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

Oh man! I was really hoping the 2CD version would include the mono mix as opposed to the live set. Oh well, you can't please everyone.

Guess I'll have to wait for a good deal on this (got the 6CD VU&N for $33) because I refuse to pay $100 for 3CDs...

 

Disc: 3

2. I'M NOT A YOUNG MAN (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
3. ANYMORE (LIVE AT THE GYMNASIUM, NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 30, 1967)

Weird typo above?

Interesting they couldn't find (never recorded?) a lead vocal for the studio 'Guess I'm Falling In Love'. After all these years, Lou and John should record the vocal and release the finished track as an iTunes exclusive - for charity, of course.

And isn't 'I'm Not A Young Man Anymore' essentially a remake of 'European Son'?...

 

I'm a fan but not that knowledgeable about their unreleased material so, for those who have heard it, how is the sound quality of the Gymnasium set?

 

Meh, that's too much for the 3cd version, gouging in excelsis. Will have to pass on the Mono version and go for the vinyl and wait to see if the Gymnasium tapes get a separate vinyl release in a few months like the Sceptre Sessions did for RSD. No doubt they will, as the greed of major record companies still knows no bounds and one they've realised all the people that will buy the boxed set have they will stick out a limited vinyl edition of disc3, probably with something tacked on to make sure the collectors have to double dip.

 

I really hope if can resist buying this as i am a bit sick of Universal's deluxe editions cynically being floated before Xmas to snag hardcore fans to buy the same album again. I bought the last 2 Who ones where there was not that much new stuff really and now they are tempting me with Tommy despite having original Track vinyl and the 2cd deluxe edition.

The VU and Nico box was really well done and i love having it but sometimes i think i must be mad to fall for all this. I had an excellent early 70's MGM UK vinyl of that, another Polydor 1986 copy in the vinyl boxed set they released then wth VU/Another View, a copy of the same album on cd in Peel Slowly And See and also the 2 disc Deluxe Edition before i bought that. So essentially 4 copies of the same album and i went for it. I sold the 2disc deluxe but then i bought the Scepter Sessions vinyl too which was in the cd box. I just have no appetite to be done over again for WLWH which i have in Peel on cd, on vinyl in the '86 box but i will probably get the double vinyl.

 

Wow! That is quite a revelation. Seems obvious now as the drums sound just like the tracks on the LP.

I wonder how much of the albums notoriously poor sound quality is due to the mix rather than the recording? I mean, Guess I'm Falling In Love sounds like Gaucho compared to the tracks on the album. It seems like the drums were buried on the LP for aesthetic reasons rather than a recording snafu.

 

1.So...they decided to include fold-down of "Sister Ray" too. "Excellent".
2.I wonder if they used Sundazed mix of "I Heard...." for the mono cd 2 or is the same fold-down?
3.Nice to see that "Booker T" and "The Gift" are two separate tracks. So, it's makes sense now.
4.Looking forward to hear remixed tracks from "Another View" and VU
_____________

5. Can someone explain me if i still need to buy Sundazed Singles box? Does Mono mixes of "Stephanie Says' and "Temptation" are genuine or just fold-downs??

 

I'd kill to hear the WL/WH multis...

 

[quote="5. Can someone explain me if i still need to buy Sundazed Singles box? Does Mono mixes of "Stephanie Says' and "Temptation" are genuine or just fold-downs??[/quote]


I don't know, but I can tell you what I can hear, on the Sundazed 45's box there are mono mixes of those songs being vintage mixes (or so I think), and they sound different to the 'Another View/V.U.' mixes. I also heard those two cuts from The Velvet Underground 'Gold' comp (THANK YOU CHRIS M.)!!!!! and they appear to be vintage stereo mixes which sound very similar to the mono mixes, but the mono could very well be dedicated. Both the mono and stereo vintage mixes are pretty markedly different to the Antoerh View/VU stuff from the 80's. I actually prefer the Stephanie Says from the 80's as someone sounds awful from the vintage mix, and was apparently mixed out.

 

It's very strange that the "cancelled single mix" of "I Heard Her Call My Name" seems to be missing-- is it in fact the same alternate take that's featured on disc 1 (I'll note that track isn't listed as "previously unreleased" though mistakes like that are common on Amazon track listings, witness "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore")? The two singles mixes on disc 2 don't really approach the same level of differentiation, so unless I missed some analysis a while ago, I'm very puzzled. Despite it's differences, I was under the impression it was the same take as the LP version.

 

Why you sure it is the same alternate take? There's difference between alternate take (mean that this is completely different perfomance/take) and alternate mix.

 

How about "The Gift" on CD 2? They just simply isolated vocal and instrumental part, which is in mono? I have read that Cale read story in one take only.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, this is the first time the (mostly) circulating Gymnasium show has been specifically dated, and it's self-evidently the last show of their residency at the venue (as all the shows were reportedly in Mar/April '67, assuming there wasn't an additional, later set that night). I find it fascinating that "Booker T" seems to have opened the show, with "The Gift" closing it. Was that an intentional effort at "bookending" or do the songs not have the relationship to each other than has long been widely assumed (my longtime theory)?

This all depends on the assumption that the tape is complete and in the original sequence, of course.

 

Yeah, that's why I asked the question. I'm not sure. It's just that this particular alternate mix is SO different that I can't imagine that they wouldn't have included it, unless it was redundant with the alternate take.

 

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what we have here.

 

I don't know, but I can tell you what I can hear, on the Sundazed 45's box there are mono mixes of those songs being vintage mixes (or so I think), and they sound different to the 'Another View/V.U.' mixes. I also heard those two cuts from The Velvet Underground 'Gold' comp (THANK YOU CHRIS M.)!!!!! and they appear to be vintage stereo mixes which sound very similar to the mono mixes, but the mono could very well be dedicated. Both the mono and stereo vintage mixes are pretty markedly different to the Antoerh View/VU stuff from the 80's. I actually prefer the Stephanie Says from the 80's as someone sounds awful from the vintage mix, and was apparently mixed out.[/quote]

Thank you! I think it's still worth to get

 

There are colorful stories about the "needles in the red for most of the session", but that could just be an urban myth.

I find it odd that the Velvets would record the instrumental track with the apparent intention to someday record a vocal over it. Just doesn't seem consistent with their practices up to this point (in fact, perhaps people with a better command of music history can clarify for me if it was a common practice for anyone at this point in time?). Could it be that the band came to conclude that it just worked better as an instrumental, and they never had any intention of coming back to the recording with a vocal track? Hard to imagine that Lou Reed recorded a contemporaneous vocal, but the tape was lost.

 

I will go so far as to suggest it's the early live "Run Run Run" that may provide the instrumental template for "The Gift"-- listen to the Valleydale version around the 3:19 mark-- that starts to sound pretty familiar!

 

If there's one album in my collection that I could believe those stories it's WL/WH. Lou's playing alone on "...Name" for sure probably chased the sound engineer out of the room.

 

This is the same take that was on Another View, right? If so, I seem to recall reading that a vocal had been recorded but tape decay had ruined the vocal track, hence its only being released as an instrumental.

 

I feel like I've heard that too but for the life of me I can't recall the source. Can you?

 

Damn right!

 

Seems like a bit of a stretch to single out the new mixes of "Mr Rain" and "Guess I'm Falling in Love" as "previously unreleased", which they may qualify on a strictly literal level, but in common parlance I think modern remixing doesn't always qualify. I have every confidence they'll be an improvement over their Another View counterparts, but as they are presumably the same performances I hope no one gets their hopes up too high about these particular tracks.

On the other hand, I usually have no problem accepting otherwise unheard vintage mixes as "unreleased" so this really is a subjective thing. A grey area, if you will.

And for anyone thinks I'm whining about trivial details hrtr, sure, I'll certainly cop to that. But as it stands, I'm tremendously excited about this set, as I was the earlier VU&N Super Deluxe box, which exceeded all expectations (the mastering of the stereo and, in particular, the mono make it indispensable in my book, let alone the unreleased material).

 

Beautifully put!

 

I'm afraid I don't recall either - I think it was in an article around the time Another View came out, maybe in Creem, but I don't know for sure.