So why is 1969 Velvet Underground Live With Lou Reed on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
In a lovely write up about this live 1969 album by The Velvet Underground in All Music, Mark Deming notes that while “no one thought to make a live recording of the Velvet Underground during their 1967-1968 peak period,” later in 1969, “a VU fan who was a recording engineer brought a reel-to-reel tape macIn a lovely write-up about this live 1969 album by The Velvet Underground in All Music, Mark Deming notes that while “no one thought to make a live recording of the Velvet Underground during their 1967-1968 peak period,” later 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.”
This got me to thinking about serendipity and the phenomenon of capturing lightning in a bottle that can sometimes occur during the recording of music. When that lightning strikes, it gives us some small but indelible connection to what it would have been like to actually be there during its recording in the flesh.
As a massive fan of The Doors, I was delighted to stumble into this dreamy yet surprisingly rocking early live cut of “Strange Days” at the London Fog in 1966.*
* I had a brief interaction with Ray Manzarek at the London Fog during an event to celebrate the anniversary of The Doors becoming the house band at the iconic, nearby Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood. I asked him a Doors-related question that I expected not many people (if any) would ask, and he gave me a pretty taciturn response. I don’t hold it against him and still revere him and The Doors, though it was certainly a lesson in being careful when meeting your heroes.
While the recording quality is a tad tinny, I adore the fact that it’s catching the band early on and in a way that they could never have imagined that some dude would be going on about it 60 years later after finding it on this technology thing called YouTube.
Anyway, all of these thoughts flit around my mind while listening to this spectacular recording of “Sweet Jane.” Most of all, though, my brain is simply on tilt by how gorgeous it sounds.
Same goes for “Beginning To See The Light,” one of my most favorite TVU songs of all, and I think this may be my favorite version of it as it takes on a fast-paced, kind of proto-jangle pop vibe.
Jangle pop with a groovy hippie era feel in the best kind of way comes to mind again with the catchy as all get out “We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together.”
Side note that “We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together” is leveraged very nicely in the Billions Season 3 finale, “Elmsley Court.”
The version of “Femme Fatale” here is just glorious with Lou Reed on vocals (instead of the weirder and more striking studio version that features Nico). I love how relaxed and unpretentious this version of The Velvet Underground is, showing off precisely why capturing live cuts such as this one can be so powerful.
And I’ll end on the nearly nine minutes of jam-out bliss that is “What Goes On.” If this is jam band music, then cut me in on this version of it, please.
Some stats & info about 1969 Velvet Underground Live With Lou Reed
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Art Rock, New York Bands, Psychedelic Rock, Live Albums
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was 1969 Velvet Underground Live With Lou Reed released? 1974
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #72 out of 1,000
1969 Velvet Underground Live With Lou Reed on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from 1969 Velvet Underground Live With Lou Reed that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Well, I’m beginning to see the light.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.