The Velvet Underground and its members

[Old Rake]

IMO, any album without Sterl isn't really the VU. While Mo was essential to the sound, the REAL VU sound is locked up in the skittering guitars of Sterling Morrisson!! Hell, he turns freaking Luna into the VU on that one album from the early 90s. Granted, they were halfway there already, but...

[Jason]

I thought Galaxie 500 had more in common with the VU than Luna did. But then again, both bands can lay claim to Dean Wareham's excellent songwriting and guitar picking.

[trumpet sounds]

"Good evening, we're the Velvet Underground, better believe it. Glad you could all make it. We saw your Cowboys today. They never let Philadelphia even have the ball for a minute. It was 42 to 7 by the half. You oughtta give other people just a little chance. In football anyway. You people have a curfew or anything like that? You got school tomorrow? This song is called 'I'm Waiting For My Man'."

No mention of "1969: Live" yet, so thought I'd mention it. John Cale is missing, but not Mo. "What Goes On" kicks ass, Yule weaves an eight-minute organ riff, Reed strumming that guitar like there's no tommorrow. The band trys out some new songs for the forthcoming studio LP: 'Loaded". "Sweet Jane" featuring the 'Heavenly wine and roses seem to whisper to me when you smile' bit. 

'A little wine in the morning and some breakfast at night, I'm Beginning To See The Light...'

Favorite VU album.

[Chance]

For me, neck and neck with The Beatles as the greatest rock band ever. Period. There's little or no bad Velvet Underground music in my book.

I'll contribut more in a bit.

[Jason]

Whatever happened to the VU Bootleg Series? Is that going to see some more releases, or did Volume 1 sell like sh*t?

[Beckner]

All four original albums AND the "lost album" are essential, in my opinion. I can't imagine anyone considering him- or herself a well-educated pop fan without having at least absorbed them (if not liked) them.

I do. VU bores me and I have the box set. And we've been through this.

[I. Spaceman]

And you're still just as wrong as the last time you said it.

[the captain]

All four original albums AND the "lost album" are essential, in my opinion. I can't imagine anyone considering him- or herself a well-educated pop fan without having at least absorbed them (if not liked) them.

I do. VU bores me and I have the box set.

That doesn't bother me at all. My only point is that they are an essential listen. Nobody is required to like anything, so you can dismiss them now...with my blessing. And believe me, my blessing is also essential (although not quite as essential as VU).

[Chance]

Whatever happened to the VU Bootleg Series? Is that going to see some more releases, or did Volume 1 sell like sh*t?

Sales aren't the problem. There's some kind of cloudy legal wrangling going on in the Velvet camp. It hasn't been discussed publicly in any detail, but somebody has put the brakes on further releases for now. (Reed being his usual paranoid, domineering, petty self?) There was also talk at one time of a deluxe edtition of the third album with unheard demos, and an expanded "lost album" package in the works. These would be great. Hopefully things will get back on track.

In the meantime, some seriously exciting material has come to us via real bootlegs. We talked a little in the past about the acetate from the first album sessions; featuring alternate takes of "Heroin," "Venus In Furs" and "I'm Waiting For The Man," an unedited "Black Angel's Death Song" with an extra minute of music, "Femme Fatale" with backing vocals that were mixed out of the final release, and alternate mixes of the other tracks. There's also some unused mixes from the third album recently discovered (did these surface as a result of the stalled "deluxe edition"? Supposedly found in Sterling's closet after he died, some of them are quite nice, echoey and dreamy. And there's also a good quality tape of some January and March '66 rehearsals at Warhol's Factory, the earliest of which may be the very first sessions with Nico. These have been around for awhile, but always in dismal quality. Now we've got a really good source. And finally, there's a mono promo of the "Loaded" album that was pressed up for a handful of big AM radio stations. It sounds like it's just the stereo mix folded down to mono, which is probably exactly what it is. Kinda cool to have anyway, though, having been unaware that such a thing existed.

Of that first album acetate, known as the "Dolph acetate" after engineer Norman Dolph, there are now two copies making the rounds, a complete one and an edited one. The complete one comes from Moe Tucker's copy, it's very, very scratchy, you can hear the music fine, but there's a blizzard of pops and clicks running under it. The other copy is the famous one sold at a garage sale for a buck a year ago. Much cleaner, but on the copy going around, the guy edited off the beginings and endings of the songs, to use as a sampler copy, I guess hoping to sell the original to somebody for a huge payoff.
Here's the basic story of this amazing find, taken from a VU webpage:

Norman Dolph recalled the acetate as something that was pressed at Columbia, he recognized the matrix number, he was working at Columbia at the time and so sent the master tapes upstairs to get a acetate cut, he used this acetate to submit to Columbia executives to see if they were interested in releasing the thing, apparently he still has the rejection letter from them essentially saying "are you out of your fucking mind" his words. He thinks that he may have given the acetate to either Warhol or Cale when Columbia sent it back to him.

The acetate was discovered (and bought for $0.75!) around 2004 at a yard sale in Chelsea, New York. An incomplete 'edited' version was released as bonus CDR with the 100 first copies of At The Factory - Warhol Tapes bootleg CD. Another (more scratchy) copy which was used for the Ultimate Mono And Acetates Album bootleg which offers the complete recording.

The versions of Heroin, Waiting for The Man, and Venus In Furs are quite different from the ones available on The Velvet Underground And Nico album. Also some of the mixes are a little different than the album final versions.

European Son is a longer version with a one-minute extra guitar solo after the 'plate break', which was probably edited out for the final release.

All Tomorrow's Parties is the alternate 'single voice' version.

I'll Be Your Mirror is possibly the same take, but with alternate Nico vocal track. Nico ends second verse with "to show that you're home" instead of "so you won't be afraid", and it has quieter "reflect what you are" backing vocals vocals at the end.

The version of Heroin has different lyrics starting with "I know just where I'm going" instead of "I don't know just where I'm going", a shorter intro before the lyrics start as well as a significantly different guitar line.

Femme Fatale seems to be the same take but with alternate 'falsetto' "she's a femme fatale" backing vocals.

Venus In Furs is an alternate take as well.

Waiting For The Man starts with the lyrics "waiting for the man" in N. Dolph's version but starts with "waiting for my man" as well near the end of the released version Lou Reed says "walk it on home" which is absent on the released version.

(Ian, I'll send all this over as promised, I'm just waiting for the Factory rehearsals to arrive at my door.)

[I. Spaceman]

Man, wait for me to get your Runaways DVD to you. I just found another hour of stuff, and I'm gonna burn it all. You're TOO nice to me. I'm STILL blasting the Spector CD, even though Xmas is over.