The Velvet Underground Matrix tapes to finally see full release

And here we go

Velvet Underground, The Matrix Tapes
CD1 – Set One:
01 I’m Waiting For The Man (Version 1) (14:06)
02 What Goes On (Version 1) (8:58)
03 Some Kinda Love (Version 1) (4:59)
04 Heroin (Version 1) (8:13)
05 The Black Angel’s Death Song (6:20)
06 Venus In Furs (Version 1) (4:38)
07 There She Goes Again (Version 1) (3:08)
08 We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 1) (3:16)
09 Over You (Version 1) (2:24)
10 Sweet Jane (Version 1) (5:12)
11 Pale Blue Eyes (6:08)
12 After Hours (Version 1) (2:58)

CD2 – Set Two:
01 I’m Waiting For The Man (Version 2)
02 Venus In Furs (Version 2) (5:16)
03 I Can’t Stand It (Version 1) (7:54)
04 There She Goes Again (Version 2) (2:54)
05 Some Kinda Love (Version 2) (4:12)
06 Over You (Version 2) (3:07)
07 After Hours (Version 2) (2:37)
08 We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 2) (3:42)
09 Sweet Bonnie Brown/Too Much (7:54)
10 Heroin (Version 2) (10:08)
11 White Light/White Heat (Version 1) (9:30)
12 I’m Set Free (4.48)

CD3 – Set Three:
01 We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 3) (3:18)
02 Some Kinda Love (Version 3) (4:40)
03 There She Goes Again (Version 3) (3:02)
04 Heroin (Version 3) (8:34)
05 Ocean (11:03)
06 Sister Ray (37.08)

CD4 – Set Four
01 I’m Waiting For The Man (Version 3) (5:31)
02 What Goes On (Version 2) (4:34)
03 Some Kinda Love (Version 4) (4:46)
04 We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 4) (3:26)
05 Beginning To See The Light (5:42)
06 Lisa Says (6:05)
07 New Age (6:41)
08 Rock And Roll (6.58)
09 I Can’t Stand It (Version 2) (6:54)
10 Heroin (Version 4) (8:18)
11 White Light /White Heat (Version 2) (8:45)
12 Sweet Jane (Version 2) (4:20)

gah

even if the arranged-by-live-set structure makes it more intuitive than with a Complete Recording Sessions box, it's refreshing to see a box where the different Versions of songs are on different discs, when so many boxes but multiple takes of the same song back-to-back

put multiple takes

hell yeah

even if the arranged-by-live-set structure makes it more intuitive than with a Complete Recording Sessions box, it's refreshing to see a box where the different Versions of songs are on different discs, when so many boxes but multiple takes of the same song back-to-back

At laaaaaaast

Yessssss!

YESSSS!!!

Y

Sweet.

AWESOME

I'm ready to settle back and pull up my cushion.

i might have to leave a little early, i have college in the morning

http://www.matrixfillmore.com/

Wonder if they ever will officially release the cole avenue stuff (from whence lou's famed football monologue comes) or if it'll just stay in bootleg land.

Excerpts from the End of Cole recordings will make up two discs of the upcoming 6-disc Squeeze box set.

A year later, they'll release a Complete End of Cole Recordings box.

Isn't the footlogue on the Mercury 2lp, or is there more than one?

Yes it is, but as Lou talks about "your Cowboys", it's case closed on it being recorded in Dallas.

Yeah there are a handful of tracks from cole ave on live 69. Definitely worthy of its own release considering the dearth of pro recorded VU.

http://howafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2078227_Champagne-Celebration-Celebrate-700x450.jpg

Didn't actually realize there were two matrix sweet Janes -- will be interesting to see how much of it was off the top of Lou's head.

And it's being released on my 50th birthday too!

kinda amazed that amazon listing turned out to be legit

Has anyone else gotten word of it besides the metro times piece?

... uhhhhhhh, don't do this to me

Ha well the track list seems legit

Excerpts from the End of Cole recordings will make up two discs of the upcoming 6-disc Squeeze box set.

IIRC a European label (maybe Captain Trip?) did, in fact, release a box set of live recordings from the post-Reed year when Yule was leading the band. no, I didn't buy it.

Yeah Final VU. It's ok but goes w/o saying it is for completists.

I got one.

It's ummm....

Well, they clearly had a good time (together).

Funny how Doug sings none of the Velvets songs he sang on-record, but lots of Lou-sung ones. Obviously, who else etc..

is moe tucker on any of those live recordings or is it doug yule + UK randoms?

Yeah moe and Doug are on all of it. Willie Alexander and ... I forget who else ...

...yoko ono, sid vicious, that guy who won a reality show to be the lead singer of boston...

Walter Powers?

Yes! Anyhoo kind of a benign country rock velvet underground cover band.

I remember Yule telling a story about when the Reed-less Velvets had just played a show in NYC, and David Bowie comes up to Yule afterwards and starts talking his ear off. After about five minutes Yule realizes, ah, this guy thinks I'm Lou.

http://i.imgur.com/K3WwrVe.jpg

http://media1.fdncms.com/metrotimes/imager/u/original/2367782/matr.png

In the tradition of the Peel Slowly and See box, this box should be called For Immediate Release, If Not Sooner...

"I've got my own album to do"-worthy.

412 Broadway was post-'73... (later The Stone). See my link upthread for the true Matrix location.

Moe is on the first two discs of the "Final VU", and the last four tracks on disc4 which were radio-broadcast.

The very last gig wasn't meant to be billed as the VU at the time, according to the booklet.

I wonder what the odds are that Mo and Doug are seeing any money from all these ridic reissues

think they're good ... doug said in a recent interview that there is a VU "group" that handles things and gets royalties where they're due. not that either of them are getting rich, i'm sure, but they get checks.

and hey we have cover art
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/A1Msv2Zh1NL._SL1500_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/810HMWgsJxL._SL1500_.jpg
it's real!

at last Danny Cox achieves immortality

Be still my beating heart etc

looks like basically the same packaging style as the quine tapes?

Not quite as good... fuck it though, it could come wrapped in toilet paper and I wouldn't care.

One month to go.

I'm not a young man anymore.

Annnnd fuller details

http://www.velvetundergroundmusic.com/the-complete-matrix-tapes-to-be-released-november-20th/

ha, finally...
pretty crazy that (apparently) that first "waiting for the man" is the same lonnnnnng one from the quine tapes! will be so great to hear that in perfect quality.

is there a really long german word that describes the mixed feelings one feels when learning that david fricke has written the liner notes?

A handful of these were also previously released as bonus tracks on the original 2-volume CD issue of Live 1969 (the shorter "What Goes On," for one).

schadenfricken

xp

xp frickenzfraude is the word you're looking for, karl. kind of feel like the guy has written enough VU liner notes for one lifetime. give someone else a chance, dave!

weird that the tracklisting claims that one of the "waiting for the man"s was previously released on live 1969, which I don't think is true -- the one on Live 69 is definitely the one that opens the end of cole avenue bootleg (recorded in dallas).

xp Yeah, that packaging looks kind of basic? I'd be much more likely to shell out for this thing if it was a bit more deluxe. I'm a sucker for facsimile handbills, art prints, that kind of thing.

xp kinda depressing that they can't get things like that right after 45 years

yeah that long slow "Waiting" is the best

schadenfricken

xp

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat)

xp frickenzfraude is the word you're looking for, karl.

― tylerw

in the interest of compromise, let's go with...frickenzfricken

really, really excited to hear these

exactly. who cares what the packaging is like

i mean the sister ray alone is godhead

yeah, i mean any complaints aside, this is my favorite music ever.

I think it's only the case with one track, but it's nice of them to remind us, "That's right. This will be the THIRD time you've bought this song."

ROCK AND ROLL (6.58) + / ** / ***

fourth! live 69, quine, VU deluxe and now this ... man, that performance is the best though. holy crap.

d'oh, yep, fourth. And yeah, that's one of the highlights of the 1969 stuff, easily. And there's a whole other song lurking in that high-register riff at the end!

And if the sound on the VU deluxe is anything to go by, this should be a pretty wonderful experience.

yeah, even w/ the stuff that already showed up on Live 69, will be great to have them cleaned up from the original tapes... that "ocean"! that "new age"!

aaaaagh that "Ocean" is seriously one of my favorite things in their (or anyone's) oeuvre.

I was hoping there was an even longer "What Goes On" hiding somewhere, because that thing could go on forever.

yeah, seems like the longest it ever got was that hilltop concert ... 11 minutes or so. kind of a mess towards the end, but i love it. speaking of which, here's what i'm listening to this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ukH9mHkfrw

OK y'all are getting me really excited abt this

I kind of want to sell that ridiculous (and now superfluous) 6CD version of the 3rd album that I was suckered into buying :(

That 'groovy' long version of "White Light", I can just see the audience actually dancing in mme.

xpost that was so worth it, if only for the definitive mix of "I can't stand it"

nice 'tube, tylerw! what goes on is my very favorite velvets song.

I kind of want to sell that ridiculous (and now superfluous) 6CD version of the 3rd album that I was suckered into buying :(

― sleeve, Thursday, October 1, 2015 11:11 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, yeah, I had a hunch they'd put out a Matrix box when the 3rd album box came out. And I'm not too keen on the "Did I ever tell you kids about the '60s? Because this is how we used to mix things then!" remixes of the VU songs on that box.

some of the mixes are ok (the aforementioned "i can't stand it"), some are kinda wonky (the "ride into the sun" seems incorporate mistakes that would be better mixed out). but yeah i bought it for the matrix stuff, which is now redundant. at least this matrix set isn't ridiculously overpriced or anything.

It is in the UK.

i usually do not gaf about archival releases, but I'm inordinately psyched about this

Me too
It's like guaranteed good times in a box

From a friend on FB:

Listening to an advance of the upcoming Velvet Underground box set THE COMPLETE MATRIX TAPES; I'm only three tracks in and I'm already sunk deep into VU bliss. This is the best sounding live stuff from the band I've ever heard; great performances and the clarity is delicious.

9 minute version of What Goes On on the first disc is unreal.

can't wait to hear this

this shit better not be limited edition

i don't think it is.
9-minute what goes on is the same performance from Live 1969, right?

That's what I was assuming... re What Goes On

yeah. but lamonti is correct, it is unreal.

Live 1969 version already was, hard to believe it can be improved on.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Hcybitpaowynaaa.jpg

xp this has better sound iirc?

yeah, this'll be from the original tapes, so it'll be cleaned up for sure.

Is clean always better though... ignore me, I'm quibbling.

yeah i don't know! Live 1969 might be my fave album ever, so I'm OK with the sound, imperfect as it is. but i don't mind hearing this newly transferred stuff either.

I don'mind either. That is what is known as understatement.

I used to own the first European CD version of Live 1969 (as two discs) and it sounded fucking terrible, and I'm not any kind of audiophile. I think later issues on CD were better, but I can't believe that this new set won't be a massive improvement, sonically speaking.

yeah the matrix stuff on the 3rd album deluxe sounds fucking fantastic.

Vinyl sounded much better fwiw (xp)

Oh yeah definitely, I also used to own the double vinyl with that terrible airbrush painted cover, sound was fine for listening and dancing to What Goes On - very 'present' in the room feeling - but now that I'm old and don't dance anymore I'm in the mood for a more pristine VU sound.

My vinyl version of Live 1969 was full of surface noise. I recall Femme Fatale being pretty much unlistenable.

Has this hit the streets yet? Kinda hoping that my preorder will arrive before my birthday happens mid-month.

Early CDs of Live 1969 included a few songs sourced from vinyl, for whatever reason.

yeah the matrix stuff on the 3rd album deluxe sounds fucking fantastic.

― tylerw, Wednesday, November 4, 2015 5:07 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is OTM. It's one of the most dramatic remasterings/cleanup jobs I've ever heard.

listening now. pretty awesome stuff, had never heard it before.

06 Sister Ray (37.08)

\m/

where

Here

http://www.avclub.com/article/listen-previously-unreleased-version-velvet-underg-228582?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=Default:1:Default

this is just me being lame, but i reallllly wish places would not call things "previously unreleased" when those things came out over a year ago.

oh right

this came out with the box set didn't it

confused

the whole thing is totally confusing! but actual media outlets should do a tiny bit of factchecking before proclaiming UNRELEASED SISTER RAY.
but that aside, holy shit, this "sister ray" is soooooo good.

i too, am confused. sorry. and to ask maybe a confusing question:

is the 37 minute sister ray in the link the same 37ish version that was on the Quine tapes that came out a long time ago, only with a better quality?

i'm listening to it now and, quality-wise, it's definitely waaaaaaaaaaaay better quality than the Quine tapes. can't wait to hear the rest!!

quality!!!

i too am curious about this

it is the same performance as the quine tapes, but pro recorded. though the quine tapes version is spliced in for about a minute around the 30 minute mark (i guess the matrix engineer was not prepared for a 37 minute sister ray)

haha "tape flip"

this is useful when it comes to what showed up on Live 1969, what showed up on last year's deluxe Velvet Underground set, and what's actually previously unreleased (and also what performances overlap w/ the Quine Tapes)

SET ONE
1. I’M WAITING FOR THE MAN (Version 1) (14:06) ***
2. WHAT GOES ON (Version 1) (8:58) **
3. SOME KINDA LOVE (Version 1) (4:59) *
4. HEROIN (Version 1) (8:13) ***
5. THE BLACK ANGEL’S DEATH SONG (6:20) ***
6. VENUS IN FURS (Version 1) (4:38) +
7. THERE SHE GOES AGAIN (Version 1) (3:08) +
8. WE’RE GONNA HAVE A REAL GOOD TIME TOGETHER (Version 1) (3:16) **
9. OVER YOU (Version 1) (2:24) **
10. SWEET JANE (Version 1) (5:12) *
11. PALE BLUE EYES (6:08) +
12. AFTER HOURS (Version 1) (2:58) +

SET TWO
1. I’M WAITING FOR THE MAN (Version 2) (6:38) **
2. VENUS IN FURS (Version 2) (5:16) ***
3. I CAN’T STAND IT (Version 1) (7:54) **
4. THERE SHE GOES AGAIN (Version 2) (2:54) *
5. SOME KINDA LOVE (Version 2) (4:12) + / **
6. OVER YOU (Version 2) (3:07) +
7. AFTER HOURS (Version 2) (2:37) *
8. WE’RE GONNA HAVE A REAL GOOD TIME TOGETHER (Version 2) (3:42) *
9. SWEET BONNIE BROWN/TOO MUCH (7:54) **
10. HEROIN (Version 2) (10:08) **
11. WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (Version 1) (9:30) ***
12. I’M SET FREE (4.48) +

SET THREE
1. WE’RE GONNA HAVE A REAL GOOD TIME TOGETHER (Version 3) (3:18) *
2. SOME KINDA LOVE (Version 3) (4:40) *
3. THERE SHE GOES AGAIN (Version 3) (3:02) *
4. HEROIN (Version 3) (8:34) **
5. OCEAN (11:03) **
6. SISTER RAY (37.08) + / ***

SET FOUR
1. I’M WAITING FOR THE MAN (Version 3) (5:31) +
2. WHAT GOES ON (Version 2) (4:34) +
3. SOME KINDA LOVE (Version 4) (4:46) *
4. WE’RE GONNA HAVE A REAL GOOD TIME TOGETHER (Version 4) (3:26) +
5. BEGINNING TO SEE THE LIGHT (5:42) + / **
6. LISA SAYS (6:05) + / **
7. NEW AGE (6:41) **
8. ROCK AND ROLL (6.58) + / ** / ***
9. I CAN’T STAND IT (Version 2) (6:54) +
10. HEROIN (Version 4) (8:18) +
11. WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (Version 2) (8:45) + / **
12. SWEET JANE (Version 2) (4:20) + / **

All mixes previously unreleased, except +
+ appears on The Velvet Underground (3rd album) Super Deluxe Edition
* previously unreleased performance
** performance appears on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live
*** performance appears on The Quine Tapes Box Set

awesome! this will likely become my go to live velvets release, then. they're sooooo damn good on the Quine Tapes but the low quality was always a bit of a drag.

yeah it is going to be so nice to just have it all in one place, in proper order, finally.

I wonder how much they ended up paying the source of the tapes...

no idea... i don't really know what people get paid for these kinds of things...
here's a great 1969 Lou interview, which makes a good companion to the Matrix stuff: https://t.co/45CVwqaHgq

Do hope there is still more live stuff to appear. & wish they'd invent the time machine so somebody could go back and present this soundboard guy with some spare tape so he could have kept the lot instead of recording bits over other bits. Do wonder exactly what the criteria for kept versus taped over boiled down to. & if there were any songs a second listen might have been revelatory for.

& hoping that something recorded in a large venue appears.

Roll on somebody finding the Klimek treasure trove.

& hope that somebody remembers where they put the Cale era recordings they totally forgot about for 48 years.

i think the Klimek treasure trove is safely with Klimek ... he just wants it properly released and a bit of money. maybe they'll get the "bootleg series" going again or something.

Thx for the link to that interview, tyler, "I'm Straight" or what?

as we all know, lou was sober for the remainder of his life. only vitamins.

goddamn this is good.
cool to hear this otherwise unreleased "sweet jane" with completely different lyrics...

are there hard edits for all the tracks like on the 3rd LP deluxe set? Any other talking, jokes, monologues? One thing I did not like about those tracks was how separated out and discrete they sounded, missing all the space between the songs.

edits don't seem quite as hard, but it's not uncut -- i think that abrams (the matrix owner who did the taping) may have made his own edits way back when. but there are some good Lou chats intact. i definitely had issues w/ sequencing/editing on the 3rd LP deluxe set.

i'm not sure if it already appeared on a different version, but just before rocknroll (i think) lou mutters some stuff about "imagine 100 guitars doing that" to someone else on stage, barely audible, and you can just imagine a branca or rhys chatham out in the crowd hearing that

haha yeah, totally. i mean, robert quine was present for that comment, and i'd be surprised if he didn't cross paths w/ chatham and branca a few years later in NYC.

it just came out that Lou gets all the royalties for "can i kick it," maybe he gets all the royalties for lesson no. 1 too.

My copy arriving on Thursday :)))))

it is the same performance as the quine tapes, but pro recorded. though the quine tapes version is spliced in for about a minute around the 30 minute mark (i guess the matrix engineer was not prepared for a 37 minute sister ray)

― tylerw, Thursday, November 19, 2015 11:40 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This was awesome

It just came out? Its certainly the lone credit on my 7" 3D-styled single., as opposed to the lp.

it is pretty cool to hear a little bit of unedited crowd reaction -- like on "Ocean" (which cuts off pretty quickly on Live 1969) it doesn't sound like a ton of people, but you can hear a few people after they finish the song who have had their minds appropriately blown.

Yeah, there was no crowd on Live 69 which always seemed weird. Six mins of rocking "What goes on" and not a single clap? Surely not!

it seems like they have an appreciative crowd for sure. not anything like what was probably going on down the street at the fillmore, but people are into it.

how big of a space was the matrix? on most of the tracks the crowd sounds ten or fifteen people, no joke

think capacity was around 100 at the most.

oh makes sense. i was picturing something like the fillmore in my mind.

think it was where you went if you were too cool for the fillmore

In the liner notes to the Jefferson Airplane liva @ Matrix album, something is written to the effect that "...if this sounds like a band playing just for their friends, it is, because there wasn't room for anybody else..."

alert alert! some of Lou's dialogue seems to be missing!!!! for example: "this is a song called 'New Age'"... and some stuff that appeared on the Matrix Sampler, but seems to be edited a bit. maybe this stuff will appear on the 45th anniversary super deluxe matrix box set.

wtf, are the discs that close to 80 mins or something?

Jefferson Airplane were the house band at the Matrix when they first started out. I think Marty Balin was very involved in the club's operation or something

yeah he was one of the original owners (though I think he had left by the time the VU played there).
this is always fascinating to look at: http://www.chickenonaunicycle.com/Matrix Shows.htm

oops: http://www.chickenonaunicycle.com/Matrix%20Shows.htm

just crazy that in the month of november 1969, you could've seen the VU, ramblin jack elliott, vince guaraldi, new riders of the purple sage etc all at the same club.

Happy 46th birthday, Matrix tapes sets 1 & 2 !

Said it before on other threads, but Lou's vocals are so strong and confident on this and yet if you listen to bootlegs from 3 or 4 years later he is all over the place. Admittedly he was sober and straight at the time of these recordings (that is you believe Lou's statements from the time and that is a very big IF) which was certainly not the case a few years later. The thing is he is already doing all the stuff that ruined so much of his singing in his solo career, changing phrasing and emphasis and ignoring the tune, but he still had the chops and confidence to pull it off.

OMG WHAT GOES ON (VERSION 1) IS SOOO GOOOD

xpost I like his voice okay on most solo albums. Thorough review here; surprised to see Rolling Stone provide so much room, compared to the usual in print editions, anyway:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/the-velvet-underground-the-complete-matrix-tapes-20151208

... on studios albums, yes, but I meant live.

Think I agree with what you are saying but will have to listen to the whole album before I fully commit

OMG WHAT GOES ON (VERSION 1) IS SOOO GOOOD

If that's the same one as on Live 69, then yes indeed.

it is the same performance as the quine tapes, but pro recorded. though the quine tapes version is spliced in for about a minute around the 30 minute mark (i guess the matrix engineer was not prepared for a 37 minute sister ray)

― tylerw, Thursday, November 19, 2015 4:40 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, I noticed that - ran a bit like that Bjork track that goes into the toilet: It's like "oh we are outside? Oh we are back in the room again.."

Someone needs to do a ["Quine" / "3rd Album Deluxe" / "Matrix Tapes" / 69 live / End of Cole Ave] Comparison, so we know what's what and where..

Unless someone already has..

you mean like tylerw's post, 3 weeks ago? (Nov 19th)

Yeah, but with the EndCole <-> 69 live fulcrum as well.

But that's what I needed just now, so ta.

Anything that's on Live 1969 that's not on the Matrix Tapes is from End of Cole Ave, and, er, that's it?

If that's it, then that's it.

Cool enough..

... and iirc the End Cole Ave source is the same, but one generation better than Live '69

yeah Cole Ave definitely has a cleaner sound than the stuff on Live 1969. obviously there is now a fair amount of late '69 live VU material officially released, but Cole Ave. is probably worth legitimizing too...

.. and doubtless there's a remastered "Live 69" that could be made by all you lot at home now.

Lou's rhythm on "we're gonna have..." is so awesome, it's like a weathervane whipping around in a massive storm

gotta say, those (most likely improvved) lyrics in the previously unreleased "sweet jane" here are something else:

Waiting down on the corner
Miss Jimmie and Miss Anne
They said, ‘Let’s go up to Billy’s house,
He’s got a couple of strange friends there.’
So I went up to the fourth floor
And much to my surprise
Nobody looked at my body
They were all looking at my eyes ...

Makes you wonder what other verses were extemporized and have forever vanished into the ether.

it is interesting -- lou was famous for being able to make up lyrics on the spot, but i don't know how many good recorded examples of it there really are. the early "Sweet Jane"s, "Sweet Sister Ray," and that La Cave "Pale Blue Eyes" are the ones that come to mind. I guess parts of the long slow "waiting for the man" on quine and the new matrix set. But they're all kind of weirdly of a piece in some way...

Maybe it's hindsight but I find myself listening so intently to these recordings and hearing countless vistas of unexplored sonic terrain. Mo rules so hard too. Love all the ways she plays "heroin" but especially the version with the heavy toms standing up

Not bet standing up, I mean her Tim parts Stand up like fireworks. Part of me thinks she's the essential component of the VU

Not bet? Not her. iPhones, argh

tom parts.

her Tim parts Stand up like fireworks
Not bet? Not her..
tom parts.
Linger on... yr pail blue eyes...

here's my final bit of VU clickbait for the year -- a defense/celebration of doug yule: http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/976-in-defense-of-the-velvet-undergrounds-doug-yule/

Yeah would be very interesting to hear how much was improvised early on. Or take to take. Wondering if well known covers are based on one off versions of lyrics.

The publishing co they formed was called something like 3 Prong because they could freely improvise and return to the steady backbeat.

nice seasonally-appropriate Yule piece

haha, yes. tidings of Yule!

Classic.

Nice work, Tyler!

let's get high and listen to the velvet underground live

Redux?

i stand with brad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqZKN9GA2t8

holy shit

what really gets me about that version is that with all the mayhem and sped up Lou Reed verses, the backing vocals are absolutely perfect each time through

doug yule (i think?) was on his game!

The Matrix Tapes set is extraordinary. Ocean is wow. Love them so much.

this isn't matrix tapes related exactly but this show from the same year is astonishing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7XqY7IhJrk

the twin guitar solo on "what goes on" is like mind expanding

totally. mind expanding / mind splitting (white light / white heat).

Yeah this recording is muddy AF, but that moment really shines thru...

SterMo's solo on "I Can't Stand It" is awesome, too

SterMo!
That'd be Lou on lead on "I Can't Stand It"

Really?!

yeah, the freakier guitar work is almost always lou

I may need to go back VU school... is it Lou who plays lead on album version of "I'm Set Free"? (Also, who plays rhythm gtr on album version of "What Goes On"?)

Lou plays lead on "I'm Set Free" ... I think there's two guitars happening on "What Goes On"

pretty sure that classic hard rhythm strummin' on "What Goes On" is Lou.

OK, thanks, that's what I thought... I always thought those freaky lead gtr lines were Sterling,'s tho!

definitely two rhythm guitars here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxq63cYIY1c

and when you hear a guitar freakout (heard her call my name, run run run, i can't stand it etc) it's Lou.

Sterling's solos are very different from Lou's!

xpost
Yeah, I was referring to the hard strummin' in the foreground...

Tom - for my reference, what are some prime examples of Sterling solos?

pale blue eyes, story of my life, first solo in sister ray, foggy notion

Solos on Foggy Notion are immense.

Thanks guys

Back to the Matrix Tapes -- it's funny how, in one take of "I'm Waiting for The Man," Lou clarifies: "...that's Puerto Rican!" (after the line "He's wearing Dior shoes, and a big straw hat").

I think he sings "PR shoes," hence his elucidation of the acronym

ty VU scholars for explaining SterMo vs. Lou guitar parts!

Whaaaat... my mind is being blown today!

the "Legendary Amp Tapes" should shine some light on what Lou plays

studio 'what goes on' has the best rhythm guitar of all time. also i think lou and sterling recorded takes of the solo bit in there and decided they liked how they sounded all layered on one another. i could have made that up but it makes sense

xpost
Apparently the official lyrics (© EMI Music Publishing) have it as "Beat up shoes"(!?)

I found a few other ppl online saying they always thought it was "Dior shoes" (like me), but apparently we are in the extreme minority.

Really ? I thought I heard it as PR shoes and finally had it clarified in a VU companion book after years of wondering what it was.
Some type of special point to the shoe or something from what I remember.

it's definitely p.r. shoes, lou said on several occasions, and that's what's printed in his lyrics collection.

xxxp - i think it's all just Lou on the WGO solo — he took three stabs at overdubbing it and then they decided to mix 'em all together to get that fuzzed out bagpipe sound.

Well, pardon me (SUH) -- I just listened back to the original album track (the one I've been listening to since I was 15)... and I agree it is, very clearly, "PR shoes"!

Here's a gtr question -- on that album track, is it Lou playing rhythm & Sterl playing lead?

guys it's "see your shoes and I see your hat" and i won't be told otherwise

lolz
i think it's sterling playing the riff on "waiting for the man"

see your shoes and hat, raise you $26

these recordings are so freakin good

it is some of the best music

otm

thx for bump, will listen to this later today

also listen to "sweet sister ray" which is turning 50 years old this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFaOyQbDTKs