Lou Reed rock legend, dies

Εγώ τώρα τι να γράψω? Αν με ακούει εκεί που πήγε θα ήθελα να του πω ένα μεγάλο ευχαριστώ μέσα από την καρδία μου. Ένα ευχαριστώ για όσα απόλαυσα και απολαμβάνω ακόμα με την μουσική του, για την παρέα που μου κράτησε και για τα ανεκτίμητα κοσμήματα που πρόσθεσε στην δισκοθήκη μου

Αντίο Lou. Δεν θα σε ξεχάσουμε ποτέ. Δεν γίνετε γιατί είσαι αθάνατος.  

Σχεδόν όλο το καλοκαίρι που πέρασε άκουγα την αγαπημένη μου εκτέλεση από τους Velvet.

The Velvet Underground - What Goes On live at the Hilltop Rock Festival video

Live at the Hilltop Rock Festival, Rindge, New Hampshire, August 2, 1969. VU plays What Goes On for 11 minutes and 40 seconds. But due to Youtube's 10 minute...

The Velvet Underground – Another View

Ας ανεβάσω και αυτό αφού υπάρχει για όσους δεν πρόλαβαν τότε να το αγοράσουν. Είπαμε και πριν ότι είχαμε και τα καλά μας τότε. Μετά από αυτό το δίσκο ερωτεύτηκα την εκτέλεση του Rock And Roll που άκουσα εδώ. Νομίζω είναι παρασάγγας ανώτερη από αυτή που πρωτοακούσαμε.

When The Velvet Underground moved from Verve Records (who had released their first two albums) to parent company MGM Records, they signed a two-album deal, releasing their third and eponymous album The Velvet Underground in March 1969. Later that same year, however, there was a management change and MGM Records' new CEO, Mike Curb was brought in to try to rescue the financially struggling label. He decided to purge the record company of its many controversial and unprofitable acts. The Velvet Underground quickly became one of the groups blacklisted and were released from their contract. The band had, however, in the meantime recorded fourteen tracks for possible release as their second MGM album. All of these were shelved and forgotten by their record company until the early Eighties.

As Verve (by then an imprint of Polygram) prepared to re-release the band's three Verve/MGM albums on vinyl and, for the first time, on CD, they found nineteen previously unreleased tracks: five Cale-era tracks and the fourteen "lost album" tracks, some of them in two-track mixdown format, some of them even on multitracks. The cream of the nineteen tracks was released in February of 1985 on VU; the rest remained for the time being in the vaults.

In 1986, Polydor decided to prepare a vinyl box set for European release. Simply titled The Velvet Underground, this box, which was released in June, consisted of the band's first three albums, VU, and an untitled bonus album containing the remaining nine tracks from Polygram's vaults. That untitled album was later separately released on vinyl and CD as Another View.

An acetate-sourced alternate mix of this album's version of "Ride into the Sun", featuring vocals by Lou Reed, has appeared on bootlegs and on the Australian boxed set What Goes On.

As The Velvet Underground moved from MGM to Atlantic, they re-recorded two of the songs on Another View, "Ride into the Sun" and "Rock and Roll", for possible inclusion on Loaded. Only "Rock and Roll" made the grade, but two of the Another View songs would be recycled by Lou Reed during his early solo career: "Ride into the Sun" (on Lou Reed, 1972) and "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together" (on Street Hassle, 1978).

Tracks:
Side one
1. "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together" (Reed) – 2:56
Recorded September 30, 1969
2. "I'm Gonna Move Right In" – 6:30
Recorded September 27, 1969
3. "Hey Mr. Rain" – 4:56
Recorded May 29, 1968
4. "Ride into the Sun" – 3:20
Recorded September 5, 1969
5. "Coney Island Steeplechase" – 2:20
Recorded May 6, 1969
Side two
1. "Guess I'm Falling in Love" (Instrumental version) – 3:35
Recorded December 5, 1967
2. "Hey Mr. Rain" – 5:16
Recorded May 29, 1968
3. "Ferryboat Bill" (Reed, Morrison, Yule, Tucker) – 2:10
Recorded June 19, 1969
4. "Rock and Roll" (Reed) – 5:18
Recorded June 19, 1969

http://www.sendspace.com/file/je5pqt

The Velvet Underground - VU

Από τις ευχάριστες κυκλοφορίες τότε στο τόπο μας. Όποιος πρόλαβε τον Κύριο είδε σε αυτές τις περιπτώσεις καθώς μην φαντάζεστε ότι κυκλοφορούσαν χιλιάδες κόπιες. Οι άρρωστοι ήταν μετρημένοι.

When The Velvet Underground moved from Verve Records (who had released their first two albums) to parent company MGM Records, they signed a two-album deal, releasing their third and eponymous album The Velvet Underground in March 1969. Later that same year, however, there was a management change and MGM Records' new CEO, Mike Curb was brought in to try to rescue the financially struggling label. He decided to purge the record company of its many controversial and unprofitable acts.

The Velvet Underground quickly became one of the groups blacklisted and were released from their contract. The band had, however, in the meantime recorded fourteen tracks for possible release as their second MGM album. All of these were shelved and forgotten by their record company until the early 1980s.
As Verve (by then an imprint of Polygram) prepared to re-release the band's three Verve/MGM albums on vinyl and CD, they found nineteen previously unreleased tracks: five Cale-era tracks and the fourteen "lost album" tracks, some of them in two-track mixdown format, some of them even on multitracks. The cream of the nineteen tracks was released in 1985 as VU; the rest was released as Another View in 1986.

VU is a selection from the 1969 tracks as well as two previously unreleased Cale-era songs—"Temptation Inside Your Heart" and "Stephanie Says". Since most of the material was available on multitrack (only "Ocean" is included in its original 1969 mix), engineers were able to clean up and remix the tracks.
As The Velvet Underground moved from MGM to Atlantic, they re-recorded two of the songs on VU, "Ocean" and "I'm Sticking with You", for possible inclusion on Loaded. Neither made the cut, but no less than six of the VU songs would be recycled by Lou Reed during his early solo career: "I Can't Stand It" , "Lisa Says" and "Ocean" on Lou Reed, 1972; "Andy's Chest" on Transformer, 1972; "Stephanie Says" (became "Caroline Says II") on Berlin, 1973; and "She's My Best Friend" on Coney Island Baby, 1976.
It peaked in the U.S. at #85, the band's best placing

Tracks:
Side one
1. "I Can't Stand It" – 3:21
Recorded May 20, 1969
2. "Stephanie Says" – 2:49
Recorded February 13, 1968
3. "She's My Best Friend" – 2:47
Recorded May 14, 1969
4. "Lisa Says" – 2:53
October 1, 1969
5. "Ocean" – 5:10
June 19, 1969
Side two
1. "Foggy Notion" – 6:41*
Recorded May 6, 1969
2. "Temptation Inside Your Heart" – 2:30
Recorded February 14, 1968
3. "One of These Days" – 3:50
Recorded September 23, 1969
4. "Andy's Chest" – 2:49
Recorded May 13, 1969
5. "I'm Sticking with You" – 2:26
Recorded May 13, 1969

http://www.sendspace.com/file/1n89ft

The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat (1968)

Εδώ έχουμε το δεύτερο δημιούργημα των Velvet Underground και τελευταίο όμως όσον αφορά την συμμετοχή του John Cale. O Lou Reed εκφράζει απόλυτα την μουσική διαφορετικότητα του με ότι άλλο υπήρχε το 60. Πρωτοπόρος σε διάφορα πράγματα μάλλον θα πρέπει από αυτό τον δίσκο να του αποδοθεί ο όρος περί sex, drugs and rock’n roll αρκεί βέβαια να προσέξει κανείς τις αναφορές στους στίχους του. Μέσα στις πειραματικές αναζητήσεις του σε διάφορα κομμάτια στο δίσκο, θα σταθώ στο "Here She Comes Now" που μου αρέσει ιδιαίτερα. Στους αγαπημένους Velvet Underground θα επανέλθω.

After the disappointing sales of The Velvet Underground's first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, the band's relationship with Andy Warhol weakened. The Velvets toured most of late 1967. Many of their live performances featured noisy improvisations that would become key elements in White Light/White Heat. The band eventually fired Andy Warhol and Nico, and went on to record their second album with a new producer. The album was recorded in just two days, and with a noticeably different style than The Velvet Underground and Nico. It briefly appeared on the Billboard Top 200, only managing to reach the 199th position. Despite its poor sales, the distorted, feedback-driven, and roughly recorded sound on White Light/White Heat has since become a large influence on punk and experimental rock. It ranks at #159 at Rate Your Music's Top Albums of All Time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 292 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It has also gained a cult following among many fans of the album.

Nearly every song on the album contains some sort of experimental or avant-garde quality. "The Gift", for example, contains a recital of a short story and a loud instrumental rock song playing simultaneously in two separate stereo channels. "I Heard Her Call My Name" is notable for its distorted guitar solos and prominent use of feedback. The album is also memorable for Lou Reed's lyrics, which often focus on themes of drug use and sexual absurdity, including the song "Lady Godiva's Operation", about a drag queen's botched lobotomy, and the title track "White Light/White Heat", which glorifies the use of amphetamine.

The albums' last track is "Sister Ray" on which Reed tells a tale of absolute debauchery, while the band plays an improvised 17 minute jam around 3 chords verging between glam/punk and pure minimalist drone rock. The album cover to White Light/White Heat is a faint image of a tattoo of a skull. The subtle picture of the tattooed arm was photographed, enlarged and distorted by Billy Name, one of Andy Warhol's "Factory" members. It is difficult to distinguish the tattoo, as the image is black, printed on a slightly lighter black background. There also exists a unique MGM UK cover made from the late 70's to the early 80's featuring a white background and abstract toy soldiers.
(Wikipedia)

Personnel
Lou Reed - vocals, guitar, piano
John Cale - vocals, electric viola, organ, bass guitar
Sterling Morrison - vocals, guitar, bass guitar
Maureen Tucker - percussion

Tracks:
1. "White Light/White Heat" (Reed) – 2:47
2. "The Gift" (Reed, Morrison, Cale, Tucker) – 8:18
3. "Lady Godiva's Operation" (Reed) – 4:56
4. "Here She Comes Now" (Reed, Morrison, Cale) – 2:04
5. "I Heard Her Call My Name" (Reed) – 4:38
6. "Sister Ray" (Reed, Morrison, Cale, Tucker) – 17:27

http://www.shareonall.com/The_Velvet_Underground_-_White_LightWhite_Heat_vhum_rar.htm