so, let's talk about the quine tapes...

initial thoughts (after possessing it for all of an hour and a half), it's quite good, excellent in fact, certainly one of the "reissues" of the year. but, in many ways, it totally slices open the mythos/mystique of the velvets and spills a much more intimate image out on public display. much of it sounds "jammy" in a way tha would have been perfectly "san francisco" at the time, aside from the lyrics of course. reed sounds very...comfortable...on stage. patter and all. the audience seems somewhat receptive, certainly not hostile. they're hardly confrontational. the quality (recording- wise) on some of it is sub-shit. the version of "heroin" on disc 2 is outstrips the original; none of the live versions of "sister ray" are better than the studio take.

Are these tapes mostly from 69 and the Yule years, cause I think that might explain the lighter sound. Can't wait to get them now, am I the only one who doesn't really like the WLWH Sister Ray that much?

I think it's inconsistently excellent. The extended versions of Waiting For The Man, WLWH, and I Can't Stand It are great. In terms of pure skronk value, the studio version of Sister Ray is the way to go but the three versions here are all excellent and worth hearing. Now if only they would issue some Cale-era bootlegs...

I'm looking for a comparion to Live 1969, which I like a lot. Having both those, is there any reason to get the Quine tapes?

yes, definitely. the performances are quite good, some are absolutely transcendent. and i'll concur, after sitting through it all once, that the "sister ray"s are amazing too. just lacking in the complete noize-density of the studio version, which was my initial dissapointment. also, mark, it depends on where you fall. if you agree with me that the third album is better (if not as "important") as the first two, then you'll find much to appreciate here.

Yes, they're all shows from '69. The impression I get is that if this one sells well, they'll put out some other live discs, including Cale- era stuff.

_Live 1969_ (some of which, I believe, was actually recorded earlier) still takes the prize for me, thanks to that mindbending "What Goes On," but this one's really interesting. Especially that long jam at the beginning of the second disc--it's easy to forget that they were kind of a party band.

Has anyone else heard that _Final V.U. '71-73_ set of post-Lou Reed Velvets live shows? I was surprised that some of it's not bad at all. I mean, considered as Velvet Underground shows they're frightening, but by general standards there's some interesting stuff.

any more opinions? i saw a copy for $20 yesterday and i'm v tempted to get it, esp given what jess says about it being gd for fans of the third album.

toby- get it Toby. i haven't but its got three versions of sister ray. That's just great.

I heard a version of i waiting for the man (i think). it was so diff from the album version (the lyrics are diff), it was really good.

hopefully i can find a cheap copy myself.