I've broken with tradition a bit this week and decided to actually post Covers for Sunday on Sunday. As always though there are six covers, with nothing in common except I enjoy listening to them.
By this point John Cale has left the band to be replaced by Doug Yale. This means there's no more electric viola but instead the band has the 'standard' rock line-up of drums, bass, two guitars and vocals.
Gone is most of the feedback from the first two albums, this sounds in many ways markedly different, (although the penultimate song, The Murder Mystery, wouldn't seem out of place on either of the two previous albums). That's not to say that it's a generic rock and roll album. The distortion and feedback have been scaled back and replaced with an involvement in the songs that wasn't present in the first two albums. The Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat were chronicles of different scenes and people. The Velvet Underground comes across much more as a chronicle of Lou Reed's experiences.
Now you'll here/read a lot about what a commercial album this is and how far it deviates from the other albums. And it many ways it does have a more accesible sound. There's no denying it sounds different to the previous albums. I just don't think different should be taken as a negative, bands evolve after all, and if this is really what commercial music sounded like, well, I'd be a very happy boy. I don't intend to do a huge review of this album. It just ends up like I'm defending it from accusations of selling out and really I don't care. If it's a sell out, if it's an attempted commercial record, a sop to the record company I don't care. Neither should you. It's an excellent album and it stands on its own merits.
It's worth mentioning that Mo Tucker was pregnant during the Loaded recording sessions so most of the drumming is done by bassist Doug Yule and his brother Billy. Doug Yule also sings lead vocals on four of the songs on Loaded.
Loaded is also available as a 2-disc set known as the Fully Loadd edition. As well as the full album it contains all the songs again from alternative takes or demos and 12 other demos and outakes, including a few songs that would turn up on Lou Reed's solo albums.
Again Covers for Sunday is brought to you on Monday. I'm tempted to rename this Covers for Sunday/Monday but perhaps I should just be more organised.
I was going to post this last night but a friend came round and stayed until midnight drinking. Being closer to 30 than 20 we stayed in and drank coffee instead of going out and drinking whiskey. This is the difference between being 21 and 29.
With that in mind here are this weeks covers. I hope you enjoy them all.
Between the Bars by Mutual Admiration Society (originally by Elliott Smith)
The Velvet Underground are easily my favourite band. So much so that I can't cover them in one post so I'll split it up into three. This one will cover there first two albums.
The next post will cover the last two studio albums and some studio recordings released after they broke up. The third post will cover some of the live albums that are available. There's going to be a ton of mp3s through these posts, I hope you like them.
I can still remember the first time I heard the Velvet Underground. It was an advert for Dunlop Tyres, and the song playing was Venus in Furs. Here's the commercial:
the song was totally different from anything I'd heard before. Maybe I'd led a sheltered life, but I'd never heard an electric viola before. I'd never heard anything that sounded even remotley like it.
I lived in a small town without a record store but eventually I managed to find and buy a best of Lou Reed & Velvet Underground compilation on cassette (remember those?) from the local Woolworths (remember those?)
and it all grew from there.
Their first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, is talked about as the most influential album of all time. Probably it is, but that shouldn't overshadow what an awesome album it is. It's easy for people to talk about how influential the album is, but in a way that just makes it in to a museum artifact. It makes listeners focus on that. And that's not a bad thing. But it shouldn't be the only people know about this album. Despite being influential and experimental when it was released it still sounds fresh today. It's an album about the freaks and weirdos of the world, the marganilised parts of society, it stands on it's own merits as a great album and it should be remembered more for that than for it's undoubted influence on other bands.
Sample some of the songs below and find out for yourself.
As a bonus here's an alternative take of Venus In Furs from an earlier recording session at Scepter Studios in New York.
The second album White Light/White Heat has a different sound. All avant garde/expiremental rock dripping with feedback. Containing 6 tracks from the sub-3 minute White Light/White Heat to the 17+ minute Sister Ray it's a glorious album. I think it's often overlooked. The first album is experimental and edgy but stilll, everything on it is recognisably a song. So I suppose this is considered the 'difficult' album. On White Light/White Heat the band were Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker.
that seems a pretty good place to draw this post to a close. After this album John Cale left/was thrown out of the band. From here on The Velvet Underground would have the standard vocals, two guitars, a bass and some drums, even if they still didn't sound like a 'standard' band. But more about that in the next post. For now, enjoy the music.
OK, so where I live it's just Monday morning, technically. But I haven't been to bed yet so I still consider it Sunday.
With some covers I like the original and the cover and that's good. But others I dislike the original but really like the cover. I think that's the mark of a really well done cover. The first two covers today fall into that category for me. I hope you them and the other songs I've posted.
This morning I went into hospital and this evening I left with 4 teethe less. I'm also guessing the Tooth Fairy isn't going to be leaving me a shiny 50p under my pillow tonight. Instead here are 4 songs with titles connected to teeth, hospitals and doctors. It's not the greatest theme I admit, but I don't think the general anesthetic has totally worn off, so I'm blaming that.
I know, it's Monday. I've been neglegting the blog lately, mostly because I've been so short of time. After tomorrow I should have the rest of the week free so I can catch up and put up some more posts.
Judging from the download numbers the Redbird cover last week seemed pretty popular so I've included another of their covers here. Hope you enjoy the songs.
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