rare velvet underground

Universal Music are releasing The Velvet Underground White Light/White Heat 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition boxset on December 10th.
They (UM) asked life long enthusiast and a pretty decent authority on the Velvet Underground, Richard Metzger to pick a track to preview on their soundcloud page.
Metzger did a good job too and chose the little heard recording of "I’m Not a Young Man Anymore". A track which has previously appeared on bootlegs but was never actually studio recorded or released on album. An odd thing in itself as the song compares extremely well with other 1967 White Light White Heat recordings.
Reed himself never said anything about the track or was never asked, and it was only until after his recent death Rolling Stone was asking Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) for a memory of Lou.

"I was at South by Southwest in 2008, playing at a Lou Reed appreciation concert. I’d just heard “I’m Not a Young Man Anymore,” which had just surfaced on a Velvet Underground bootleg. It was this powerful song I’d never heard before. Before we went on, I was talking to Lou and told him about it and he said, “How the hell do you know about that song?” I said, “It just surfaced on a bootleg on the Internet.” I said I thought it would be a good song to play since I just turned 50. And when I said that, he looked at me, half smiled and embraced me. It was wonderful and completely unexpected."

With it's insistent riff and classic Reed vocal it embraces all the chaos and experimentation that was Velvet Underground in 1967.

VIA DANGEROUS MINDS

lou reed RIP

Word has spread rapidly around the media world of the passing of one of rocks most enigmatic figures and originators of the early underground.
Lou Reeds beginnings with Velvet Underground was unusual in as much as he and they were associated in a bohemian world of Andy Warhol and art as it was in music, and it crossed boundaries of the arts for that reason. If mainstream success eluded the band it only added to the mystique of these 'modern artists'.

"The Velvet Underground were a commercial failure in the late 1960s, but the group has gained a considerable cult following in the years since its demise and has gone on to become one of the most widely cited and influential bands of the era". Wikipedia

His solo career from 1972 was wild, erratic, controversial and daring. On stage he could be a visually languid figure giving the appearance of complete boredom. You could see him as the first New York punk, and many more were to follow that style in later years.
In the early 70's concerts if there were signs of a little animated dance from him it was going to be a great gig, conversely standing statue like would usually mean his interest had waned giving to a tension in the atmosphere. This all added to the fun of seeing the guy perform live. Which Lou was going to turn up was always the question.
The retrospects, box sets, reissues, documentary's will follow. His story will unfold in greater detail.
Here is "Rock and Roll" with one of his really good bands live in 1984 at the Roskilde Festival, Denmark.
So long Lou.

sterling morrison

A tribute to Sterling Morrison over the next couple of days.
Born 28th August 1942, the guitarist for Velvet Underground, when in 1968 they made their second album 'White Light White Heat'.and became the ultimate garage band.
Morrison died on 30th August 1995.
VU member John Cale praised his friend's thirst for knowledge, pride in his children and "the deeply impressive dignity he showed as he struggled" through his illness.
Cale's fondest memories of Morrison, always, will be of the Velvets, he said: "The days when we carried out our assault on teen-age sensibilities."

Now assault your sensibilities with 'White Light White Heat' from the album