Best Non-Lou Member of The Velvet Underground Poll

is moe tucker's baby daughter in that 2nd pic considered a VU member? She should be. Anyway, this is IMPOSSIBLE. Even Walter Powers and Willie Alexander are great!

was it dumb to leave Lou out?

nah, though i'm sure he wouldn't necessarily be a sure thing winner even if he was included.

forgot Billy Yule though

Moe is lovely, and gets my vote.

Missed out Ian Paige as well, fwiw!

Moe is definitely the most likeable - and one of my favourite things about the sound too...

look at these old bros
http://www.loureed.com/new/news/loupicts/misc/lou_doug_moe.jpg

might have to rep for this guy though
http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/sterling/bg_sterling.jpg
love pretty much every note he ever played

Walter Powers
Willie Alexander

who are these people

guessing post reed era ppl?

apparently - never heard a note of either

I'm voting Cale

I gotta go with Cale, too, though quite tempted to vote for Tucker.

yeah, those guys were in the post-Lou VU.

yeah, those guys prob won't get any votes -- but Willie Alexander has some nice solo stuff later on in the 70s

i mean, it's not amazing or anything, but it's cool

fyi this has been done w/ lou and lou won:

Best Member Of The Velvet Underground

ah yes ... but there were still plenty of people who didn't vote for Lou

Some very Scottish-sounding names in there.

i've never actually heard any of those Angus MacLise solo comps -- anyone want to convince me to buy 'em?

Willie Alexander = Willie Loco Alexander?

yep

Ah, I had one of his records then, and never made the connection w/VU. Didn't like it that much though I'm afraid, sorry Loco.

This was pre-internet, I don't know how anyone ever managed to figure out who was who back then.

Maureen Tucker <3

def Sterl

sterl

Reading that crazy Unterberger book right now. I don't think there's anyone who wasn't in the Velvet Underground at this point.
Any poll with Angus Maclise as an option will get a vote that way, I suppose. I haven't listened to the solo stuff much in the last couple of years (the Maclise stuff, that is) but he was the only original member of VU to play at Woodstock (he attempted to start a "communal drum performance" or something, according to Unterberger).

Moe's solo records are too damn good, though. Gotta go with Moe.

Sterling here. Would've been nice to a see Henry Flynt listed, but it wouldn't have changed my vote.

i've never actually heard any of those Angus MacLise solo comps -- anyone want to convince me to buy 'em?

Tyler I am out of town for the week but you will receive some mail in your inbox soon after that. I think every single one of the four discs that were released are now out of print, but my favorite is the double disc one with "Universal Solar Calendar", forget the name right now.

anyway, Astral Collapse and Brain Damage are patchy and not all that, Invasion Of Thunderbolt Pagoda is better, and The Cloud Doctrine (that's the one I was trying to remember in the previous post) is my favorite.

hey, thanks, sleeve, that'd be great. i like the John Cale experimental stuff I've heard form this time (along w/ various Lamont Young/Tony Conrad things), so I'd probably like the MacLise comps. Obviously not the sort of stuff to play when my wife's around, but good nonetheless! I've been reading that massive Unterberger book too, which, for a VU nerd like myself, is endlessly interesting. It is cool how he connects all the dots in the pre-VU days, just showing how huge a role happenstance/chance/fate/destiny played in the making of the band.

caleeeeeee

Listen I love Moe Tucker and I love Nico something fierce, but to vote for anyone but Cale would just be insane.

john cale ate my balls

Ok, secret conspiracy theory: that cute little chord change on "Who Loves The Sun" where it modulates into a different key? Same move appears on the part that originally got cut from "Sweet Jane."

And also on Doug Yule's "Friends" from the last Velvet Underground album.

I say Yule came up with that trick and Reed stole it.

Anyway, Doug Yule. The voice of the band on their biggest selling record, and Squeeze is better than most of Reed's solo albums.

I voted for Nico, on the basis of the solo albums more than on her work in the VU and to bring the challops since Cale is going to walk this.

As much as I love love love Mo, I think she's amazing and fantastic and the Velvets wouldn't have been half the band without her... I voted for Sterling coz I fancied him so much. So shallow. Oh yeah, and his amazing guitar playing. Every note he played was so economically perfect. But mainly coz I'm in love with his hair.

Sterl

He was a bit snotty with me when I met him (along with some other people), like a "ahem, we haven't come here to listen to you, have we?" look. (this was not on stage, but afterwards while folk mingled).

Still, he used to be a college lecturer for a while, wasn't he? that seems about right.

Anyway, as I say, Moe was lovely. I'd seen her band before and they'd done a storming version of "think I'm falling in love" which they didn't do that night. I asked her and she said "ah, well we can't play everything every night.. Actually, we haven't done that one for a long time!"

(Next time I saw her, it was with the reunited VU, and the song was reinstated)

Sterl's snootiness predated his years as a college lecturer!

College board: "Can you do snooty?"
Sterl: "Well, what do you think?"
College board: "You're in!"

Can just imagine him saying that in his Long Island accent

There's a funny Lou Reed 'Invisible Jukebox' in the Wire this month Tom (also a Kosmische Musik Primer that you might have an opinion on).

Ah, I'll check it out, though no doubt it will annoy me

Yeah, no doubt!

this is surely actually MORE predictable without lou, cale in a walk, contrarians voting for yule

What, despite the fact that most of the people here seem to be voting for Sterling or Mo?

slept on it, had to go Mo.

I had a friend in high school who insisted that Angus MacLise didn't exist and was just a pseudonym for Lou Reed. Which made no sense, but was fervently defended. There was a whole narrative about how that Lou's hippy side, which he denied and forced out of the band, and that's why they're never on recordings together (and why MacLise rejoined when, scare quotes made by hand, Lou "had tuberculosis").

Would've been nice to a see Henry Flynt listed, but it wouldn't have changed my vote.

― bear, bear, bear, Wednesday, September 9, 2009 8:20 PM

?

He stepped in for John Cale, when Cale had hepatitis. Apparently Lou tried to punch him out during a gig for playing "too hillbilly"

oh didn't know that :)

I don't think there's anyone who wasn't in the Velvet Underground at this point

"They didn't sell many records, but every person who ever bought one was in the band"

lol

sentimental favorite Sterling M vs. real answer John Cale? tugboat captain vs. pioneering pop minimalist & master of the harmonium pump?

Difficult to vote. I could go with Moe for lovability or Sterling for longevity, but I'll give it to Cale for his hellacious "Sister Ray" organ-meltdown alone.

Willy Loco Alexander is very underrated imo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXpM-m2HC94

listening to the VU Max's Kansas City rehearsal bootleg for the first time. Pretty nice! Obviously Billy Yule was not the interesting drummer Moe Tucker was, but he makes this version of the VU sound like a crackin' dance band.

Yeah, Moe was well used to playing the "slow" version of "Waiting for the man", but when Billy set off on his pace, the rest were like "whoa, we'd better play fast as well!"

.. and it's great stuff.

yeah, billy's totally fun on the fast stuff, but he sure has no idea how to play ballad-type things! Even "Pale Blue Eyes" is kinda sprightly.

Well, you have "Live 1969" for the other stuff, so in a way I'm glad Billy was there for that one.

guess the max's talk is apropos re: Jim Carroll this wknd ... he's the dude trying to score drugs/providing commentary on the Max's album right? is HE the best non-Lou member of the VU? HMMMM.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Go Mo.

..

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

mo was robbed.

uh you've seen the Lou Reed vs. John Cale threads right

uh no. would they make me rethink my love of mo?

no but they explain this result because ILM in general is full of John Cale fetishists

btw if you know where I can get a copy of Playin' Possum lemme know!!

uh you've seen the Lou Reed vs. John Cale threads right

But Lou still won when up against Johnny

yeah, i wish I could find playin' possum too - i've got a cassette in a cardboard box in the basement somewhere with a bunch of solo mo.

But Lou still won when up against Johnny

maybe I'm thinking of the solo career poll

http://commercialzone.blogspot.com/2009/06/maureen-moe-tucker-playin-possum-1981.html

Ah! glad that finally showed up somewhere! Thx!

actually came across this too: http://tooshortalife.blogspot.com/2009/04/moe-tucker-oh-no-theyre-recording-this.html
Moe/Sterl band from the early 90s -- never heard it before!

Thx Tyler, excited to hear it.

And also glad that someone else voted for Willie Loco - whoever you are, you are my friend.

btw since we're talking about VU downloads on the internets, holy fucking shit: http://thenunsareontheseawall.blogspot.com

thanks, tyler!

Whoah thanks Tyler!

yeah i don't even know where to begin with that blog. yeesh.

Yeah, that is amazing but it makes you stare into the abyss of obsessive collecting to the point where I might just have to back slowly away from the ledge.

begin with "Sweet Sister Ray" if you don't know it, Afterhours tape 26 side A.

sort of hilarious -- gigs and gigs of lossless files -- and yet some of those are like the most lo-fi bootlegs ever.

yeah, also there is TONS of duplication there. from what I can tell the early 45's are spread out between different discs which sux. I have all that stuff on those VUAS vinyl boots anyway I think, the Etc and And So On records (both very good).

The Hilltop gig is also very good (the only known recording in an outdoor, loud-amp setting), the Cleveland 66 is awesome and historic but lofi. (not referring to the blog at this point, just VU boots in general). One of the best is the 4CD Caught Between The Twisted Stars which has the whole Cleveland set plus tons of other highlights.

whoah spoke too soon there

about the demos

the cleveland La Cave 1968 boot (yule's 1st show, unbelievably) is incredible, too.