Dia G 09.05.10 (9) - The Velvet Underground - VU (1985 US)

BY DR FUNKENSTEIN

 The Velvet Underground 

VU (1985)

Extract from Wikipedia

VU is an outtakes compilation album by The Velvet Underground. It was released in February 1985 by Verve Records.

Composition and collection

When The Velvet Underground moved from Verve Records (who had released their first two albums) to parent company MGM Records, they signed a two-album deal, releasing their third and eponymous album The Velvet Underground in March 1969. Later that same year, however, there was a management change and MGM Records' new CEO, Mike Curb, was brought in to try to rescue the financially struggling label. He decided to purge the record company of its many controversial and unprofitable acts. The Velvet Underground quickly became one of the groups blacklisted and were released from their contract. The band had, however, in the meantime recorded fourteen tracks for possible release as their second MGM album. All of these were shelved and forgotten by their record company until the early 1980s.

As Verve (by then an imprint of Polygram) prepared to re-release the band's three Verve/MGM albums on vinyl and CD, they found nineteen previously unreleased tracks: five Cale-era tracks and the fourteen "lost album" tracks, some of them in two-track mixdown format, some of them even on multitracks. The cream of the nineteen tracks was released in 1985 as VU; the rest was released as Another View in 1986.

VU is a selection from the 1969 tracks as well as two previously unreleased Cale-era songs—"Temptation Inside Your Heart" and "Stephanie Says". Since most of the material was available on multitrack (only "Ocean" is included in its original 1969 mix), engineers were able to clean up and remix the tracks.

As The Velvet Underground moved from MGM to Atlantic, they re-recorded two of the songs on VU, "Ocean" and "I'm Sticking with You", for possible inclusion on Loaded. Neither made the cut, but no less than six of the VU songs would be recycled by Lou Reed during his early solo career: "I Can't Stand It" , "Lisa Says" and "Ocean" on Lou Reed, 1972; "Andy's Chest" on Transformer, 1972; "Stephanie Says" (became "Caroline Says II") on Berlin, 1973; and "She's My Best Friend" on Coney Island Baby, 1976.

VU peaked in the U.S. at #85, the band's best placing

Track listing

All tracks written by Lou Reed except "Foggy Notion" (Reed, Morrison, Yule, Tucker, Weiss)

Side one

   1. "I Can't Stand It" – 3:21

          * Recorded May 20, 1969

   2. "Stephanie Says" – 2:49

          * Recorded February 13, 1968

   3. "She's My Best Friend" – 2:47

          * Recorded May 14, 1969

   4. "Lisa Says" – 2:53

          * October 1, 1969

   5. "Ocean" – 5:10

          * June 19, 1969

Side two

   6. "Foggy Notion" – 6:41*

          * Recorded May 6, 1969

   7. "Temptation Inside Your Heart" – 2:30

          * Recorded February 14, 1968

   8. "One of These Days" – 3:50

          * Recorded September 23, 1969

   9. "Andy's Chest" – 2:49

          * Recorded May 13, 1969

  10. "I'm Sticking with You" – 2:26

          * Recorded May 13, 1969

* Note that the CD issue of VU omits the first few seconds of "Foggy Notion," which includes a practice guitar lick and the band members talking.

Personnel

The Velvet Underground

    * John Cale – viola, bass guitar, celesta, backing vocals on "Stephanie Says" and "Temptation Inside Your Heart"

    * Sterling Morrison – guitar, backing vocals

    * Lou Reed – vocals, guitar

    * Maureen Tucker – percussion, lead vocal on "I'm Sticking with You"

    * Doug Yule – bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, lead guitar on "One of These Days", lead vocals on "She's My Best Friend" ("I Can't Stand It", "She's My Best Friend", "Lisa Says", "Foggy Notion", "One of These Days", "Andy's Chest", and "I'm Sticking with You")

Technical staff

    * The Velvet Underground – producers

    * Gary Kellgren – engineer

    * Bill Levenson – compilation executive producer

    * J. C. Convertino – compilation engineer

Comentario Personal

Este podría haber sido el cuarto disco de estudio de The Velvet Underground si la MGM no les hubiera mandado a freir espárragos. Sin lugar a dudas, y a pesar de que se trate de una recopilación de grabaciones de estudio, estamos ante un discazo de los neyorquinos, muy en la linea de su antecesor "The Velvet Underground". Muchos temas de los aquí presentados fueron rescatados por Lou Reed durante sus primeros años (Ocean, Andy's Chest, She's My Best Friend...) y el resto quedaron olvidados hasta que fueron encontrados en las estanterías de la discográfica cogiendo polvo. Una pena que no se editara en su día, una fortuna que alguien los encontrara pues este es un gran disco. Disfrutadlo

Ripeado de vinilo, 1ª edición francesa de 1985 (VERVE 823-721-1)

Saludos!

dr funkenstein

Lo sentimos, no lo hemos encontrado todavía en vinilo. CD a 320 Kbps

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