Well, what could possibly be better than all those fabulous Velvet Underground albums yesterday, fleshed out with all of those very cool demos and stuff? Well, they were a fantastic live band as well, due to the era of their greatness, the boots are often not of the greatest sound quality, but you live with it as it is a chance to hear one of the greatest of all bands in the act once again. On the other hand, one "official" live release, "Live 1969" (a double disc entry presented here as a wonderful vinyl rip) is one of the great live albums of all....."Live at Max's" sound quality is pretty rough, and the boots here are too, but it's worthwhile, for the most part. Today I'll get a bunch of live stuff up, tomorrow I will have some MORE live stuff as well as a stack of rarities discs and the like......I do stress, get them if you want them, please don't be contacting me a year from now asking me to "reup them" (I've had a spate of that lately, and just REALLY can't do it for everyone (as I've said before, will ONLY do it if you contribute SOMETHING to make the blog better).So, "Live 1969"......as I said, we have a fine vinyl rip here, sounds great, and is one of the best live albums of all time. Tremendously different (from the original versions) of "New Age" (superior) and "Sweet Jane" (inferior), also an absolutley stunning "What Goes On", the best available versions of "Ocean" and "Lisa Says".....arguably their best album, although, in case it isn't obvious, I consider all of them fairly essential.
Next up are is the rare, three disc "Quine Tapes", culled from various shows in 1969, mostly in San Francisco but a few others......all three include a version of "Sister Ray", the shortest of which is 24 minutes, the longest a staggering 38 minutes.....Disc 1 includes the lesser-known "I Can't Stand It" and "I'm Sticking With You", as well as great renditions of "What Goes On" and "Waiting For the Man"......lesser-known gem on disc 2 is the opener "Follow the Leader", this disc contains the aforementioned mammoth "Sister Ray".....finally Disc 3 leads with a slamming "Rock and Roll", the not-often performed live "Ride Into the Sun" and "The Black Angel's Death Song".
OK, here come some boots of questionable sound quality, be forewarned.....I'm putting them up because I'm emptying the vault.....these are ancient for the most part, but please appreciate them as historical artifacts.....first up is a double disc set from right up the road from me in Columbus Ohio, from 1966 (I was four!), lengthy workouts on "Melody laughter" (30:34) and "The Nothing Song" (29:07) at least seperates this from the others a bit.
From 1967 comes a set from the Gymnasium in NYC, THIS one's odd-ball is "I'm Not a Young Man Anymore", and an obligatory long "Sister Ray"....sounding a bit better is a set from 1971, The Amsterdam Concerthouse.....and you know what? This one contains a bunch that they rarely performed as well, "Spare Change", "Pretty Tree Climber", "Back On the Farm", and "Dopey Joe"......also good to have a live take of "Cool It Down". These sets, while not always sounding the greatest, are as far from uninteresting as they could possibly be.
Last one for today is a Boston set from 1968, maybe the worst sounding set of the bunch (audience recording AND split into 2 discs as it is a FLAC recording), still QUITE listenable and interesting, and if you want "Move Right In", this is the only live version that I have. OK, that is going to have to be it for today, this may actually have to go four days instead of the three I anticipated, I DO have a LIFE ya know (baseball playoffs on TV actually)......if you want em, grab em, here they are, and stay tuned there is a BUNCH more stuff yet to come that may come as unknown even to fans of the band......obviously this is a favorite band of mine, and I don't want to miss a beat.....AND if you have anything that I am missing (a good chance, I think every note they ever recorded is available SOMEWHERE, please contribute it so we can all have our "ideal" Velvet Underground stash, but I DO have a full two more days worth of stuff, including more live boots. Enjoy and please comment if you see fit.
LIVE 1969 DISC 1-01 Waiting For the Man/02 Lisa Says/03 What Goes On/04 Sweet Jane/05 We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together/06 Femme Fatale/07 New Age/08 Rock and Roll/09 Beginning To See the Light/10 Ocean/11 Pale Blue Eyes/12 Heroin
LIVE 1969 DISC 2-01 Some Kinda Love/02 Over You/03 Sweet Bonnie Brown/It's Just Too Much/04 White Light White Heat/05 I'll Be Your MirrorLIVE AT MAX'S KANSAS CITY-01 I'm Waiting For the Man/02 Sweet Jane/03 Lonesome Cowboy Bill/04 Beginning To See the Light/05 I'll Be Your Mirror/06 Pale Blue Eyes/07 Sunday Morning/08 New Age/09 Femme Fatale/10 After Hours
QUINE TAPES DISC 1-01 I'm Waiting For the Man/02 It's just Too Much/03 What Goes On/04 I Can't Stand It/05 Some Kinda Love/06 Foggy Notion/07 Femme Fatale/08 After Hours/09 I'm Sticking With You/10 Sunday Morning/11 Sister Ray
QUINE TAPES DISC 2-01 Follow the Leader/02 White Light White Heat/03 Venus In Furs/04 Heroin/05 Sister Ray
QUINE TAPES DISC 3-01 Rock and Roll/02 New Age/03 Over You/04 The Black Angel's Death Song/05 I'm Waiting For the Man/06 Ride Into the Sun/07 Sister Ray/Foggy NotionCOLUMBUS OHIO 11/4/66 DISC 1-01 Melody Laughter/02 Femme Fatale/03 Venus In Furs/04 The Black Angel's Death Song/05 All Tomorrow's Parties
COLUMBUS OHIO 11/4/66 DISC 2-01 I'm Waiting For the man/02 Heroin/03 Run Run Run/04 The Nothing Song
THE GYMNASIUM NYC 4/30/67-01 I'm Not a Young Man Anymore/02 Guess I'm Falling In Love/03 I'm Waiting For the Man/04 Run Run Run/05 Sister Ray
AMSTERDAM CONCERTHOUSE 11/19/71-01 Waiting For the Man/02 Spare Change/03 Some Kinda Love/04 White Light White Heat/05 Pretty Tree Climber/06 What Goes On/07 Cool It Down/08 Back On the Farm/09 Oh! Sweet Nuthin'/10 Sister Ray/11 After Hours/12 Dopey Joe/13 Rock N RollBOSTON TEA PARTY DISC 1 (12/12/68) PART 1-01 Intro/02 Heroin/03 Move Right In/04 Waiting For the Man/05 I'm Set Free
BOSTON TEA PARTY DISC 1 (12/12/68) PART 2-01 Foggy Notion/02 Beginning To See the Light/08 Candy Says
BOSTON TEA PARTY DISC 2 (12/12/68) PART 1-01 White Light White Heat/02 Jesus
BOSTON TEA PARTY DISC 2 (12/12/68) PART 2-01 Sister Ray/02 Pale Blue Eyes
LOTTA stuff, but I'm even a bit surprised by how much is still on the shelf.......what a great band.
