do ya think they didn't release more? Or more exactly, why
didn't they release the FIERY stuff that's here? We love it now, but how do
you think the audiences reacted to this stuff at the time?
Oh, most woulda walked out on it for sure, though I wonder if there was a
subset audience that dug the Doors, too. They liked the extended stuff, the
darkness (as such...), the theatrics, though I'd never accuse Lou of being
sophomoric. Don't know how one could hang with the Doors after laying eyes
on the Velvets. The jazz cognoscenti walked out on post-'65 Trane, too. Like
Bangs wrote, even the fuckers who Like Bangs wrote. even the fuckers who had
the records didn‚t listen to them.
The audience for this stuff hadn't been invented yet. But, lotsa folks who
saw 'em dug 'em (or say they did NOW). Go fig. Must not have been able to
find their recs. (One reason they left Verve.) And, yeah, no comparison between
the Doors and the Velvets. The undergraduate acidhead filmmaker wannabe poet
and his posse of fallen jazzbos vs the postgrad faux speedfreak electroshock
victim cum Great American Novelist with his college chum, frat bro's kid sis,
and a player to be named later. Guess who wins? The thing about Lou back then
is there WAS no self-conscious stage schtick. (Still isn't.) In fact, as a
friend said about the vid of the '93 VU reunion, "Who wants to watch
a video of people who DON'T MOVE ONSTAGE?"
A basic rock and roll rule: if you're on stage without a goddam instrument,
you're a pud. FEW exceptions: early Mick, Ig. NOT an exception: guitarless
Lou.
Agree. Even poor old one-lunged Keith Relf had a harmonica. I don't think
Roger Daltrey has ever realized what a penis he looked like, in both his blonde-locks-and-fringes-flying
or later Jack LaLanne incarnations. The worst part of the vid of the MC5 doing
"Kick Out the Jams" on German TV is poor old Rob Tyner and the hangdog
expression on his face when he interrupts his whiteguy James Brown wannabe
flow and puts the mic cord in his mouth to clap his hands. He looks like Droopy
Dawg in a satin shirt with a big Afro!
Ooops--soul singers and Johnny Rotten. Maybe that ISN'T such a good theory!
I swear I just heard a sliver of some old folk melody or even one from a sappy
pop-folk song in Lou's solo in "Sister Ray"--part "Parsley,
Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme," part Loggins and Messina!!!
If I didn't know better, I'd swear I just heard the melody to Cale's "Gun"
in Yule's bass solo. Incidentally, speaking of Cale, my fave solo alb of his
is "Vintage Violence," which reminds me more of "Loaded"
than anything else he (or Lou) has done solo
No bad thing. Been listening to jazz this weekend and heard quotes of "They
don‚t wear pants/on the sunny side of France" in three different
songs!!! So--is this punk jazz? Does it work as improv? Or does it merely
work on sheer 4/4 force?
I think it works as improv. "Free rock." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I know why you‚re laughing, but it‚s not funny, Œcause this
is SOMETHING CATS COULD BE WORKING ON NOW THAT THEY JUST WON‚T PICK UP
ON! I don‚t mean any pfucking Phish phfood, either!!! Song-forms get
old, but "becoming," being "busy being born," never does!!!
I AGREE WITH YOU! I spent a year trying to do it in '99-2K, and wound up with
a tight-assed little combo I couldn't gig anywhere. Feh. It's not just about
KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING, or ABILITY and INTENT; it's about CHEMISTRY,
and that you can't arrange. I'm sure This isn't what Lou had in mind when
he and Sterl threw in with Cale and Tony Conrad, Manhattan '65.
Now Lou's doing his Sonny Sharrock trip...like shattering slivers of glass.
Gawd, I love this stuff!
You think Lou was aware of Sharrock? I don‚t doubt it, since he knew
of Coleman, Taylor and Ayler.
Lou/Sharrock: Probably. A big aficionado of jazz (remember his raps with Lester
about, uh, HERBIE HANCOCK?) Besides, Sonny played a lotta rock clubs/festivals
with Herbie Mann. Mike Haskins from the Nervebreakers remembers seeing 'em
at the Texas International Pop Festival, Labor Day Weekend '69, with Johnny
Winter and Janis Joplin.
As INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, this is about a thousand times better than "Rock
and Roll Animal" because of the SYNERGY. (Am I losing it, or is there
a connection between the lyrical, pastoral section of the Matrix "Sister
Ray" and, uh, "In A Silent Way?")
Yule was a useful improviser onstage...check out his chainsaw fuzz bass solo
here around 12:30, and his monolithic organ elsewhere. It was in the studio,
where Lou used him to fill in on vocals when his own voice was wrecked from
gigging, that the "Yule wimp quotient" kicked in. It's instructive
to realize how many lead vocals Doug sang in the studio, particularly on "Loaded":
"Candy Says," "Who Loves the Sun," "New Age,"
"Lonesome Cowboy Bill," "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'." Lou kicks
on the fuzztone around 20:00 for another squalling solo.
I don't think you were wrong to use the word "dynamics" -- something
the Velvets were definitely masters of..the "ebb and flow" you referred
to earlier. Something bands only learn by playing together a lot. Some people
are just afraid to let the grooves breathe. The Velvets weren't. Dig the way
Yule moves from bass to organ and back. THIRTY-EIGHT MINUTES of this stuff.
People who like short, sharp, poppy punk songs would probably HATE this. Or
maybe not. So far, Disc 2 is the champ IMO.
"Rock and Roll": This is the same version (different mix) as on
1969 LIVE. Talk about uplift and transcendence--as pure as the Beach Boys
or Sly Stone, buddy.You can tell Lou believes it (nihilists aren't supposed
to believe in anything, I thought), and he sure as shooting makes you believe
it. Every time I hear it, I know it's the story of my own life: Midwestern
boy, trapped in Southwest Missouri, nothing doin', hears the Spinners on the
radio and catches the fever of...love and LIFE!!! And I love the false-stop
middle: epiphany in musique concrete! As big an up as rock and roll's ever
produced... from a supposed rawk darklord! And listen to his rhythm guitar
as he takes it home! If that ain't happy, nothing is. Comparable to Jackie
Wilson's "(Your Love is Lifting Me) Higher & Higher)," and that
ain't faint praise, now!
Lou was no nihilist, his PR to the contrary. There's loads of transcendance
and affirmation in the Velvets' music (of which this is the purest example).
"Sweet Jane," "Head Held High," "Beginning to See
the Light," "What Goes On."
Hey, I thought you didn't dig the Beach Boys!
Yeah, I like the Beach Boys a lot! And it's no surprise to me about the transcendence;
LOADED was the first Velvets record that bit me deep. Just gotta remind anyone
still reading, if you know what I mean...
Their contribution was twofold: up the field as far as the subject matter
you could treat in a rock and roll song, and then showing the breadth of expression
that's possible with two gtrs, bass, drums. This exercise has helped me to
understand why the last 2 bands I was in did Velvet covers. They ARE role
models worthy of emulation on two levels: 1) songcraft and 2) The Lock.
Speaking of emulation, the kiddies need to redirect their attention this way.
Like I said before, beyond Luna and maybe the Strokes, the Velvets have almost
been forgotten again. You couldn‚t be more right about songcraft, too--which
with THIS Lou Reed means getting outside yourself. In what one would call
"rock and roll" today--and my seventh graders look at me weird when
I use the word--you don't see that anywhere! Fittingly, we‚re now hearing
"New Age."
The most ADULT rock'n'roll song ever written...either in its recorded form,
as a rewrite of "Sunset Boulevard," or as it appears here, as a
chronicle of bored suburban swingers. I remember when Rachel Sweet covered
this song. It didn't work...how in the fuck could a 16-year-old girl understand
THAT? (I know, I know...Eliot was 19 when he wrote "Prufrock"...
which proves my point, actually.)
Mighta said this before, but the extended coda is what makes this version
for me. The studio version ends just as it's getting started. Nobody in this
band plays a traditional role...Yule on bass solos over Lou 'n' Sterl's interlocking
rhythm gtr chug. Here he's melodic in a way John Cale was never capable of
as an improvisor (HIS forte is composition; best overview of his work IMO:
the live acoustic solo "Fragments of a Rainy Season" on Rykodisc).
Like you, I LOVE this song (and this is a killer version), but I've never
been able to get to the bottom of it. The repeated "Something's got a
hold on me/But I don't know what" from the nonplussed swinger, leading
into "It's the beginning of a new age" has eluded me for years!
An au revoir to decadence? Seems unlikely.
The "something" can mean whatever you want it to. Part of what makes
the song great. Lou makes you tie up your own loose ends. I mean, REALLY...who
wrote songs like this in '69???
Nobody wrote songs like this, not even Dylan. You were mourning Lou‚s
loss of vocal power and commitment earlier, but, aside from "Street Hassle,"
his ability to invent characters, get inside them, and empathize with their
plight might be the biggest loss.
I keep forgetting about "Street Hassle," but the title suite really
does rank alongside Lou's finest (altho I think the rest of the alb is a steaming
piece of shit..."I Wanna Be Black" indeed). That makes TWO great
recs the Bruce Springsteen appears on (the other one: Dictators' "Bloodbrothers").
Most rock'n'roll songwriting is characterized by solipsism, which gets pretty
tiresome to listen to after awhile, even when it's brilliant (Sex Pistols).
One reason I habitually ignore lyrics, I guess. That's one of the colossal
ironies of rock'n'roll IMO. The ability to empathize with others is pretty
much a characteristic of adults...most teenagers don't have it. Neither do
most rock'n'roll songsmiths. That's what makes Dylan, Lou, and a small handful
of others (Mick and Keef around "Let It Bleed" time, who else?)
stand out in such brilliant relief.
"This is a very interesting song." Lou sounds like he doesn't know
what it's about either (actually I think he was still figuring it out at this
point). Either that, or he's just not telling.
"Black Angel‚s Death Song": Speaking of Dylan, here's Lou's
very own "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (mighta said that earlier)...his
most interesting experiment with lyrical form until "The Murder Mystery."
Thought I‚d miss Cale‚s fiddle here, but damned if Yule doesn‚t
make you forget it with some very witty organ. I even here some Baby Cortez
and James Booker in there. Whatta song to go carnivalesque on!
Incredible but true: This version of "Waiting for the Man" is actually
the SAME arrangement as on the studio version, but because it's played so
slowly, it lasts 11:37 instead of 2:30. No fooling!
Initially, I hated this, but now it's sucked me in...in the tradition of Warhol's
film of the Empire State Building, it fucking makes you wait, too. HAHAHAHA!
It is insidious, isn‚t it?
Now, I'm in the midst of the glorious "Ride Into the Sun," which
actually does ride into the sunset. Mighta been a more apt end to the box,
rather than another "Sister Ray," you know. Yule's vocal (that was
Yule, right?)was nicely limpid-- prefiguring Beat Happening and Luna more
than Lou's vocals do. That's funny. Maybe he had a lasting impact--I doubt
it. Just coincidence, I'm sure.
Another great song, and another one where the extended coda is worth the price
of admission. Hey, do we know what's good, or what??? And you're right...it
IS Doug singing this one! And here I thought Lou sang everything on this set.
Feh. As for the third "Sister Ray," sure, the smiling folks at Polygram
coulda omitted it, but then this disc would only have clocked in at 50 minutes
and change, and they wanna give us value for money. I strongly support its
inclusion (and 78+ minute discs). Somebody alert those other folks at Sony,
who are STILL releasing 2-CD sets with a total time under 80 minutes. Shame!
Terrible to draw conclusions like this, but I think the REAL black turtleneck
wearer in the group was Cale. After he left, the warmth, humanity, and groove
could emerge. Just a theory.
I think you're right! Maybe Lou was right to jettison him, if that's the word.
"No more art-fag shuffle, boys! Time to get down to "what happens
in the street"! HAHAHAHA!
Listening to Lou's solo on the Washington Uni "Sister Ray" that
sounds like a muezzin calling the faithful. Jayzus!
This one's a little more faithful to the original--even sound quality-wise.
Is that the audience fucking clapping? Reminds me of a live recording of Haggard
I have where he sings "I turned twenty-one in prison" and the stadium
crowd's clapping on the on-beat like a bunch of trained seals getting ready
for a public clubbing! It might just be Mo.
Yeah, the pulse stays the same throughout this rendition (taped several months
before the San Francisco shows that comprise the bulk of the set), but the
EVENTS that take place over/around it are just as varied as the Family Dog
and Matrix versions.
Actually, the sound quality on this one's pretty abysmal. Then again, so's
the original studio...it's just LOUDER.
Y'know, I was an asshole to complain about this "Sister Ray"!!!
I'm not sure if it doesn't top the original at its own game! Lou's certainly
a little more open-minded as a guitarist, and I'm more and more impressed
with Yule's organ playing on this (he was funny AND amazing on "The Black
Angel's Death Song"). Sterling's chunka-chunkas choogle with the best
of CCR. And Reed--through a little chuckle--acknowledges the ridiculousness
of the lyrics...FINALLY! And what a perfect segue! Right into "Foggy
Notion"--wouldn't you have given your eye-teeth to have been there? And
right when you're thinking you're heading for boogie land, the man in front
whips out his dirty lead and cuts through the fog.
Yeah, there's a bluesy strain here rarely heard in the VU's music. Or maybe
it's just captured better here (proximity to the stage?) than on some of Lou's
rides on "1969" and "Live at Max's"...anyway, "Do
it again!"
Why do I keep waiting to hear him starting singing "Take me to the river?"
'Cause it‚s a king-hell religious experience, that‚s why!
So how would you sum this up in 50 words or less?
That's a tall order. But it's Step One in documenting the most successful
experimental band in rock history doing their thing like nobody else could.
I guess I'm curious, given the "Volume One" of the title, why they
started at the end, but no matter. This is a group that fucked with the program,
but never failed to rock and roll, and changed everything afterwards, though
it was a bit of a delayed reaction. That's an attitude we need , so the benighted
need to listen up! The lesson? To hell with being like them: you're NOT like
everybody else, can't be if you tried, so you might as well find some friends,
"purge all your rock," as Mike Watt used to say, and create from
scratch. Listen for the groove, and when you're flowing as one, scrape those
strings JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT, to see how it'll sound!
Also, as we've said, this basically replaces 1969 LIVE--hard as it is for
me to say it to an "old lover"--and at an economical price.
Couldn't agree more. What's key here is that there was no roadmap or template
for what these people were doing. They invented their own universe, from the
ground up. The way to replicate their achievement (if that's possible) is
NOT to study their sound and style, but to try and emulate their daring.
The VU's music helped form me in the same way the Who, Yardbirds, MC5, Stooges,
and Captain Beefheart did. I appreciate and value this release in the same
way I did the Who and Yardbirds "BBC Sessions," Total Energy's archival
Five series, the Rhino Stoogebox and Bomp's "Iguana Chronicles,"
the Revenant Beefheart box and various live Beefheart thangs that have surfaced
recently -- because it gives me a broader, deeper understanding of something
I consider fundamental.
The Œ69 Velvets were at a performance peak similar to the ones experienced
by the Coltrane quintet of '61, the Mingus European touring band of '64, the
'69-'70 Who, the '70 Stooges (all aggregations I'll buy any recording of).
This set adds as much to "1969 Live" as the Rhino Handmade Stooges
box did to "Funhouse"...and there are half a dozen other classic
shows which Polygram's supposed to have master tapes on. The mind boggles.
