Most Under-Rated / Under-Appreciated Velvet Underground Tracks

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

I touched on this idea in the other VU thread, so here it is.

'Loaded' is a popular choice for 'favourite Velvet Underground album', and the tracks that tend to get singled out are 'Sweet Jane' and 'Rock And Roll' - great songs when done elsewhere on live albums, but the 'Loaded' versions don't really do it for me for some reason.  I'd say 'Train Round The Bend' is far and away the best track on that album - catchy as hell, and it's got that Velvets sound.

One of my first ever gigs was The Soft Boys at Leeds Warehouse and they kicked off the set with that track - I thought it was fantastic, but I didn't know it was a cover at that point and I spent ages wondering why they never released what was obviously their best song.  A few years later I bought 'Loaded' and there you go.

My other one is the instrumental version of 'Ride Into The Sun', released on the 'Another View' bits and pieces compilation.  The vocal version was never officially released apart from 'bonus track on box set' status, and Lou re-did it on his first solo album, but this is the one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydA0bmL-UEk

Exquisite.

So...which Velvets classics do you think are unfairly sidelined or tend to go unmentioned?

[kalowski]

"Unreleased" track Ocean, which obviously was released, but not at the time.
I think other underrated songs include I Heard Her Call My Name which is just sublime, Lady Godiva's Operation and Jesus.

[SteveDave]

Louise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-t9gDVtfTs

Friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrHSf_hByOU

Crash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-pBY76KD0E

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

"Unreleased" track Ocean, which obviously was released, but not at the time.
I think other underrated songs include I Heard Her Call My Name which is just sublime, Lady Godiva's Operation and Jesus.

I love Ocean, especially the Live 1969 version. Good call on Lady Godiva's Operation as well, it's probably my favourite from WLWH, where the title track and Sister Ray get all the attention (for good reasons).

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

Friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrHSf_hByOU

That's my favourite from Squeeze - chord change borrowed from Who Loves The Sun?  Either way, it beats Lonesome Cowboy Bill!

[sardines]

I would agree with Ocean. Whenever i hear a VU influence in bands beyond the 80s, it feels like it comes from Ocean.

My choice though would be I Heard Her Call My Name.
Underrated as the talking point is arguably the track that follows but fuck me there is more in that 4 mins 30 seconds of music than in most bands careers.

[kalowski]

I would agree with Ocean. Whenever i hear a VU influence in bands beyond the 80s, it feels like it comes from Ocean.

My choice though would be I Heard Her Call My Name.
Underrated as the talking point is arguably the track that follows but fuck me there is more in that 4 mins 30 seconds of music than in most bands careers.

It was the song that got me, that made me realise that they could do anything. That they were a genuine marvel. I first heard it on the Safety Film compilation (which I still have) and I still get a genuine shiver listening to Mo's mallets in flight on that track.
It really looks down on any copyists and says "You cannot follow."

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

Good call on Ocean. The VU version is miles better than the one on Lou Reed's first solo LP. Something about the semi-whispered vocal style, especially the line "Revel in heaven's justice" sends a shiver down my spine every single time.

Shout out for I'm Not a Young Man Anymore from the Live at the Gymnasium 1967 recording. I'd not heard many unreleased tracks of theirs from the Cale era aside from the so-so demos on the Peel Slowly & See box set, so this was something of a revelation when it was released in the late 2000s. It's up there with your Booker T's, European Sons an I Heard Her Call My Names as one of the best examples of their scuzzy, chugalong jams of the era.

[jobotic]

Agree about ocean and I Heard Her Call My Name (which may be my favourite of all their songs).

And definitely agree with Ride Into The Sun. The first time I ever heard it was Throwing Muses' cover, which I still love. I'm not much of a fan to be honest generally.

[holyzombiejesus]

Don't know about you guys but I'm really looking forward to Bobby Gillespie and Thurston Moore's cover of Heroin on the forthcoming VU tribute album. Bet it's immense.

[jobotic]

Bobby Gillespie is their true heir. The cool, the danger, the innovation.

[SteveDave]

Don't know about you guys but I'm really looking forward to Bobby Gillespie and Thurston Moore's cover of Heroin on the forthcoming VU tribute album. Bet it's immense.

O yeah https://pitchfork.com/news/kurt-vile-michael-stipe-iggy-pop-st-vincent-and-more-cover-velvet-underground-and-nico-for-tribute-album/

Although if we're going into VU covers, these two are favourites

Ty Segall doing "Femme Fatale" as a garage rock song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPBuqI4oPyI

Curtis Harding doing "Here She Comes Now" as an uptempo soul song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmM6ty2F2aI

[SpiderChrist]

what's the story behind all the spoken word bits (shut the door! you can talk during this bit etc) in Temptation Inside Your Heart?

[SteveDave]

what's the story behind all the spoken word bits (shut the door! you can talk during this bit etc) in Temptation Inside Your Heart?

I'm not sure if they were mixed like that when they were recorded or if that was something that was decided when "VU" was released? I know Lou's said it was from as they were recording the double-tracked "Doo-doo-doo"s they realised the engineer had recorded everything they'd said on the first take. Sterling's closing "Was that awful" was because he was never sure their backing vocals were any good.

EDIT- I've had a look in Ritchie Unterberger's day-by-day book and they decided to leave it like that with all the comments when it was recorded as a proposed b-side to a single that never happened. Either "Stephanie Says" or "Guess I'm Falling In Love" I presume.

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

Bobby Gillespie is their true heir. The cool, the danger, the innovation.

...the raging smack addiction...

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

"Stephanie Says"

This is another gem, and again I much prefer it to the re-worked Lou Reed solo version (Caroline Says II).

Not sure if it technically counts but in recent years I've really come to love It Was a Pleasure Then from Nico's Chelsea Girls album. I used to find it a chore but eventually appreciated it as a thing of haunting beauty. Reed & Cale's guitar / viola is what makes it.

[extraordinary walnuts]

'Move Right In' is a banger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOX1WP265LU

[SpiderChrist]

I'm not sure if they were mixed like that when they were recorded or if that was something that was decided when "VU" was released? I know Lou's said it was from as they were recording the double-tracked "Doo-doo-doo"s they realised the engineer had recorded everything they'd said on the first take. Sterling's closing "Was that awful" was because he was never sure their backing vocals were any good.

EDIT- I've had a look in Ritchie Unterberger's day-by-day book and they decided to leave it like that with all the comments when it was recorded as a proposed b-side to a single that never happened. Either "Stephanie Says" or "Guess I'm Falling In Love" I presume.

Nice one, ta

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

'Move Right In' is a banger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOX1WP265LU

You're not kidding!  Thanks, I'd never heard that version.

What a band.