The Velvet Underground "White Light/White Heat" 45th Anniversary Edition

I would assume that the compilers are responding to the widespread criticisms of the VU/Another View mixes. The two VU tracks are represented by vintage mixes (previously released on CD on the GOLD collection) but since the AV tracks don't have extant vintage mixes (that I'm aware of), a plausible option could be new mixes that try to reflect the mixing aesthetic of the era.

 

It's a Fender XII.

 

Don't have any evidence to support it, but my instinct is that these big "Super Deluxe" boxes have the "price flexibility" (AKA the ability to be priced exorbitantly by focusing entirely on the mega-fan) that may let them factor Abrams' ransom into cost of the set. Which is why I feel a 3rd Album box may be a more likely destination for this material than a stand-alone release. But really, who knows?

 

Several years ago, Bill Levenson mentioned a DE of the 3rd LP was in the works and that the (apparently newly discovered) early version of "Beginning To See The Light" was going to be on it. In the months and years that followed that comment, I was frustrated that project seemed to be delayed indefinitely. But in the fullness of time, it seems like things have worked out for the best and I much prefer the fact that the track on this set in presented in it's proper context.

Hopefully we'll get that 3rd LP box next year as well, but I'm much happier to have it's contents be period-appropriate. They certainly have more than enough to work with.

 

I was just looking at the HD Tracks site for the hell of it. Oddly enough, the 3rd LP is the only thing available in high res, in addition to VU & Nico. Maybe a precursor to a 3rd LP box. Not sure when it became available in high res.

 

This is certainly the logical perspective but for me...well, not only is this the freakin' Velvet Underground, it's frickin' White Light/White Heat! I don't know how long I could hold out on living in a world where a super deluxe box set of this album existed, with multiple mixes and a photo-packed hardcover book with a good essay and all, without my having it. Even if the price doesn't come down, I fear I'll fold like a cheap suit and pay whatever the going price is within three days.

 

Here, here. My VU & Nico set can't live with it's matching counterpart living somewhere in a warehouse. But I did put in an order at Amazon.co.uk just in case that ends up being the cheapest.

*sigh*

 

I hear you on that. Just 'cause I say I'll take a pass doesn't necessarily mean I will.

 

What do you guys think/hope would be on a possible deluxe edition of the third album?

Mono mix
Closet mix
Live at the Matrix Nov. 1969??

 

October 1968 at La Cave.

 

I'm waiting to see what ImportCDs price is (they're not listing it yet).
They had the best price for the 45th VU&Nico set (until the afterward Amazon 3rd party offer).

Otherwise, I'll go for Amazon UK.

I need the deluxe set one way or the other.

 

Yes, I guess that would make more sense. Maybe we will get Live at the Matrix in a deluxe edition of "1969: The Velvet Underground Live"

 

If it gets that far. The Matrix tapes, the End Of Cole Ave. tapes , a 1969 live box would be very nice indeed, but my most anticipated would be the box built around the 3rd album.

They've blown their opportunity to issue the 40 minute "Sweet Sister Ray", it should have been part of the WL/WH box.

 

Yeah. The absence of "Sweet Sister Ray" is disappointing. The existing tape isn't great, but it's more than adequate (roughly in line with the Valleydale tape, I'd say).

Of course, the whole point of "Sweet Sister Ray" was that it was an intro to "Sister Ray" (and only The Velvets would possibly think that a song that may stretch over 30 minutes in concert required another equally lengthy song to set it up!), so I'd think if you put it on a box like this, you'd really want to present it in proper context, with "Sister Ray" following it. And, aside from "Gymnasium" I don't think there is a releasable Cale-era live "Sister Ray" to round out the disc. I suppose they could have added the Swan Mix of "Sister Ray" and been left with an odd but useful 4th disc for the box.

Of course, ALL WILL BE FORGIVEN, if the long-lost tape of "Sweet Rock and Roll" shows up on the 3rd LP box!

 

I was listening to "Sweet Sister Ray" a few days back and you're right, it's on a level sound wise with the Valleydale show. But it's just so unique, that slow, sexy almost blues vamping and the improvised lyrics going on for all that time and then leading into the regular take on "Sister Ray", it's a great moment in their live canon.
And yes, if "Sweet Rock'n'Roll" shows up, all would be forgiven. I'd like to be able to finally hear it, sound quality be damned.

 

The thing that kills me is that the lost (reportedly stolen) Hippodrome tape w/ "Sweet Rock and Rock" is that the sound quality may have been considerably better than most VU live tapes (and that's on top of the suggestion that the actual contents are so mouth-watering!). From Richie Unterberger:

Early July 1968 concert at the Hippodrome in San Diego: According to Sterling Morrison, sometime during the VU's July 4-6 stint here, a four-track tape was recorded including the unreleased Velvets song "Sweet Rock and Roll," an entirely different song than the VU classic "Rock and Roll." The song, he remembered in his 1986 interview for Spanish TV with Ignacio Julia, "was never recorded and never played again. We wanted that tape, it sounded so great, so there was no point in recording it. I think we did it a time or two after that, but it was nothing compared to this first one. I remember the chords and some words: 'Sweet rock 'n' roll is good to your soul...'. We used that as a preamble to 'Sister Ray,' it kind of just goes along and then hits the chords, which were very heavy. It was good. It was heavy, serious. Cale played keyboard on 'Sweet Rock and Roll,' and that was really what carried it." The tape itself might never be found or even exist, as according to an unpublished Morrison interview with M.C. Kostek and Phil Milstein of What Goes On, "That was a great performance...but you know, the tape was stolen that very night. Stolen within seconds, actually. As soon as it ended, it vanished, never to reappear on earth."

 

Long (1969/70) long ago, in CREEM when the cover was still paper, Lester Bangs did a long article on The Velvets and he describes that song, calling it long and filled with slow riffs, which almost fits the description of "Sweet Sister Ray".

 

I'm a little surprised there hasn't been more discussion and speculation about the new live version of "The Gift" that is being included on the set. I know the song itself divides fans, but I find the mere fact that a vintage performance of the song exists at all to be a huge revelation. Let alone the fact that it was played at the same show as "Booker T" (it's supposed basis). And further letting alone the fact that we're actually going to get to hear it in (presumably) superb quality. I think it's fairly likely that other early songs that don't have documented live renditions were nonetheless very plausibly played here and there, but I had previously pretty much accepted that "The Gift" was a studio-only song, at least until the reunion.

Since it's supposedly grew out of "Booker T," I'll find it fascinating if the music on the live version closely matches the earlier performance of song that evidentally opened this Gymnasium performance. This seems like it has the potential to pretty much confirm or debunk that notion for good. I'll also add that "The Gift" seems like it'd be such a hard song to execute in a live setting (which is why I suspect the conventional wisdom that it was never performed live was so widely embraced) that I'm braced for a train-wreck of a performance, but I'll be delighted to have my expectations confounded here.

 

I'm curious about this performance myself. The possibility of it being a train wreck is strong, maybe theyapproach is differently live, but I have no way of knowing that. I'm shocked that they even performed it live. Will John just recite the story while the band churns in the background? I have no problem with that whatsoever. This is probably the most intriguing thing about the set for me.

 

I find the music the band is playing behind The Gift on WL/WH to be some of my very favorite VU music - sooooo funky.
I had always heard that the music of The Gift was an instrumental vamp they used live called Booket T with the story recited over it.
So, I was thrown when I finally heard a live track called "Booket T" (on the Peel Slowly box set?) and it was not very similar.
I've not dig my way through lots of non-official VU recordings - are there more Booker Ts out there are and are any similar to what is heard on WL/WH?

 

I think the "Booker T" on Peel Slowly... is from the gymnasium tape.
There was no "Booker T' on WL/WH so I assume you mean "The Gift". As far as I know this is the first time that song has turned up in a live show, which is what makes it exciting.

 

Was there ever an official press release for this set? I ask because most of the various web articles about it cover very similar territory, but I've not yet seen the source of their coverage. And as it stands, NONE of the sites that I've seen list the alternate take of "I Heard Her Call My Name" as unreleased. On the surface it seems like the most exciting inclusion, but as it stands, I remain convinced it must be the Sundazed version. And yet, prior to this, I never saw anyone contend that version was anything other than a different mix. I know I'm beating the same dead horse over and over, but it bears mentioning that it seems one of the previously accepted facts must have been in error.

 

Maybe as we get closer to the December release, we'll know more. But I have to say that if they want folks outside of the uber fans to buy this set they'd better bring the price down. And this is my question: how many people are going to buy this? I think it's the first album that carries a lot of the weight of their reputation for the casual fan, and I've a feeling that after that, the amount of customers for this set will fall off in a fairy large way. I hope not.

 

That's the question that hovers all of these sort of collections. I don't think my opinion or preferences should be de-valued because I know I'm clearly an uber-fan, but who else is going to buy a set of this nature? On a disc-by-disc basis, it seems like WL/WH is a lesser value than than the previous Banana Album set, but is that the sort of economics that the compilers are contending with? Remains to be seen.

 

True. But that price is just irksome. Did they have to pay Cale that much for the Gymnasium tape?