The Velvet Underground

[Incandenza]

The new, "Super Deluxe" edition of The Velvet Underground & Nico—six discs, including Nico's VU-involved Chelsea Girl in its entirety—is on Spotify. This is my favorite album by my favorite band, so I think I'm going to work through this set over the next couple of days. Who's with me?

 

[Incandenza]

I've gone straight to disc 2, which contains the mono mix of the album. The mono mix is dirtier and—if I may be pardoned to use the term—grungier than the more widely dispersed stereo mix, which, comparatively, feels a little sterile.

(BTW, this thread is in part an effort to encourage Czech to make one of his periodic visits.)

 

[Edwin]

You get a shot of you listening to it in that horse head, and I'm game.

 

[Incandenza]

I still have it here at work, so anything's possible!

Probably gonna queue up Chelsea Girl within the next hour or so. I've never been particularly warm to this record, in spite of "These Days" and her songs on the VU album. But hey, it's been years since I last heard it, so who knows?

 

[Incandenza]

Verdict on Chelsea Girl remains the same: these are some pretty songs, but Nico's nasally Teutonic whine is not suited for them.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

I think I might like Chelsea Girl better than VU & Nico, which is weird because the Nico songs are my second least favorite part of that album (after "European Son," which I just straight up can't stand).

 

[Byron The Bulb]

Verdict on Chelsea Girls remains the same: these are some pretty songs, but Nico's nasally Teutonic whine is not suited for them.

Nico - It Was A Pleasure Then

I couldn't imagine someone else singing this.

 

[Incandenza]

You can get through that song, but you can't stand "European Son"?

 

[Byron The Bulb]

No accounting for taste, I suppose.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

Don't try to knock off the old dawg, Byron.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

Interesting stuff about Chelsea Girl that may explain what Inc didn't like about the final product:

Musically, Chelsea Girl is best described as a cross between chamber folk and 1960s pop. The musical backing is relatively simple, consisting of one or two guitars or, alternatively, a keyboard instrument, played by either Browne or (a combination of) her Velvet Underground colleagues. There are no drums or bass instruments. Adding to the chamber folk feel of the music is the strings and flute arrangement superimposed over the initial recordings by producer Tom Wilson and arranger Larry Fallon without involving or consulting Nico.

Nico was dissatisfied with the finished product. Looking back in 1981, she stated:

“I still cannot listen to it, because everything I wanted for that record, they took it away. I asked for drums, they said no. I asked for more guitars, they said no. And I asked for simplicity, and they covered it in flutes! [...] They added strings and – I didn't like them, but I could live with them. But the flute! The first time I heard the album, I cried and it was all because of the flute."

 

[Incandenza]

Nico gave Iggy Pop his first case of the clap.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

When Nico got what she wanted we ended up with The Marble Index.

 

[Incandenza]

Going back to the first disc to listen to the stereo mix of the album. This is the version of the record that was the only commercially available one for the longest time, therefore being the one I first heard my senior year of high school and that I've loved ever since. And even though I generally do not like mono recordings reprocessed into stereo, it's this version that I'm so familiar with and that I prefer.

Anyway, the remastering job they did here is the closest to crystal clear this album has ever sounded. This edition marks the first time I've ever been able to clearly hear on "All Tomorrow's Parties" that brief instrumental part before Moe Tucker's drums kick in.

 

[The Coat Is My Father]

I'm listening to this album right now. What's standing out to me is the swagger of it all. I had previously concentrated more on the abstracted, depraved, or fragile sides of this album, but it'a a total rock n roll album too.

 

[Precious Roy]

Isn't the whole idea of the Velvet Underground to not listen to it remastered or remixed? Why would I want to listen to that

 

[Edwin]

The electric viola on "The Black Angel's Death Song" is driving my dog crazy.

 

[The Coat Is My Father]

They played I'm Waiting For The Man on the radio earlier this week & I freaked out & turned it up way too loud.

Then they played Here Comes A Regular & I was too teary to work anymore. My coworkers all think I'm a lunatic.

 

[The Coat Is My Father]

I wish I'm Waiting For The Man was at least three times as long. That groove is unbeatable. I'm starting to think lately it might be my new favorite song ever.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

What station plays those two tracks back to back? Sounds like a sick radio station.

The Replacements song sounds way too much like a power ballad. WTF

 

[snuffbox]

Here Comes a Regular sounds like Whitesnake or whatever to you?

 

[Mickey Massuco]

The Replacements - Here Comes A Regular

That guitar tone and chord progression could easily be taken from a Poison B-side. Same with the vocal melody, though obviously they have way different voices. It doesn't have a sweet solo or breakdown though

 

[snuffbox]

It just sounds like living in the Upper Midwest to me. But I'm really partial to the Replacements, admittedly.

 

[The Coat Is My Father]

The local alt rock station occasionally lets the DJs go nuts and just play shit from their hard drives.

 

[BUTT]

I heard a Velvet Underground song on the radio last week but it was on Dee Snider's House of Hair so :-\

 

[The Coat Is My Father]

I'm going to guess it was Rock & Roll? Or maaaaaybe Sweet Jane as a longshot.