1969: Velvet Underground Live

Performer: The Velvet Underground
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Lou Reed (vocals, guitar); Doug Yule (vocals, bass); Sterling Morrison (guitar); Maureen Tucker (drums). Recorded live in Texas and San Fransisco in 1969. Includes liner notes by Elliott Murphy and Paul Nelson. This 2-LP set was split into 2 separate CDs. Though 1970 brought LOADED and (relative) commercial success for the Velvets, it also saw the beginning of their decline. Apparent commercial concessions and interpersonal tensions had already begun to tear the band apart at the seams. Their real peak came the year before, when--finding themselves halfway between artiness and pop pursuits--they dived headlong into amphetamine-fueled, minimalist-influenced proto-punk. The European influence had lessened with the departure of John Cale, allowing the VU to become a pure rock & roll band of unprecedented fervor. From the strung-out stomp of "Waiting For My Man" to the churning, perversely repetitious rhythms of "What Goes On" and the ironically revelatory "I'm Beginning To See The Light" the band blares away with such determinism it sounds like they're trying to bore a hole through the bottom of the stage. This live recording sees the fruition of their structural collectivist ethic; there are essentially no solos or improvisations, and yet they jam on the progressions of many of the songs for several minutes, allowing minute changes in dynamics to substitute for melodic/harmonic explorations. One of the finest live albums you'll hear, this is rock at its purest and most functional. The Velvet Underground were little more than a rumor when Lou Reed left the band in 1970, but by 1974, thanks to Reed's success as a solo artist, the Velvets had become a bona fide cult item, and that year Mercury Records released a two-record set compiled from tapes from shows in Dallas and San Francisco entitled 1969: Velvet Underground Live. The album featured a generous 104 minutes of music, and when Mercury reissued it on CD in 1988, rather than edit the material or release a two-CD set, they put out the album as two separate discs. While this seemed like a rather curious move, the album's sequence was such that it divided in half quite cleanly, and while any VU fan will want both volumes, they don't work half bad as individual albums. 1969: Velvet Underground Live, Vol. 1 rocks a bit harder than its counterpart; it opens with a grooving version of "Waiting for My Man," moves on to a rave-up take of "What Goes On" that features some of Lou Reed's finest rhythm guitar work, and closes out with passionate renditions of "Rock and Roll" and "Beginning to See the Light." And where there are a number of ballads on hand (most notably a lovely take of "Lisa Says" and versions of "Sweet Jane" and "New Age" considerably different from those on Loaded), they sound just as committed and compelling as the rockers. While the Doug Yule-era edition of the Velvet Underground often gets short shrift from aficionados, the performances on 1969: Velvet Underground Live, Vol. 1 prove this band still had plenty of fire, and was playing at the top of their game. The CD also adds a final bonus track, an unreleased version of "Heroin"; while the same song appears on Vol. 2, this recording is a different (and considerably more aggressive) performance. ~ Mark Deming Sadly, outside of a handful of audience tapes of extremely variable fidelity, no one thought to make a live recording of The Velvet Underground during their 1967-68 peak period with John Cale prodding Lou Reed into remarkable flights of noise rock fancy. However, in 1969 a VU fan who was a recording engineer brought a reel-to-reel tape machine to two shows the band played during an engagement at a club in Dallas called The End of Cole Avenue; a few months later, the band played The Matrix in San Francisco, where a tape machine had been installed into the hall's sound system, and the band was allowed to record their set. Five years later, long after The Velvet Underground had collapsed and Lou Reed's solo career was on the rise, Mercury Records compiled highlights of the Dallas and San Francisco tapes into a two-record set, 1969: Velvet Underground Live, and it is without question the best (legally-released) document of this band's considerable strengths as a live act. While they were a somewhat more sedate band with Doug Yule on bass rather than Cale, they still had plenty of life left in them at this stage of the game; there are few voyages into the sonic unknown here, but Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison had matured into one of rock's most potent guitar combinations, Maureen Tucker was as distinctive a drummer as even picked up a pair of mallets, and with Doug Yule at her side they comprised a truly superb rhythm section. Sounding tight, confident, and passionate on every cut, this set finds the band visiting highlights from all four of their studio albums, as well as a handful of previously unreleased numbers. From the delicacy of "New Age" and "I'll Be Your Mirror" to the rave-up energy of "What Goes On" and "White Light/White Heat," 1969: Velvet Underground Live captures the many sides of their musical personality with commendable skill, and while it isn't their best album, it's one of the best places for a beginner to explore their body of work. (For CD release, Mercury has unfortunately divided 1969: Velvet Underground Live into two separate albums, 1969: Velvet Underground Live, Vol. 1 and 1969: Velvet Underground Live, Vol. 2; thankfully, both are budget priced, and bonus tracks have been added to each.) ~ Mark Deming Though 1970 brought LOADED and (relative) commercial success for the Velvets, it also saw the beginning of their decline. Apparent commercial concessions and interpersonal tensions had already begun to tear the band apart at the seams. Their real peak came the year before, when--finding themselves halfway between artiness and pop pursuits--they dived headlong into amphetamine-fueled, minimalist-influenced proto-punk. The European influence had lessened with the departure of John Cale, allowing the VU to become a pure rock & roll band of unprecedented fervor. From the strung-out stomp of "Waiting For My Man" to the churning, perversely repetitious rhythms of "What Goes On" and the ironically revelatory "I'm Beginning To See The Light" the band blares away with such determinism it sounds like they're trying to bore a hole through the bottom of the stage. This live recording sees the fruition of their structural collectivist ethic; there are essentially no solos or improvisations, and yet they jam on the progressions of many of the songs for several minutes, allowing minute changes in dynamics to substitute for melodic/harmonic explorations. One of the finest live albums you'll hear, this is rock at its purest and most functional.

From their early days as the house band for Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the Velvet Underground were the antithesis of late-1960s Flower Power optimism. Lou Reed's decadent lyrics and dour vocals proved to be the perfect match for the group's droning pop, and the early addition of goth-chanteuse Nico only served to increase VU's black-clad mystique. The influence of their blend of street poetry, avant-garde experimentalism, and raw rock & roll on punk and its aftermath is inestimable. It's been said that not many people heard their early records, but everyone who did went out and started a band.

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