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Wry Cooter
Speaking of the Velvet Underground and cruel slights -- The freezing out of Doug Yule at the time of their reunion and especially for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is inexcusable to me. He contributed strongly to "The Velvet Underground" and "Loaded", not to mention their live LPs and some amazing tracks on "VU" and "Another View". Lou Reed at his mean spirited worst.

Bands are so @#$%& weird. I always wonder, as a KISS fan, "how the hell do these guys say such terrible stuff about each other than stand on stage on the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame all nice and proper." Cause its not fake, they all really do love each other. But in that brotherly sort of way, they bicker but it never seems to sting. I have to just chalk that up to being in a band and its different to us than it is to them.

I completely agree with you on the Doug Yule part. I don't know you leave him out and they ALWAYS write him out of history. When, for a good amount of time, Lou played with Doug Yule and never the other in various incarnations in the 70s. There never seems to be any animosity between them, but its like they talk about him in a Pete Best sort of way. When we're talking about a band that has 4 albums of which Yule is on half. Again, you'd think after snubbing him for their reunion AND the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame he'd want nothing to do with them. But there he is in 2009 with Lou and Mo, thankfully. But yeah, I never understood why they chose to include him at times and ignore him many others. I'm appalled he wasn't inducted into the Hall Of Fame with them.

2009 Library discussion: [www.youtube.com]

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frenki09
I am not sure why Cale wants to do VU stuff now. I agree that without Sterling and Reed it's a bit strange. Still I am glad he does what he does, because he is still VERY GOOD and focused!

Yeah, it is odd that Cale is doing what he's doing. Its cool, but odd because he's usually so against being retrospective. Lou was the same but at least he played Sweet Jane almost every night. So its always weird when a guy like Cale does almost exactly what you'd want him to do. My assumption is because he's basically the surviving face of the VU he has no problem celebrating the anniversary and his birthday. I won't get upset with him being sentimental!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-10-14 20:28 by RollingFreak.

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stonehearted
Without John Cale, the Velvet Underground wouldn't have been all that "underground" -- just another three-chord rock n roll outfit, as their post-Cale output proved.

Before he met John Cale, Lou Reed was a staff writer for Pickwick Records: [www.youtube.com]

In fact, Lou Reed's first seven years of recording might suggest that he wouldn't have been out of place, musically, as a member of the Beach Boys -- he even covered Little Deuce Coup early on (at 25:16): [www.youtube.com]

On the other hand, John Cale performed as part of an 18-hour piano concert marathon along with, among others, John Cage. Here is Cale in a 1963 TV appearance on the game show I've Got A Secret: [www.youtube.com]

Before the Velvets, Cale was carving out his own avant-garde approach: [www.youtube.com]

So with Cale's contribution, after listening to Stainless Steel Gamelan, it's easy to see where that hypnotic quality inherent in the early Velvets music comes from.

Cale could make even a cover of Elvis sound dangerous and chaotic: [www.youtube.com]

So he can play whatever he wants, given that the Velvet Underground output he is highlighting in these shows would not have sounded nearly as compelling without his input.

Completely correct,
And very eloquently put.

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Wry Cooter

Speaking of the Velvet Underground and cruel slights -- The freezing out of Doug Yule at the time of their reunion and especially for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is inexcusable to me. He contributed strongly to "The Velvet Underground" and "Loaded", not to mention their live LPs and some amazing tracks on "VU" and "Another View". Lou Reed at his mean spirited worst.

I need to make an effort to get to one of these shows! Maybe Groupon will have a deal .

I wholeheartedly agree that Doug Yule should have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but as for being included in the 1993 reunion tour, I'm not sure how the logistics of that could have worked out. Would they have had to have played two sets? A set with Cale onstage, performing only material from the first and second albums while Yule waited his turn backstage, and then a second set of songs from the third and fourth albums, with Yule onstage and Cale cooling his heels back at the hotel?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2017-10-15 03:20 by tatters.

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tatters

Quote
Wry Cooter

Speaking of the Velvet Underground and cruel slights -- The freezing out of Doug Yule at the time of their reunion and especially for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is inexcusable to me. He contributed strongly to "The Velvet Underground" and "Loaded", not to mention their live LPs and some amazing tracks on "VU" and "Another View". Lou Reed at his mean spirited worst.

I need to make an effort to get to one of these shows! Maybe Groupon will have a deal .

I wholeheartedly agree that Doug Yule should have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but as for being included in the 1993 reunion tour, I'm not sure how the logistics of that could have worked out. Would they have had to have played two sets? A set with Cale onstage, performing only material from the first and second albums while Yule waited his turn backstage, and then a second set of songs from the third and fourth albums, with Yule onstage and Cale cooling his heels back at the hotel?

Agreed -- my point was mainly about the R&RHOF.

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RollingFreak

2009 Library discussion: [www.youtube.com]

I think this comment is spot on.
That is great to have a manican of Doug Yule propped up in a chair at this interview.

Still it was nice that he attended. I know he actually got to talk.

The Velvet Underground and Nico performances scheduled for next Thursday and Friday are SOLD OUT. There are still some tickets available for the career-spanning 75th birthday concert on Saturday.

Special Guests have just been announced

Animal Collective
MGMT
Tunde Adebimpe (TV On The Radio)
Connan Mockasin
Caroline Polachek (Chairlift)
Thee Oh Sees
Kurt Vile
Sky Ferreira

With fewer than 100 tickets still remaining for Saturday, it now looks as if all three nights will be sold out. I have to admit that at 58 years of age, I have little or no knowledge of any of the special guest performers, who I take it are all in their 20s and 30s. I wonder if Cale, who is 75, is really on top of the music scene enough to know which artists have been sufficiently influenced by the Velvet Underground to make suitable guest performers, or did some young associate working for him pick out this lineup? Either way, it'll be interesting to see and hear so many young, cutting-edge artists who I would probably never get to experience under any other circumstances.

Heading out Thursday morning on a 9-hour drive to NYC. Full report when I get back on Sunday.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2017-11-14 23:41 by tatters.

I’m in NYC right now. Just got out of Springsteen On Broadway and I’m having a post-concert cocktail.
It was a great show! He’s a very engaging storyteller and I enjoyed the unplugged versions of the songs.
I’ll see all three John Cale shows too. It’s kind of overkill but I figure I’ll never get to hear him play the VU & Nico album again and I traveled a long way so I might as well go all in.

I thought tonight’s VU & Nico 50th was sublime.

Got into town late last night. Staying at a hotel in Edgewater, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Gonna take the ferry into the city this morning, walk the Highline and visit the 9/11 memorial (two things that didn't even exist the last time I was in NYC), then onto Brooklyn to have dinner with a cousin I haven't seen in 25 years before heading over to the show.

Looks like he did every song on the first album and half of the second album. Too bad he's not doing "The Gift" which I think he did do in Paris, but not in Liverpool. He mentioned in an interview recently that he was considering having one of the women sing "Heroin" which might have been interesting, but I guess it just didn't work out at the rehearsals.


I'm Waiting for the Man
White Light/White Heat
(with Oh Sees and Kurt Vile)
All Tomorrow's Parties
(with MGMT)
Venus in Furs
I'll Be Your Mirror
(with Sky Ferreira) (with AnCo and Connan Mockasin)
There She Goes Again
Run Run Run
(with Kurt Vile)
Black Angel's Death Song
(with MGMT)
Femme Fatale
(with Caroline Polachek)
Lady Godiva's Operation
(with Connan Mockasin)
European Son
(with Oh Sees)
Sunday Morning
(with Caroline Polachek)
Heroin
(with Babatunde Adebimpe)
Sister Ray
(with everyone except Sky Ferreira)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-11-17 14:12 by tatters.

Yeah I saw the set and noticed no The Gift which sucks cause John's voice is what MAKES that song. If you're gonna play half that second album it would be cool to hear that one. But overall great set (I mean you can't really go wrong with those VU albums). I'm sure its very good and enjoy those that are going the next 2 nights!

Here's a review with twitter clips.
My friend said there were tickets at the door and also cheap ones outside.

[www.brooklynvegan.com]

[www.rollingstone.com]

Last night’s show was even better than Friday’s and the crowd was jumping around
during Sister Ray.

The Thursday show just dropped at Dime... very interesting version of VU songs including a "mariachi-style" arrangement of "Sister Ray".

Last nights show was absolutely sublime, aside from the songs there was a beautiful set, lighting and wonderful interpretations of the songs. Just an overall wonderful night of bliss

Thanks for the comments about the shows. Interesting read.

I hope someone will have the time to post the concerts on IORR that will surface.

One of my single greatest disappointments as a music fan was the crashing and burning of the Velvet Underground's 1993 reunion tour before anyone in the United States had an opportunity to see them. It's something I never really forgave Lou for, and I did not follow his post-VU reunion career with anything like the fervor with which I followed him before the reunion.

Well, we had to wait 24 years for it, but John Cale has finally given us our consolation prize, and it came in the form of a kind of an ersatz Velvet Underground concert in the city where it all began.

I bought my first Velvet Underground record, a now-obscure import compilation album of tracks from only the first three albums, when I was a 21-year-old college student in 1981. Even then, these tracks seemed like ancient artifacts from the long ago past. In a way, they seemed even more ancient then they do now, if that makes any sense, and if you'd told me then that I would one day in 2017 be getting up off of my 58-year-old ass and jumping around non-stop for 15 minutes while John Cale and 20 young VU acolytes tore through "Sister Ray" I would certainly have never believed you.

The review I shared from [www.rollingstone.com] sums it up pretty well, though it never mentions my favorite moment of the show, "Lady Godiva's Operation" in which Connan Mockasin sang the Lou Reed parts while dressed in a nurse's uniform, adding a touch of 1970s Alice Cooper/Rocky Horror theatricality to the proceedings. Other highlights included Babatunde Adebimpe's performance of "Heroin" which I felt deserved a standing ovation (I gave him one, but no one else did), Kurt Vile's "Run Run Run," the most "conventional" sounding rock and roll song in the set, sounding very much like the Brian Jones-era Rolling Stones, and of course, Caroline Polacheck's brilliant channeling of Nico on "Femme Fatale."

We saw something very special and historic these last couple of nights. A founding member of the Velvet Underground performing a concert consisting entirely of Velvet Underground music doesn't happen very often. Actually, it never happens, and as far as I know, Mr. Cale has no plans to ever make it happen again.

On a personal note, I grew up on Long Island, and lived and worked in Manhattan for 14 years. I even met Lou Reed once, when he came to a publishing company where I was working and tried to sell us a manuscript for a book he had supposedly written but wouldn't actually show us because he didn't want to "audition" for us. As I said, I never really forgave him for denying me the opportunity to attend a Velvet Underground reunion concert, but Friday night, after setting foot in New York City for the first time in 20 years, I witnessed the very last vapor trails of the band he formed, one of the greatest and most important bands that ever played. It was just a Perfect Day.



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 2017-11-19 16:44 by tatters.

Quote
tatters
One of my single greatest disappointments as a music fan was the crashing and burning of the Velvet Underground's 1993 reunion tour before anyone in the United States had an opportunity to see them. It's something I never really forgave Lou for, and I did not follow his post-VU reunion career with anything like the fervor with which I followed him before the reunion.

Well, we had to wait 24 years for it, but John Cale has finally given us our consolation prize, and it came in the form of a kind of an ersatz Velvet Underground concert in the city where it all began.

I bought my first Velvet Underground record, a now-obscure import compilation album of tracks from only the first three albums, when I was a 21-year-old college student in 1981. Even then, these tracks seemed like ancient artifacts from the long ago past. In a way, they seemed even more ancient then they do now, if that makes any sense, and if you'd told me then that I would one day in 2017 be getting up off of my 58-year-old ass and jumping around non-stop for 15 minutes while John Cale and 20 young VU acolytes tore through "Sister Ray" I would certainly have never believed you.

The review I shared from [www.rollingstone.com] sums it up pretty well, though it never mentions my favorite moment of the show, "Lady Godiva's Operation" in which Connan Mockasin sang the Lou Reed parts while dressed in a nurse's uniform, adding a touch of 1970s Alice Cooper/Rocky Horror theatricality to the proceedings. Other highlights included Babatunde Adebimpe's performance of "Heroin" which I felt deserved a standing ovation (I gave him one, but no one else did), Kurt Vile's "Run Run Run," the most "conventional" sounding rock and roll song in the set, sounding very much like the Brian Jones-era Rolling Stones, and of course, Caroline Polacheck's brilliant channeling of Nico on "Femme Fatale."

We saw something very special and historic these last couple of nights. A founding member of the Velvet Underground performing a concert consisting entirely of Velvet Underground music doesn't happen very often. Actually, it never happens, and as far as I know, Mr. Cale has no plans to ever make it happen again.

On a personal note, I grew up on Long Island, and lived and worked in Manhattan for 14 years. I even met Lou Reed once, when he came to a publishing company where I was working and tried to sell us a manuscript for a book he had supposedly written but wouldn't actually show us because he didn't want to "audition" for us. As I said, I never really forgave him for denying me the opportunity to attend a Velvet Underground reunion concert, but Friday night, after setting foot in New York City for the first time in 20 years, I witnessed the very last vapor trails of the band he formed, one of the greatest and most important bands that ever played. It was just a Perfect Day.

A very nice review! Thank you very much!