The Smiley Smile Message Board

Wanna take a stab at what song this is? Assuming its a VU song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWVyr60r9DU

I'm pretty certain that bit of music was written for the film and is not actually a Velvet Underground track. It's definitely not "Venus In Furs" as one YouTube poster suggested. Rhythmically, it's similar to "Here She Comes Now", but it sounds like someone's approximation of the VU sound. Did Lou Reed even allow any of his songs to be used on the soundtrack? He was none too happy about licensing his material in the past for these kind of biopics.

From what I understand Lou Reed wanted nothing to do with this project...so I doubt any of the originals were used. However some artists (specifically Brian Bell and Pat Wilson of Weezer) covered songs from VU for the soundtrack. Since this was the scene there were in (I havent seen the movie so I dont know if theyre in others) I guess people assumed it was 'Heroin' the song they covered for the movie.

I just really dig that melody, I hope they release it, whatever it is.

The band 'Yo La Tengo' played the role of VU in a movie called 'I Shot Andy Warhol'. See Wikipedia.  Not sure if this is from that movie.

Anyhow, 'Yo La Tengo' are huge VU fans.  You can hear the influence in their music.  The bass player in this video clip (the only one that you can get a good look of) looks a lot like James McKnew (bass player for Yo La Tengo).

The scene is definitely from FACTORY GIRL, a biopic about Edie Sedgwick, and not I SHOT ANDY WARHOL so I don't know about the Yo La Tengo connection. The music in question is closer in spirit to the 80s goth stylings of Echo & The Bunnymen and Sisters of Mercy than it is to the VU who seldom, if ever, used that kind of lead guitar line.

Definitely not a VU recording.

Well, yeah I'm pretty sure we figured that out. What we need to figure out if its a cover or some sort of 'remake' of a song, and which one, or maybe a song by a band influenced by VU.

I think its gonna just end up being part of the original score, which if thats the case, who knows if we'll ever get to hear the whole thing (if more exists beside whats in the scene).

Hey, don't get sassy, chief. Anyway, if it's a cover, it's not a close one. It's vaguely VUish, probably by nobody in particular. (Like when Lou Reed was writing surfin' music for Pickwick, for example...)

Oh I see, so only you can give sass? I'm on to you... :brow