The Velvet Undergound '1969' (New 2xLP)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by FrixFrixFrix, Dec 15, 2017.

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  1. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    I think so, but some people have expressed a preference for the 80's versions. I'm in two minds about the new Guess I'm Falling In Love.
     
    pobbard likes this.
  2. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips?

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    I received my copy from Amazon Canada today, it is the EU pressing.

    Has anyone bought the MOV “Collected” 2lp?
     
  3. polchik

    polchik Forum Resident

    thanks for mentioning this …. i was wondering which version amaz.ca was shipping out …..
     
  4. WonkyWilly

    WonkyWilly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paradise, PA
    I can understand preferring some aspects of the 80's mixes, but that ridiculous gated reverb on Mo's drums? Come on. I can't take a preference for that seriously at all. It's a Velvet Underground album, not a Genesis album fer chrissakes. Give me something that will sit alongside their other albums.
     
    Chris M likes this.
  5. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    Have been owning the EU pressing for a couple of weeks now.
    The volume is perfect, my copy is dead-quiet and there was practically not a single 'pop' to be heard anywhere.
    Totally worth the wait and money.
     
    johnnybrum likes this.
  6. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    Don't tell me. I said 'some people'. :)
     
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  7. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Finally got it today; just arrived in the mail. I am quite happy...I think it sounds very nice. Good stuff, and it fits nicely between VU and Loaded.

    Mine is the EU pressing, too. No complaints.
     
    dee likes this.
  8. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    I do like your two choices, but I’ll go with Foggy Notion, I Can’t Stand It and Hey Mr. Rain (Version 2)
     
  9. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Now, to be honest, I had not heard this version of Rock and Roll before. So, an early version, and no “wine and roses” section.

    I’m very pleased to feel a bit vindicated. I don’t prefer that bit, and have always played my original Loaded album instead of the cd reissue I have. I never thought it was integral, though I know Lou preferred it, as do many on the forum.

    I thought Lou liked it more because it was how the original track was supposed to be. But it wasn’t original original, as I can see now.
     
    Electric Sydney likes this.
  10. WonkyWilly

    WonkyWilly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paradise, PA
    The "wine and roses" section was in "Sweet Jane". ;)
     
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  11. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Oh brother, I’m getting old. That was sad. Let me try again...

    I never liked that additional three second guitar part!

    I only now feel somewhat vindicated...thanks Willy!
     
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  12. Electric Sydney

    Electric Sydney Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scarsdale, NY
    We knew what you meant.
     
    Chemguy likes this.
  13. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    Finally bought the 2xLP 1969 yesterday (appropriately) at Sister Ray, Brewer St., London. Euro-pressing and a very good one. Years of UMG using GZ and finally they have found a plant who press well, and also house the vinyl in standard white poly-lined sleeves. No more scratches and a quiet pressing straight out of the sleeve.

    Observations.

    I don't find it cut too quiet.

    There are two tracks where the bass is quite bloated. They are One Of These Days and Ride Into The Sun (I usually love that track, so disappointed with that one). To a lesser degree – Andy's Chest and Foggy Notion also have pumped up bass. I know there is also an increase in bass on the CD versions of these songs, but on vinyl it is not really tight enough and sounds a bit intrusive on two of them.

    Side 4 is the best and most consistent sounding and has less of the bass-bloat problems. All the stuff on side 4 sounds much better here to me, than where it appears on the 2xLP 45th pressing of WLWH. I wish it has the alt. mix of Heard Her Call My Name, but no room and does not fit in with the general 'unheard' album/song idea. I'd love a good 7" of that track (and no, not the Sundozed version :) )

    Overall really enjoying this and can recommend the Euro version.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2018
    Hulloder, alexpop, Leaman and 3 others like this.
  14. Library Eye

    Library Eye Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I finally hooked up a turntable again after too many years. Brand new needle having graced two only LPs so far - the First Step from a unopened You Can Make Me Dance, Sing... Faces box and a sealed copy of this Anita O'Day record which is apparently first US release of her mid-70's Tokyo studio sessions: Anita O'Day - Anita O'Day (I believe recording was 1975, not 1976 - being a truncated issue of "My Ship" LP from Japan) with a remarkably yellowed, even partially brown paper inner sleeve. Both were delightful listens. I picked up a new copy of this Velvets double - domestic release - to be my third listen. Hole fits spindle, but vinyl shavings were coming off the side of LP1 at least, and while the surfaces of LPs seem / appear clean, got through a minute of both sides 1 and 3 and this is the crackliest new vinyl i can recall ever getting. I do not have a record cleaning machine to whirl them through. Not to mention, the cover is all creased (ordered online on sale, picked up in store). Gonna return it and keep any eye out for a European pressing, or just assemble a playlist of these tracks from the box sets where these mixes mostly debuted and can all be found, give or take a minor difference or two. This is basically the dream lineup best-of the-unreleased-until-80's Velvet Underground stuff (first album of theirs I finally heard was VU way back when that was released) but it won't be a pleasure then to listen to it like this.
     
  15. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Prefer the sundazed / mgm 69 album cover but the eur pressing v good.
     
    Library Eye likes this.
  16. Rocknut

    Rocknut Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Boston

    The sad state of US vinyl manufacturing. The crackle and pop on new pressings is not a matter of cleaning, it is because of what pressing plant technicians call "non-fill." Basically the vinyl not fully flowing into the grooves of the stamper. The record will look perfect, but crackles. A lot of US pressing plants suffer from this problem. The funny thing is that one copy can be perfect and one pressed 5 minutes earlier has the problem. Some labels us the good pressing plants like RTI, but buying US vinyl these days is a bit like Russian Roulette. You never know what you are going to get.

    Another problem that a lot of US pressings have is that the B-side is off center. My theory is that this is caused by play in the mechanism that squeezes the vinyl down. A manual or semi-manual record press is basically a more elaborate waffle machine. The A-side plate is affixed to the chassis of the press and as a result the A-side will always be perfectly centered. If the hinges have play the B-side can come down misaligned relative to the center. This wiggle room in the hinge mechanism allows for one LP to come out perfectly centered, the next one to be off 0.5 mm and the next one by 1 mm. If a side is 1 mm off-center the needle will sway 2 mm left-to-right, as a result you get tonal variance or howling. Especially when music has keyboards, drones or long notes the variance gets annoying.

    Putting the vinyl puck between the plates slightly off center may even trigger the top plate to be drift to one side. I have a feeling that this is also why the labels are often not properly centered and why there often are vinyl burrs at the spindle hole. Off-center records often have these two telltale signs. Of course some of these smaller mom and pop pressing plants got their machines used from large discontinued vinyl plants, so the machines have miles on them. Old machine just have more play.
     
  17. ad180

    ad180 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA

    Interesting thoughts. Just curious, have you been in a pressing plant or operated presses? What types of presses are you familiar with?
     
    FrixFrixFrix likes this.
  18. Justin Brooks

    Justin Brooks Forum Resident

    so, wiki lists the source (End of Cole Ave and The Matrix) for the original album but does anyone know the source for the bonus tracks that were later added ("Heroin" and "I Can't Stand It")? i'm working on project to see which tracks are superfluous now that we have the box sets and The Complete Matrix.
     
  19. rnranimal

    rnranimal Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    I can't remember offhand if the bonus tracks were from End Cole or Matrix, but all the 1969 Live tracks are available on the End Cole 2nd night boot and Matrix 4CD. 1969 Live contains no performances not found on those two sets. The mixes of the Matrix tracks are different and at least one spoken song title intro is on 1969 Live but missing from Matrix.
     
  20. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Why did The Velvet Underground not play Woodstock?
     
  21. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    :laugh:
    Can't imagine anyone asked them.
    For all their kill all hippies and do heroin in black shades ethos, they were a great road band in 1969 who would have fit pretty nicely at the mudfest.
     
    midniteinsanjuan and Chrome_Head like this.
  22. TMegginson

    TMegginson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ottawa
    I just picked it up on Amazon.ca. (The 2017 stand-alone release on black vinyl.)

    Side one starts out a little crackly. I was able to mitigate this with a light manual clean. The noise disappeared completely by the middle of S1, only to reappear with a vengeance at the end of S3. S4 was OK.

    I dropped my needle into a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser after S2, and it left a black spot on the thing. Twice more, 2 more spots. It's as if it has a lot of vinyl "dust" in the grooves, as well as possibly other detritus from two years sealed in a cheap paper sleeve.

    Anyway, I'm keeping it. Cost me $38 Cdn ($28.62 USD), but I'm not letting this one go. Originally ordered it in 2017 and returned for a bent cover, then it seemingly went out of stock. Had one in hand at Vertigo Records in Ottawa, and put it down. The new blue one seems to be much more expensive.

    Whatever. It's VU. A little weather on the bark — even if caused by poor 21st Century QA — doesn't faze me.
     
    Chrome_Head likes this.
  23. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Yep, I can see them coming on at dawn and opening with 40 minutes of " Sister Ray".:D
     
  24. Ben Adams

    Ben Adams Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ, USA
    Same experience here. My first pressing is the only record I’ve ever taken to a record shop to have ultra sonically cleaned.
     
    TMegginson likes this.
  25. TMegginson

    TMegginson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ottawa
    VU were so disliked in their time, their studio albums mostly went OOP soon after they disappeared. Only the semi-bootlegs were generally available until the '80s. (I remember them all showing up again, along with VU and its poor cousin, Another View.)

    If not for David Bowie obsessing about what had become an obscure band, Lou might have completely given up before — or just after — his first solo album.*

    *According to some biographers, Bowie started covering VU before they were even released. He got his hands on an acetate of VU+N that Warhol had given his manager. He covered it on BBC broadcasts several times.
     
    DTK, alexpop and trumpet sounds like this.
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