Tuesday 2 February 2016

I'm A Sucker For A Live Album



Through the years I have purchased a lot of Velvet Underground bootlegs, the quality of which have ranged from absolutely dire to just about listenable, actually some of them sound better than the quality of some of the legit offerings like Live At Max's Kansas City. There is usually something worth purchasing the bootlegs for, however, like a longer or different version of Sister Ray, you can never have too many versions of that. Anyway, a couple of years ago a 45th Anniversary edition of the third eponymous album was produced with extra's that included two discs of the performances Live At The Matrix in San Francisco in November 1969, Five of the 18 tracks had seen the light of day on the 1969: The Velvet Underground Live album and the monster version of Sister Ray clocking in at 36:53 was on the Quine Tapes box but this version comes from the professional four track recordings and not Quine's less professional set up which had me sold but as a bonus there were another. 12 previously unreleased tracks, making the purchase essential even before checking out the rest of the 6 disc set which to be honest didn't get me nearly as excited. Here is one of those exclusive tracks.

The Velvet Underground - I'm Set Free

5 comments:

Walter said...

I have to agree, Drew. Sister Ray is one of these songs that I could hear any time at any place. I don't know these edition but it makes me to investigate for this. Well done.

Brian said...

Going for a second listen. Love it.

drew said...

Guys, there is a 4 cd complete Matrix recordings that was released at the tail end of last year, that gets nothing but rave reviews. As you may have guessed I am slowly talking myself into buying it.

Brian said...

It is obvious you're a super fan. When you start breaking things down at the bootleg level it's a dead giveaway. Are you a Loaded lover or hater?

drew said...

I couldn't hate any record that included Sweet Jane or I Found A Reason, Brian, but it is certainly the least played album. Well apart from Squeeze which I don't own and have never heard.