I worry about the docu...I hope it gives Doug his fair due. Every other docu (bar the Under Review one) has just skipped through his era. Oh if only 33 1/3 had given me the chance to do my 3rd album book...it would have finally done this era (and him) justice..
'The new model for the recording industry.' 'Yeah, it came out; it's your tough luck if you never saw one.' What a way to run a 'business.'
He gave tapes to Conrad for safekeeping but i don't think they were VU. Cale had a musical life in NYC which ran alongside his work with the VU, those were the kind of tapes Conrad had. I had some of Conrad's tapes that became the Cale "New York in the 1960's" series years before they were issued, nothing i have on those cassettes is left unreleased. I don't think Cale was too happy they were issued or with Conrad though he did play a show with Tony in NYC a year or so before he died.
nice post! i too had planned to take a trip to hear the archives over a couple of day period before the pandemic. i had actually called the NYPL and spoke to someone and was given the links to all material etc. well maybe some day.
Cale refused to sign my wooden box. I assumed he was having a bad day but read he's refused others too
I really hope Cale doesn't spend what little remains of his career doing these tribute VU concerts. He's going to get offers after the interest generated by this documentary.
Looks like they're won't be much on the post-Cale era, which I suppose is a lot less interesting from a filmmaking perspective, being a great rock band isn't really enough to go on. A Steve Sesnick interview would have been good!
Very very excited about Todd Haynes' film. I would not mind a vinyl reissue of the Matrix Tapes. I have the cd's but they sound so awesome that I would invest in the vinyl if I could find it at a decent price. Of course anything with Cale on it would be very welcome, but I doubt there is anything with decent sound, unfortunately.
Lots of mention of the Haynes Uncut article - has anyone actually gotten the print version yet? I subbed in January, and got the March issue about a month ago, but so far, no sign of April's...
Yes. This will be essential. As he has the second Gymnasium Tape performance - the one with Walk It and Talk it ( with 'great guitar solo' from Lou Reed) – Cale himself has said he has this performance. [They played a few days at the Gymnasium – so other gigs from that residency?] Probably the other full original VU demo tape – the one that a copy of was given to people in the UK and that Cale thought was the one he had sent to UMG for the 1995 box but that turned to be another. Cale had the Wollensak recorder and it is possible he taped more gigs. It is also possible that somone has the 1968 San Diego tape made at the Quicksilver gig. One expert says that Cale recorded Ocean with the band before he left. And then there's the mystery of whether they recorded that stuff for the 3rd album with Cale or not (as mentioned elsewhere here). And Sterling Morrison said that there is a version of Guess I'm Falling in Love with vocals – it just had some tape damage and so was not used when they compiled stuff for release in 1985. Also Tony Conrad gave Cale his box of tapes which includes the Falling Spikes rehearsal tape. There may be more performances taped by Conrad from the TV - which rumours say may be the source for that other live version of Guess I'm Falling In Love Of course we should be getting whatever they want to release from the LR archives. Anything else from Warhol's archive, I wonder? Proper versions of film-soundtracks?
0. B&W Stills from the Todd Haynes film. I thought they were stills from the films of the people who made them all that time ago, but now they're described as Todd Haynes stills. 1. John Cale is interviewed all over again. He does it well. A nice comment or two about a day in the life of the VU, and what might have happened during a day at the Factory. That was nice, too. 'We didn't need food at the parties we were invited to, we were good guests'.And something odd about Magic Markers. 2. Todd Haynes. 'We interviewed a lot of people who were there'. 'One hopes for masses of unreleased tapes'. (There weren't any). 3. Jonathan Richman. He talks about both Cale and Yule eras. He went to more VU gigs than anyone on the planet. Lovely interviewee as usual. 4. A weird anonymous little aside about just-intonation, Debussy, Riley and Young. 5. Doug Yule on the post-Cale years. And yes he does get interviewed in that film. And yes, Bowie did mistake him for Lou once. 6. Lenny Kaye on Max's period. 7. The VU in 1971 in London. Interesting for a few. 8. '10 deep cuts', mischievously including one from Squeeze.
Whatever the box turns out to be, I hope they release it in a tall tower box like Neil Young’s Archives box sets!
Was embarrassed but stuck with them Walked, at shoulder, down the street, ridicule They couldn't tell Lou Reed from Doug Yule Suppressed hate romance It was like being back at school Is that what we are left with now, blimming Doug Yule?
Just looked at the catalog that is at the NYPL and yes, there is more than enough stuff there to issue a box set. In particular I would love to hear the Cale/Reed 1965 copyright tapes. I also would love to hear the Blue Mask rehearsals and studio takes. My favorite Lou solo album and I am a huge fan of Robert Quine.
I wouldn’t mind seeing an official release of the End of Cole Ave sets, kinda surprised it hasn’t happened yet to be honest.
Other Upbeat performances in color have popped up from 1967, I’d love to see the VU on it. Where is the Upbeat audio sourced from? The track on Everything You’ve Heard About was supposedly from Upbeat, but sounded much raunchier. Now discogs says that the Everything version is from the Gymnasium.
Yes it has beeen guessed that Conrad recorded it from the Upbeat TV performance. There's a story about using a telephone line.
