Monday 28 February 2011

Music: 1969 Live by The Velvet Underground

Today I will be presenting 1969 Live by The Velvet Underground, a seminal live record by the band of bands.


The Velvet Underground, active 1965-1970, with members Lou Reed, Moreen Tucker, Doug Yule, John Cale and Sterling Morrison, is seen as one of the most influential bands of all time. One popular saying is that while their first album The Velvet Underground & Nico, produced by Andy Warhol (Yes, the pop-artist himself) did not fair well in sales, everyone who did buy the album went on to make a band and become famous.

This first song, written in 1965, and aptly called Heroin, was unheard of during this time. To put this into perspective, in 1965, The Beatles were still in their mop-tops singing about "You're Gonna Lose That Girl", the jazz album "Getz/Gilberto" by the American saxophonist
Stan Getz won the Grammy Album of the Year, and Bob Dylan still hadn't gone electric.


Next we have Sweet Jane, in one of its debut performances, a full year before its first studio album appearance on Loaded (1970). It's a bit more peaceful then the final version, trading its future rock punch for a more serine vibe, and it in turn provides us with a more somber telling of the life of Jane, or could Lou be referring to a certain herbal leaf? You be the judge.


Lisa Says, written around 1968, and not released officially until VU (1985), a compilations and outtakes album, is an interesting fixture on this live album, as this track contains unique lyrics, never again recorded for this song. Like all songs by the Velvets, Lisa Says' lyrical content seems very tame, but turns racy once its true meaning is revealed.  In the case of Lisa Says, and all of the songs in the Says series (Candy Says, Stephanie Says, Lisa Says, Caroline Says), each song in actuality describes a series of trans-gendered prostitutes who hung around the band and its friends in the underground artsy New York Scene at the time.


Bonus video: I hesitated to include this in my post solely because of Lou's one minute pre-song introduction, even though this is one of the best on the album. Song starts at 1:28. Enjoy!


Anyways, I hope you enjoyed listening to my selection of Live 1969 by The Velvet Underground, I certainly had fun writing it. I'm interested in seeing how many people had heard of The Velvet Underground before this post? If so, what is your favorite Velvet period? If not, tell me what you think! 

22 comments:

  1. wow, great videos! Late 60's Definitely my favorite era for Velvet Underground!

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  2. Great videos, I'm enjoying them a lot.

    Nice blog as well, I'll be sure to check back in regularly. :)

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  3. Legendary Band! Good to see some people still listening to older bands, makes me happy haha

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  4. This is one of my favorite bands. Their first album will always be an absolute classic, and Heroin is also my favorite song! All Tomorrow's Parties follows next in my top 5.

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  5. Amazing band, one of the best of all times. Great tracks too.

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  6. great songs. I wish I could had gone to a velvet concert in 1969

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  7. Gotta check these guys out, so much good stuff out there I don't know about, thanks!

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  8. The Velvet Underground is just awesome.

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  9. super dope music :) heroin is a sweet song, listening now haha.

    thanks for checking out my blog earlier :) following!

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  10. the velvet underground is one of the best band in whole music history

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  11. Those songs wake up memories!
    Following!

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  12. Great post, I love Velvet Underground, but I learned some things I didn't know.

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  13. not exactly my forte but this is some good info

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  14. Very nice post! Will follow you now.

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  15. not really my forte but it was well um, different but still pretty cool :)

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