Category: Velvet Underground

A guest series by Steve McLean

NOOOOOO! Not The Velvet Underground, NOOOOOO! They’re too cool. You expect bogus line ups of The Pacemakers or Herman’s Hermits or Ratt (spoiler; all line ups of Ratt are bogus). But not the Velvet Underground. You see it’s one thing when ‘naff’ bands like Amen Corner or The Sweet tour with multiple line ups and a scarcity of original members but when it’s a group of beloved untouchables, it becomes an outrage. Put your handbag away. (Also, fuck you, The Sweet were boss).

I’ve been looking forward to writing this. In our world of Mandela Effect false memories it’s worth keeping in mind that The Velvet Underground couldn’t get arrested when they existed. These days they are adored by thousands more people than ever saw them in their lifetime, but speak to just about every music fan from the time and they’ll swear blind they were huge fans all along; Like the three million people who attended Woodstock or the people who were definitely in the French Resistance or the people who always knew that the sexism in Britpop wasn’t ironic and didn’t like it, there’s way more of them now than were at the time.

Time has a habit of playing tricks on us when it comes to the zeitgeist. The Velvet Underground are fucking cool now, but when Lou Reed quit in 1970 they were just another band singing for their supper, albeit one who were doing a mammoth nine week residency at Max’s Kansas City (which sounds impressive but; capacity 200 with many tickets available on the door most nights)

During the run of Max’s gigs Lou Reed decided to quit with little or no warning. He just got up and fucked off on the band he formed. He had his reasons, mainly because he wanted a solo career and felt he was stagnating in the band who by this time were no longer the Warhol superstars that had been launched on the art world nearly four years earlier but also his manager was a slippery fucker and played the band off each other.

‘Basically he just didn’t show up one Tuesday night or whenever it was for the beginning of that week’s shows’ Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

With Lou gone, they should have broken up right? Yeah probably but the problem is when Lou left the band still had a stack of gigs at Max’s and other live commitments to complete. Plus they had an album that they were recording and was currently unfinished (to be titled Loaded).  Ultimately, the VU were a working band, they couldn’t sit back and live off record sales. Just because Lou doesn’t fancy it. that doesn’t mean everyone else suddenly has no rent to pay.

‘It was a band, not Lou and a backup band. We had commitments. We just kept going. I wasn’t in charge although I was singing most of the leads’ Doug Yule, Hound Dawg Magazine May 2010

Doug Yule had replaced John Cale in 1968, he was already presented the co-lead vocalist during the live shows, his boyish voice meant the band could play the Nico and the softer Lou Reed songs from earlier in their career. Creatively, the group were sharing the workload, while most of the songs being recorded are still being credited to Reed, it’s fair to say the majority were an effort between Reed’s writing and Yule’s arrangement. As distasteful as it might seem now to the hardcore, the band were desperate to buck the label of cult favourites

‘(We were) intent on one thing and that was to be successful and what you had to do to be successful in music, was you had to have a hit, and a hit had to be uptempo, short, and with no digressions, straight ahead basically’ Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

On August 24th, 1970 Yule took over frontman duties. His brother, Billy Yule, was already filling in for a pregnant Mo Tucker on drums which meant for the final week of the Max’s Kansas City dates there was only one original Velvet in the current band. Somehow, they scraped through the remainder of the residency.

“I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Beatles movie Help, in the last scene there was a guy running on the beach in crutches saying ‘I’m going to miss the sacrifice, I’m going to miss the sacrifice’ and he ends up being the sacrifice. Well that’s sort of my experience with the velvets.  The first time I heard them play was on stage at Max’s and I was playing with them. I was a 17 year old kid working for cab fare, movie tickets. That’s about what I got paid plus free beers and dinners”Billy Yule, Mojo Magazine Feb 2000

Contractually the remaining band were in a bind, they had to tour the upcoming record or they might find themselves in court against Atlantic Records. To promote the release of the record in November the band hired bass player Walter Powers from Yule’s old band The Grass Menagerie. Tucker returned to the drum stool and It’s fair to say the band of plodded along. Instead of residencies in cool NYC pre-punk hang outs, they found themselves headlining places like The Main Point in Pennsylvania, a small coffee house style venue (On a side note, the Main Point homed some shows by Bruce Springsteen and was scene of the first ever live performance of Thunder Road)

After almost a full year of post-Lou life original member Sterling Morrison quits. When the band gig in Texas, Sterling opts to remain in the Lone Star State. Around this time the band have been agreed to tour Europe. Loaded had done well in Amsterdam and the record label wanted to cash in. Europe had always loved the Velvets more than the States and a Lou-less line up could still be a big deal. Doug did a passable impression of Reed with his curly hair, so the stupid limeys probably wouldn’t even notice.

Willie Alexander was a keyboard player who had played with Powers and Yule in the Grass Menagerie. He was hired to fill Sterling’s boots. In November a line-up of Tucker, Yule, Powers and Alexander began a tour of Europe that took in Scotland, Wales, Holland, Belgium, Germany and dozens of shows at universities in England.

“I don’t remember much, I liked the fog and the Newcastle Brown Ale” Willie Alexander 2025 (Facebook Conversation)

With Alexander the band seemed to take on a new lease of life albeit after a few teething troubles. The success may be attributed to two things; Perhaps because the evolvement of the sound but also due to the lack of any Velvet Underground activity in Europe, even though the fans had always been more receptive to them than in their home country.

‘People were just happy to see any Velvet Underground it seemed. In one place in England someone thought I was John Cale. I had dreams about being in this ghost band. I was pretty buzzed most of the time’ Willie Alexander, Hound Dawg Magazine May 2010

This needs to be hammered home, in a pre-Transformer world, no one really cared that that the band didn’t contain Lou Reed or John Cale. Just like no one cared that the then current version of the Flying Burrito Bros didn’t contain Gram Parsons, or that Fleetwood Mac had no Peter Green. Regardless how history judges the band, in 1971 this was the Velvet Underground.

(Poster for a show at the London College of Printing)

The Velvet Underground were taking the UK by storm, albeit medium-sized storm. I suppose I should acknowledge just how surreal it might be for the casual observer to see the band from Warhol’s factory, steeped in drug-counter-culture playing around rural England. While it’s understandable that that group would be booked around a multitude of universities and city locations like the Speakeasy or the Bumper Club, they look quite out of place on the South Peir Parade in Portsmouth or the Malvern Winter Gardens. Did you ever think you’d see a review of a Velvet Underground live show in the Whitstable and Herne Bay Herald? 

(Whitstable and Herne Bay Herald 11 November 1971)

Like the UK, the continental leg of the tour is nothing short of a success.  The jaunt found the band playing to double the size of the crowds that they were used to, and they even managed a TV appearance in Holland. The boxset Final V.U. released by Captain Trip in the early 2000s features a stellar version of What Goes On, recorded by a Dutch radio station and reimagined with a 1970s rock vibe that wouldn’t be out of place in a setlist by the aforementioned Flying Burrito Brothers.  Yes, that is Doug Yule shredding that guitar.

mp3 : The Velvet Underground – What Goes On (live, Holland 1971)

Ideally, this is where the Velvet Underground story should end. However, manager Steve Sesnick had other ideas and he might be described as of dubious character;

“He was a manipulator, he’s a woman hater, which implies a self hater. He’s a very… He lies compulsively, his whole mentality is himself. To get over on everyone else and take care of himself.” Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

The group returned briefly to England,. While there, Steve Sesnick signed a recording deal with Polydor UK for a new album. The songs for record (to be titled Squeeze) were mostly written during the tour and premiered on the road. The idea was that the band would be able to record well–rehearsed songs quicker and cheaper than coming up with arrangements in the studio, like they did with Loaded.

What happens next is up for debate; it’s possible that the record was intended to be a Doug Yule solo record, it’s possible that Polydor always intended to release it as a VU album and it’s possible that both are have an element of truth.

Regardless. Tucker, Alexander and Powers were all sent back to the States and Yule was retained in the UK. Sesnick had a habit of misleading people. It as been implied that he told the rest of the band that they were sacked and he told Doug that they had all quit. Either way, Yule recorded Squeeze as the lone Velvet Underground member with session musicians filling in the studio. Deep Purple‘s Iain Paice is reportedly on drums, although Paice claims not to remember the sessions

“I heard the tape, I don’t think it actually sounds like me. I have no recollection of the session. I might have played on some of the tracks at some point. But it definitely doesn’t sound like me.” Ian Paice, Deep Purple. Mojo Feb 2000

Paice not remembering the sessions might seem a little strange. However, this is once more evidence that the Velvet Underground were not a band of high stature, regarded like they are today. Plus, it should be noted that Ian Paice recorded a lot of sessions in his time. However, Yule has confirmed that he did in fact work with Paice.

‘I was very much caught up in my own hubris at the time, I so full of ‘Ok, here I am, I’m in England, I’m recording, I’m working with Ian Paice of Deep Purple’. Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

The music itself has been derided over the years. In the last decade or so it has come to be viewed in a more favourable light. The accepted narrative will tell you that reviews panned Squeeze but once again the accepted narrative lies through its banana shaped arse.

I think most fans see the Powers / Alexander line up of the VU as a legitimate evolution of the group. They were certainly seen as legitimate enough to support the likes of Alice Cooper and Buddy Miles.  However once again Yule had a record to promote and now he didn’t even have a band. Here’s where the bones of contention mainly lie in the hardcore Velvet devotees. In 1972 Yule recruited Rob Norris, George Kay and Mark Nauseef (check out Nauseef’s career; an award winning percussionist and a sometime member of Thin Lizzy, Dio’s Elf and The Ian Gillan Band. He’s also recorded with Jack Bruce, Gary Moore, Andy Summers, Carlos Santana and a fuck ton of others. You could argue he has been creatively the most successful VU member outside of Reed and Cale and you’d be right).  In order to retain legitimacy, both Sterling in Moe were both offered places in the band by Sesnic but refused.

‘Sesnick took me aside and told me that Polydor wanted to release Doug’s record as the fifth Velvets album and would line up another European tour. The band would consist of Doug, Sterling, Mo and Me. Maureen came by a few times to jam and to visit with Steve and his wife Penny, but when it was learned that Sterling wasn’t interested in touring Mo changed her mind’ Rob Norris, I Was a Velveteen, Kicks Fanzine 1978

What is true is that the press of 1972 where pretty much on-board with this line up of The Velvet Underground. Copies of Squeeze were promoted in newspaper columns in reviews and offered up as competition prizes. The modern opinion is that the band and the album was instantly derided by the press and the public saw through it all as sham. This isn’t true. While most contemporaneous reviews of the album are mediocre, there is also the odd one that shines.

The Evening Post reviewed the record thusly; “Squeeze kills any suggestion that when Lou Reed walked out the group was hit by creative bankruptcy. The band has parted but not before putting this surprising joyous piece of rock carefully together”

There’s a couple of stand-out songs on Squeeze. Both Friends and Wordless would fit in nicely on Loaded.

mp3 : The Velvet Underground – Friends

mp3: The Velvet Underground – Wordless

I once asked John Cale what he thought of the fact that the band Squeeze who he produced was named after the Doug Yule album. He harrumphed and pretended I asked a different question about how good the musicians were. We’ve not spoken since.

According to Rob Norris, Sesnick was claiming that he owned the name of the Velvet Underground which is possible if he registered the trademark, since he also reportedly signed a publishing deal on Yule’s behalf, never told him about and pocketed the advance money. It’s also worth remembering that Sesnick was prone to bullshitting people. For Doug the tour was an easy choice.

“I got a call from Sesnick who said ‘There’s some people who want to do a tour, do you want to go to England as the Velvet Underground?’ ‘Sure I’d love to’ I said, ‘I don’t want to be a carpenter, I want to be a musician!’. So we put together a band, that was the last one with Rob Norris, the drummer who’s name I can’t remember” Doug Yule, Perfect Sounds Forever 1995

Like his behaviour with skimming Yule’s publishing advance, it seems the tour was little more than a cash grab by Sesnick for the up-front money that promoters would pay. In blunt terms the Velvet Underground had been asset stripped.

“We went over there and we got into London, with the same people that we had worked with before, and as soon as we walked in (to the airport), there was nobody there to meet us. Sesnick didn’t turn up and we didn’t have any money or any hotel. So we were stranded in the middle of London” Doug Yule, Perfect Sounds Forever 1995

Striking a deal with a promoter for another advance, Yule’s Velvet Underground toured the UK for nine shows in 1972 playing such establishments as St David’s University in Lampeter, Wales and the Northamptonshire County Cricket Club (nothing says big time like County Cricket Club). A show at the Top Rank in Cardiff, Wales was featured on the same newspaper advert as a Lou Reed show.  This proved not to be the only notable thing about the gig in Wales;

“We had one really rough time in Cardiff.  The club was supposed to pay us cash up front and they didn’t, and our road manager said, ‘Well, then they’re not going to play.’ We were in the dressing room and this real sleazy, low-brow guy with the club went on-stage and got these skinhead types all revved up, like ‘Well, they’re here but our money’s not good enough for them.’ They came after us and tried to bang down the door. It was George Kay who said, ‘Shit-ass punks aren’t gonna bother us, we’re gonna go out that door, we’re gonna get in the car and get out of here, and they’re not even gonna touch us”. We formed a ‘V’ with the guitar cases, burst the door down and moved through the crowd, and they didn’t bother us. But I was fearing for my life.” – Rob Norris Mojo, Feb 2000

(From Lou to the VU – Top Rank Cardiff show)

Trouble aside, this even more diluted line up of the Velvet Underground, who still weren’t seen as anything other than legitimate. Once again, the public wanted a Velvet Underground and they got one. Although it must have been quite jarring to find a Velvet Undergroud show advertised on the same page as a Lou Reed show in the Melody Maker, November 4, 1972

“I don’t know why people didn’t go ‘Where’s Lou’ or ‘Where’s Cale’ or ‘What is this’ but they didn’t. The shows were good” Rob Norris, Mojo Feb 2000

Although in more recent times, Doug Yule has been slightly more critical of his actions. Perhaps as his stock has increased with the fans, he’s allowed himself some realignment.

“The band (of 1972) was literally assembled in an afternoon. It was available. That’s one I consider a cash-in trip.” Doug Yule. Mojo, Feb 2000 

In 1973 Doug, George Kay, Billy Yule and a guitarist called Don Silverman found themselves playing around the New England area as The Velvet Underground. There’s an oft told tale that they were supposed to be billed as Doug Yule from The Velvet Underground but promoters would shorten the name. Sounds plausible but it’s interesting that in the recorded show that survives from Oliver’s Venue in Boston, Doug doesn’t correct the billing mistake from the stage.

The semi legal boxset ‘The Final VU’ documents the line ups of the band from 1971 until 1973. It shows several decent bands and when the Velvet Underground may have become had the Squeeze album been a success.

Thanks to Lou Reed’s success in the early 1970s, the Velvet Underground gained interest from a larger market. While Reed’s live versions of Velvet songs from Rock and Roll Animal and Lou Reed live are credited with bringing VU songs to a wider audience, it’s the success of Transformer that can be classed as the Year Zero of the re-appraisal of the Velvet Underground. Reed’s success also contributed to mythos of the Squeeze era band being a ‘rip off’

“From what I understand Lou Reed was not real happy about this because he was over there and we were kinda following in his footsteps. He was doing the Transformer tour, and I think he thought what we were doing was pretty much a bunch of bullshit. Which I think was kind of accurate from his perspective.”Rob Norris, Mojo Feb 2000

The point is, had Reed not become a massive 1970s star, the Velvet Underground would be loved today by about the same amount of people who loved them in 1970. Absolutely no one would care that Doug Yule toured with multiple musicians and recorded a solo record under their name. In fact, the fans of the VU would point to Fairport Convention, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Deep Purple, The Byrds and many others and say ‘Yup, that’s what bands did back then’

‘We toured all over England, played also in France, and places like that – and nobody ever said ‘hey, where’s everyone else? There was no complaining from anybody on the road, that this was not the real Velvet Underground. When we finished, we all counted ourselves lucky and went home. That was the last thing that the Velvet Underground officially did.” Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

Not only did the VU probably invent punk (sorry Stooges, MC5, NY Dolls. But they fucking did), but they were the very first of the bands that annoying hipsters could say ‘I liked them before they were cool’.

So, I put it to you had Squeeze been a success and Transformer not so much, then we would view Lou Reed the same way we look at Peter Green or Peter Gabriel.  Doug Yule is the Buckingham / Nicks line-up of the Velvet Underground that never quite happened.

Ron Norris’ account of his VU life can be found here https://planetwaves.net/pdf/velveteen-norris.pdf It sometimes contradicts the stories that have come out since but it is an interesting footnote of history.

 

STEVE McLEAN

A guest posting by Swc

The second most influential band ever. A Velvet Underground ICA

As the long summer of 1991 faded to a rather limp end, the long lost Medway band, the Sexbirds clambered on to the small stage in the back room of Churchills Pub in Chatham. If they were disappointed by the small crowd they didn’t let it show, but as there was only three people there, they kind of had to have hoped for more. Still, they played a tight four song set full of post punk energy and displayed enough rock n roll attitude to impress the grumpy looking barman who literally served more pints than there were people. In that crowd, a devilishly good looking young chap stood alone from the other two people in the crowd, largely because he didn’t know them and standing with them in an empty room would have been weird.

But as the feedback influenced third song came to an end, the taller of the two other people wandered over to the devilishly good looking chap and said “Can you play guitar?” the good looking chap nodded even though he couldn’t play guitar, well not really. He’d had four lessons. “Good”, said the taller man, “let’s form a band, because if that lot can do it..” he hoisted a thumb at the stage, “anyone can…”.

Folks, only three people saw the Sexbirds live, but all three of them formed a band because of it and that in my eyes makes them most influential band in the history of rock music.

The distinct lack of available Sexbirds material makes an ICA on rocks most influential band impossible. So, here instead is an ICA on rocks second most influential band, The Velvet Underground (it will be debut album heavy, obviously)

The Velvet Underground are apparently one of those bands that you either get or you don’t. You either accept that they invented everything, literally everything, including the wheel, fire, glass, cigarettes and rock music, or you don’t. When I first heard the Velvet Underground, which was as a naïve seventeen-year-old in the bedroom of a much older woman* I didn’t get them. Then two years later as a student, I suddenly did.

Side One

Sunday Morning – The first Velvet Underground song I ever heard and it was this with its music box intro that confused me. In 1992, I thought this sounded dull but two years later that music box intro sounds beautiful and the way that Lou Reed’s guitar sounds all countrified (thanks to him loosening the strings) gives it a rather luminous glow of strangeness and uniqueness.

Pale Blue Eyes – ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ is rather confusingly a love song about a girl that Lou Reed used to date who had hazel coloured eyes. It is one of the most tender song that the band ever recorded and its rather wonderful because of it. It is taken from the third Velvet Underground record, which of all the Velvet Underground records it’s the one I play the least, but ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ is the stand-out track from it.

Venus In Furs – ‘Venus In Furs’ isn’t just a blend of hypnotic drone rock, sound textures and atmospheric brilliance. It’s a blend of hypnotic drone rock, sound textures and atmospheric brilliance that is also about sado masochism that was written in about 1965. That, folks, is why the Velvet Underground matter.

Rock N Roll (Full Length Version) – By the time the band reached album four, John Cale had of course departed to make some introrespective and abstract noises with his electric viola. Mo Tucker had also momentarily left as well so that she could have a baby. This left Lou Reed to stretch out and pretty much do what he wanted, and Lou Reed wanted to make a pop record. Albeit a pop record laced with the odd voyage into proto punk rock.

Run, Run, Run – According to legend, Lou Reed wrote this song on the back of an envelope whilst he and the rest of the band were on their way to a gig. If true, ‘Run, Run, Run’ is the greatest thing ever to be written on the back of an envelope and until -someone comes up with the secret of immortality and pops it down on the back of a gas bill – it always will be.

Side Two

What Goes On – ‘What Goes On’ was the only track to be released as a single from the band’s third album. Twelve years or so later, Talking Heads would borrow the organ riff and use it as the backdrop for ‘Once In A Lifetime’. That, folks, is another reason why the Velvet Underground matter, their influence and sound and organ riffs shaped so much of the music that we all loved as we grew up.

Sweet Jane (Full Length Version) – There are two tracks on ‘Loaded’ that sound like they could have featured on the debut Velvet Underground record. ‘Rock N Roll’ was one, ‘Sweet Jane’ is the other, and it fizzes with pure energy.

The Black Angel’s Death Song – ‘The Black Angel’s Death Song’ is extraordinarily good. The way that John Cale’s electric viola squeaks and scraps like someone dragging their fingernails over a chalkboard, the way Lou Reed’s vocals are kind of all over the place, its unsettling and ace at the same time.

White Light/White Heat – Just realised that I’ve almost reached the end and not once mentioned drugs. Well, let’s sort that now shall we. ‘White Light/White Heat’ is the greatest song ever written about the sensation that you get by injecting methamphetamine, and I’ll add for good measure it has the greatest ending to a track ever as John Cale’s distorted single chord bass goes batshit crazy.

Heroin – I’ll end with my favourite Velvets song. It needs little introduction but it’s insanely good. It’s insanely good because of the way that it all speeds up, and because of the way that Mo Tucker is drumming so fast that she has to stop drumming because she can’t keep up the rhythm that she started and it’s insanely good because literally no one notices, and she just joins back in amongst the squall of guitars and the screech of, well everything. Incredible.

* There were seven other people in that room at the time, and we’d just finished playing Monopoly, but it doesn’t sound as cool if I tell you that.

Thanks for reading, folks.

 

Swc

Here’s Drew back on 15 May 2017 with something from ICA #123:-

“Rock & Roll

Rock & Roll recounts the story of Jenny whose life was saved by Rock & Roll. I read in notes to Peel Slowly and See that the song was about Reed himself, who wasn’t interested in anything until he heard rock and roll. “If I hadn’t heard rock and roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet”

It comes from the band’s final album, Loaded recorded for Atlantic. The band were on the point of implosion at this point but could still produce an LP “loaded” with hits or so Reed thought, and it is definitely the most commercial of their releases.”

Rock & Roll was released on a 45 by Atlantic in Germany and the UK back in 1973.  The picture sleeve used to illustrate this post is taken from one of the German releases as the UK single came housed in a plain sleeve.  You’ll have noticed that I said was ‘released on a 45, words chosen deliberately as it was actually the b-side.  It was also the first ever release attributed to more than just the band:-

mp3: The Velvet Underground featuring Lou Reed – Sweet Jane
mp3: The Velvet Underground featuring Lou Reed – Rock & Roll

It was, of course, a cash-in attempt, coming on the back of Walk On The Wild Side being a solo hit for Lou Reed in 1972 but it proved to be a flop, with Radio 1 not the slightest bit interested in playing it.

JC

Recorded in November 1966, and issued as a single on Verve Records in the USA the following month.  It’s b-side was Femme Fatale.

Nobody really paid that much attention to it.  It’s a different story nowadays, with a copy of this particular artefact certain to fetch any would-be seller a handsome sum, especially given the continued mania around vinyl.

As wiki explains:-

In late 1966, “Sunday Morning” was the final song to be recorded for The Velvet Underground & Nico. It was requested by Tom Wilson, who thought the album needed another song with lead vocals by Nico with the potential to be a successful single. The final master tape of side one of the album shows “Sunday Morning” only penciled in before “I’m Waiting for the Man”.

In November 1966, Wilson brought the band into Mayfair Recording Studios in Manhattan. The song was written with Nico’s voice in mind by Lou Reed and John Cale on a Sunday morning. The band previously performed it live with Nico singing lead, but when it came time to record it, Lou Reed sang the lead vocal. Nico would instead sing backing vocals on the song.

A look at Discogs will reveal that just three copies have changed hands via that particular market since 2018, but the prices paid reflect the situation I referred to above:-

September 2018: £730
August 2019 : £866.66
March 2021 : £1717.65

And no, I wasn’t a buyer…..as I’ve said before, I was late to the Velvet Underground.

The single was released in mono. As it turns out, the 2002 reissue of the banana album provided two CDs, one with a stereo remaster and one with the original mono version, with the bonus of the mono singles tacked on at the end. So, if you want a listen to what almost two grand gets you these days:-

mp3: The Velvet Underground & Nico – Sunday Morning
mp3: The Velvet Underground & Nico – Femme Fatale

No need to thank me (insert winking emoji).  It all part of the villainous service offered round these parts.

JC

A GUEST CONTRIBUTION by JACQUES THE KIPPER

I feel this cautionary tale is particularly appropriate as we hit the festive period.

mp3 : The Velvet Underground – The Gift

JTK

Waldo Jeffers had reached his limit. It was now mid-August which meant he had been separated from Marsha for more than two months. Two months, and all he had to show were three dog-eared letters and two very expensive long-distance phone calls. True, when school had ended and she’d returned to Wisconsin, and he to Locust, Pennsylvania, she had sworn to maintain a certain fidelity. She would date occasionally, but merely as amusement. She would remain faithful.

But lately Waldo had begun to worry. He’d had trouble sleeping at nights and when he did, he had horrible dreams. He lay awake at night, tossing and turning underneath his pleated quilt protector, tears welling in his eyes as he pictured Marsha, her sworn vows overcome by liquor and the smooth soothings of some neanderthal, finally submitting to the final caresses of sexual oblivion.

It was more than the human mind could bear.

Visions of Marsha’s faithlessness haunted him. Daytime fantasies of sexual abandon permeated his thoughts. And the thing was, they wouldn’t understand how she really was. He, Waldo, alone understood this. He had intuitively grasped every nook and cranny of her psyche. He had made her smile. She needed him, and he wasn’t there (Awww…).

The idea came to him on the Thursday before the Mummers’ Parade was scheduled to appear. He’d just finished mowing and etching the Edelson’s lawn for a dollar fifty and had checked the mailbox to see if there was at least a word from Marsha. There was nothing but a circular from the Amalgamated Aluminum Company of America inquiring into his awning needs. At least they cared enough to write.

It was a New York company. You could go anywhere in the mails. Then it struck him. He didn’t have enough money to go to Wisconsin in the accepted fashion, true, but why not mail himself? It was absurdly simple. He would ship himself parcel post, special delivery. The next day Waldo went to the supermarket to purchase the necessary equipment. He bought masking tape, a staple gun and a medium sized cardboard box just right for a person of his build. He judged that with a minimum of jostling he could ride quite comfortably. A few airholes, some water, perhaps some midnight snacks, and it would probably be as good as going tourist.

By Friday afternoon, Waldo was set. He was thoroughly packed and the post office had agreed to pick him up at three o’clock. He’d marked the package “Fragile”, and as he sat curled up inside, resting on the foam rubber cushioning he’d thoughtfully included, he tried to picture the look of awe and happiness on Marsha’s face as she opened her door, saw the package, tipped the deliverer, and then opened it to see her Waldo finally there in person. She would kiss him, and then maybe they could see a movie. If he’d only thought of this before. Suddenly rough hands gripped his package and he felt himself borne up. He landed with a thud in a truck and was off.

Marsha Bronson had just finished setting her hair. It had been a very rough weekend. She had to remember not to drink like that. Bill had been nice about it though. After it was over he’d said he still respected her and, after all, it was certainly the way of nature, and even though, no he didn’t love her, he did feel an affection for her. And after all, they were grown adults. Oh, what Bill could teach Waldo – but that seemed many years ago.

Sheila Klein, her very, very best friend, walked in through the porch screen door and into the kitchen. “Oh god, it’s absolutely maudlin outside.” “Ach, I know what you mean, I feel all icky!” Marsha tightened the belt on her cotton robe with the silk outer edge. Sheila ran her finger over some salt grains on the kitchen table, licked her finger and made a face. “I’m supposed to be taking these salt pills, but…” she wrinkled her nose, “they make me feel like throwing up.” Marsha started to pat herself under the chin, an exercise she’d seen on television. “God, don’t even talk about that.” She got up from the table and went to the sink where she picked up a bottle of pink and blue vitamins. “Want one? Supposed to be better than steak,” and then attempted to touch her knees. “I don’t think I’ll ever touch a daiquiri again.”

She gave up and sat down, this time nearer the small table that supported the telephone. “Maybe Bill’ll call, ” she said to Sheila’s glance. Sheila nibbled on a cuticle. “After last night, I thought maybe you’d be through with him.” “I know what you mean. My God, he was like an octopus. Hands all over the place.” She gestured, raising her arms upwards in defence. “The thing is, after a while, you get tired of fighting with him, you know, and after all I didn’t really do anything Friday and Saturday so I kind of owed it to him. You know what I mean.” She started to scratch. Sheila was giggling with her hand over her mouth. “I tell you, I felt the same way, and even after a while, ” here she bent forward in a whisper, “I wanted to!” Now she was laughing very loudly.

It was at this point that Mr Jameson of the Clarence Darrow Post Office rang the doorbell of the large stucco coloured frame house. When Marsha Bronson opened the door, he helped her carry the package in. He had his yellow and his green slips of paper signed and left with a fifteen cent tip that Marsha had gotten out of her mother’s small beige pocketbook in the den. “What do you think it is?” Sheila asked. Marsha stood with her arms folded behind her back. She stared at the brown cardboard carton that sat in the middle of the living room. “I dunno.”

Inside the package, Waldo quivered with excitement as he listened to the muffled voices. Sheila ran her fingernail over the masking tape that ran down the centre of the carton. “Why don’t you look at the return address and see who it’s from?” Waldo felt his heart beating. He could feel the vibrating footsteps. It would be soon.

Marsha walked around the carton and read the ink-scratched label. “Ah, god, it’s from Waldo!” “That schmuck!” said Sheila. Waldo trembled with expectation. “Well, you might as well open it, ” said Sheila. And both of them tried to lift the stapled flap. “Ah sst, ” said Marsha, groaning, “he must have nailed it shut.” They tugged on the flap again. “My God, you need a power drill to get this thing open!” They pulled again. “You can’t get a grip.” They both stood still, breathing heavily.

“Why don’t you get a scissor?” said Sheila. Marsha ran into the kitchen, but all she could find was a little sewing scissor. Then she remembered that her father kept a collection of tools in the basement. She ran downstairs, and when she came back up, she had a large sheet metal cutter in her hand. “This is the best I could find.” She was very out of breath. “Here, you do it. I think I’m gonna die.” She sank into a large fluffy couch and exhaled noisily. Sheila tried to make a slit between the masking tape and the end of the cardboard flap, but the blade was too big and there wasn’t enough room. “God damn this thing!” she said, feeling very exasperated. Then smiling,
“I got an idea.” “What?” said Marsha. “Just watch,” said Sheila, touching her finger to her head.

Inside the package, Waldo was so transfixed with excitement that he could barely breathe. His skin felt prickly from the heat, and he could feel his heart beating in his throat. It would be soon. Sheila stood quite upright and walked around to the other side of the package. Then she sank down to her knees, grasped the cutter by both handles, took a deep breath, and plunged the long blade through the middle of the package, through the masking tape, through the cardboard, through the cushioning and (thud) right through the centre of Waldo Jeffers head, which split slightly and caused little rhythmic arcs of red to pulsate gently in the morning sun.

A GUEST POSTING FROM DREW (ACROSS THE KITCHEN TABLE)

“Modern music begins with the Velvets, and the implications and influence of what they did seem to go on forever” – Lester Bangs

My love of the Velvet Underground stems back to 1985 when I sought them out after the comparisons made with my then favourite new band The Jesus and Mary Chain in all the articles that I devoured regarding the misfits from EK. Up until I heard Upside Down I was a rather confused hippy/punk who also had a thing for the girl groups of the 1960s which I kept to myself, the pelters for wearing a Italian Army Field Jacket with the Steppenwolf wolf’s head painted on the back of it, Ozzy Osborne fringes sewn on the sleeves and Crass & Clash badges on the breast pockets and shod in moccasins was enough ammunition for the “cool crowd” without also divulging a love for Be My Baby.

Anyway it all changed late 1984 early 1985 with the Reid Brothers; I was intrigued by the Velvet Underground. I had of course heard Walk on the Wild Side and Transformer but not The Velvet Underground and Nico or to my knowledge anything else by the band. I eventually sourced a copy of the first album from a pal, Gregor’s older brother who was friends with a guy who was friends with a Soup Dragon and a sometime member of the BMX Bandits and who would give me my first taste of garage/psych in the form of a C90 a little later.

The Banana album was a revelation. I could not believe that this album was from the same period as Forever Changes, Are You Experienced and other records the hippy types had introduced me to. The edginess of Waiting For My Man to the nearly toothache sweetness of Sunday Morning to the strange cold out of tune vocals of Nico on All Tomorrow’s Parties (“like an IBM computer with a German accent” is how Andy Warhol described it), which I realised I knew from Japan’s cover, instantly won me over. I loved everything about this band; they were cool and sounded so different from anything else. I searched for a copy of the vinyl but none of the shops I frequented stocked it. A few months later it would come into my possession along with the follow up, White Light White Heat when a friend came back from his annual trip to Florida with both and after playing once decided he didn’t like them and swapped them with me for what I have no recollection of but at that point I would have most probably given him anything apart from my Clash, SLF or Motorhead albums none of which would have interested him anyway.

From that moment on I collected as much Velvet Underground as I could. By the end of 1985 I had all 4 studio albums. The following year I added Live 1969 and VU and then Another View and after that Live at Max’s Kansas City and I have been adding bootlegs, Anniversary reissues and a singles box set, so now there isn’t much left that I still want. The original singles would be nice but out of reach price wise.

Compiling this ICA has been a near impossible task. There may only have been four original albums but nearly ever track could be included in a Best Of along with about half of the two post split studio outtakes that were found languishing in the vaults before their release in the mid 80s. Or I could have just have had the 36 mins 54 second version of Sister Ray from the Complete Matrix Tapes cd box set. I was surprised when I came up with the final ten that there are only three songs from the first two albums, the ones that when I was younger I considered to be the real Velvet Underground albums. Also there is nothing from what for me is the best overall album, The Velvet Underground which is very strange, however when I realised this and looked to see what I would take out for What Goes On, Pale Blue Eyes or I’m Set Free I just couldn’t drop any of them. I know that once this is posted I will look at it and realise I have made a huge mistake but right now, at this very moment these are my favourite Velvet Underground tracks.

Side One

1. Run Run Run taken from The Velvet Underground & Nico

When I first heard this I was first gripped by the train like beat and then the shriek of feedback but not like the controlled feedback I was used to from listening to Hendrix, this was more like a mistake that was just left in. Similarly the guitar solos if that’s what they are, are about as rudimentary as they could be but no less effective than the more virtuoso solos by other guitarists at the time.

2. I’m Waiting For The Man taken from The Velvet Underground & Nico

Two in a row from the debut album, I know but this really did need to follow Run Run Run. Again it’s the throbbing beat that pulled me in, then those laid back vocal about going to score gear. I’m pretty sure that this song if heard more widely would have caused a stir at the time with its overt drug procuring lyrics.

3. Sweet Jane taken from Loaded

This was a difficult choice as most of the time I listen to the live versions I have of this, all from prior to the release of the fourth album when the song was still a work in progress and doesn’t have that little intro, is a bit more laid back with different verses. One of the Velvet’s best known songs due to the cover versions by the likes of Cowboy Junkies, Reed himself, Mott The Hoople and my favourite the live version by Lone Justice captured on the BBC Live In Concert cd.

4. Foggy Notion taken from VU

This is one of two of my favourite Velvet’s tracks which were never released when the band were going. It was recorded during the sessions for the “lost” 4th MGM/Verve album on 6th May 1969. The band were purged from the MGM roster by the new management at the label who wanted to offload the non profit making bands, of which the Velvets must have been near if not top of the pile. The tapes of these sessions were found when clearing out the vaults in 1984, mixed and released as VU the following year to huge critical acclaim and lot’s of “what if’s”, could these sessions have produced the album that finally break the band into the mainstream? As the songs from these sessions are the most accessible tunes that they did, certainly up until this point, as evidenced by Foggy Notion, what a groove!

5. Lisa Says (Live) taken from The Complete Matrix Tapes.

One of the great things about Lou Reed’s songs is that a lot of them mention people by name; Lisa, Stephanie, Candy and loads of others, some members of Warhol’s Factory which makes the lyrics feel more real, to me anyway. The studio version of this song is also included on the VU album. This take comes from the Matrix Tapes and is double the length. I first heard this on the Live 1969 album, an inferior quality recording of the Matrix tapes songs and Lisa Says is most probably my favourite Velvets song.

Side Two

1. The Booker T taken from Peel Slowly and See.

Technically this isn’t a song but a jam that the band used to play in 1967 and was never recorded in the studio sadly, so we only have this one 7/10 quality wise version that was bootlegged and then officially released on the comprehensive 5cd career round up in 1995, Peel Slowly and See. Now you are probably thinking that I am being wilfully obscure and wanky including this but I do love this tune. I can listen to it on repeat over and over. I found out that it was released on a bootleg 7” which of course I had to hunt down and was more than a little disappointed when I eventually got a copy to find that it wasn’t this at all but the instrumental part to The Gift from White Light White Heat which this jam evolved into. Don’t get me wrong it’s good just not this good.

2. I Can’t Stand It taken from VU

Another tune from the unreleased sessions for the “lost album”. This is another track that sounds effortlessly cool, that nagging riff, pounding drums and Reed’s drawl. Just about perfect.

3. Rock n Roll taken from Loaded

Rock n Roll recounts the story of Jenny whose life was saved by Rock & Roll. I read in notes to Peel Slowly and See that the song was about Reed himself, who wasn’t interested in anything until he heard rock and roll. “If I hadn’t heard rock and roll on the radio, I would have had no idea there was life on this planet” It comes from the band’s final album, Loaded recorded for Atlantic. The band were on the point of implosion at this point but could still produce an LP “loaded” with hits or so Reed thought and it is definitely the most commercial of their releases.

4. White Light /White Heat taken from White Light/White Heat

My only pick from the band’s second album and final one with John Cale. This is probably the other song that those unfamiliar with the band will know due to Bowie covering it. The song describes how it feels to mainline methamphetimine. The bass solo at the end is Cale’s attempt to convey the throbbing ear-ringing that occurs when on the drug. Not something I have ever been interested in finding out if I’m honest. There is a 100 mile an hour nine and a half minute version of this on the Matrix Tapes which is pretty damned amazing.

5. I Found A Reason taken from Loaded

We finish off with the quite beautiful I Found A Reason where Reed goes back to his song writing roots with a lovely doo-wop melody. I have always wished that Aretha Franklin or Ruby Andrews had covered this song as I think that a strong female soul voice could really do the song justice.

I know that loads of you will disagree with some if not most of my choices probably the omission of Heroin and Pale Blue Eyes to mention just two. And of course the elephant in the room is the missing Sister Ray which I would have had to sacrifice three or four songs to include. So as a bonus here is the version from White Light/White Heat which is one of the shorter versions of the song I have. (JC adds….it’s still 17 and a half minutes long!!)

mp3 : The Velvet Underground – Sister Ray

As I mentioned before if you haven’t heard it before you should seek out the 37 minute version from the Complete Matrix Tapes, it is epic in all respects. In fact just purchase the Matrix Tapes box-set, it’s worth every penny to hear the Velvet Underground when they were at their absolute peak as a live entity and in better quality than any other concert recording of the band.

DREW

I found another selection of what I had previously thought were lost postings from the old blog the other day. They were from the month of April 2011….a time when I needed to take a break from blogging but the wonderful Ctel, along with many other incredible friends from the blogosphere, stepped in and kept things going. I think its a series of postings I will return to at some point, but in the meantime, here’s an adaptation of something I wrote on 1 April 2011. And not as a joke either.

———–

Strange as it may seem, I wasn’t a fan of The Velvet Underground back in the 80s even though I knew that so much of their sound influenced many of my favourite bands; indeed most of said bands were not slow in putting out cover versions of VU songs.

This attitude was all because of my unwritten rule of thumb that I wasn’t all that interested in listening to old bands, especially those from the generation before mine. It’s also why I don’t ‘get’ The Beatles or Elvis Presley – I’ve never really given them a try. And being a totally inconsistent sod, I shouldn’t have ever given a chance to The Kinks or Johnny Cash – but I did and loved them.

But I was stubborn about VU for decades. Until last year (2010) when I spent all of £3 on a greatest hits CD compilation, I owned nothing of theirs.  Having given the CD a few listens I’m now willing to admit that some of their songs are pretty decent, including this handful:-

mp3 : The Velvet Underground – I’m Waiting For The Man
mp3 : The Velvet Underground – Pale Blue Eyes
mp3 : The Velvet Underground – Rock ‘n’ Roll
mp3 : The Velvet Underground – Sweet Jane
mp3 : The Velvet Underground – Venus In Furs

The 1967 debut LP Velvet Underground & Nico is the original home of both I’m Waiting For The Man and Venus In Furs. I first heard the former as a cover recorded by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark as the b-side to their 1980 single Messages. I liked the cover enough to seek out a mate who had VU records to shove the original on a tape for me. I wasn’t moved enough at the time to fall in love with the song…..but at the same time I didn’t have a real dislike of it. It just sounded a bit dated and one-paced. It was only maybe 5 years later when I started really listening to Jonathan Richman that I realised that the sound, far from being dated was in fact timeless and still worth a listen. But I still didn’t buy any of their releases.

Venus In Furs is another track folk tried to get me to listen to when I was a lot younger. It didn’t do anything for me. But now that my listening tastes have matured, I can see that this is a hugely significant piece of music that has influenced so many, not least Tindersticks, a band I championed many a time over on the old blog.

From the 1969 LP The Velvet Underground there can be no surprise that Pale Blue Eyes gets featured as one of my five songs by the VU  given my love of the cover recorded by Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins. A cover that in my humble opinion is way superior to the original…..

Finally, from the 1970 release Loaded, you will find the tracks Rock’n’Roll and Sweet Jane.

The former is one that I have only recently fallen for. I didn’t know it at all until I picked up the compilation CD…well that is not technically true as I had heard it a few times over the years at various indie-disco or club nights…..but it sort of washed over me.  But hearing it loud on the headphones while sitting on the beach under gloriously clear blue skies changed everything.  Shake your thang hispsters…..and play that air guitar solo!! The latter has an appalling first 17 seconds…..just ignore it and listen to Lou Reed telling you he’s standing on the corner with his suitcase in his hand…….and then take in the remaining near four minutes and accept that it is a wonderful song that I’m ashamed took me far too long to appreciate.

But despite all that I’ve said above in praise of these five songs there’s still too many of the VU songs, certainly on the Very Best Of….CD that still don’t do it for me. But c’mon, I have softened my attitude in recent years and am prepared to acknowledge they deserve their place in the list of important bands that have recorded popular music.

Enjoy.