Search - Velvet Underground :: Gold

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hi_bob | 08/23/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Could somebody _please_ explain to me how the he11 "Temptation Inside Your Heart", an amusing but eminently forgettable song, winds up on here instead of "I'm Sticking With You"? Or how about the live version of "Guess I'm Falling in Love", from the boxed set - isn't it time the general public got to hear that gem? And, why, in an era where the majors are cross-licensing like never before in a desperate attempt to save their collective hides, *WHY* couldn't they have ponied up the dough for the album versions of "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll"?





(long silence)





Guess that's what happens when you treat bands and their music like disposable product, to be folded up and stuffed into identical packages. The garishly ugly cover photo here really seals the deal.



It's a shame, because this group could use a decent compilation, and, by and large, the choices here aren't bad, save for the rather gigantic errors mentioned above.



Disk 1 neatly solves the problem of what to include from the classic "banana" debut by including everything, save for what are probably the two most, um, "challenging" songs in the group's catalog. _White Light/White Heat_ is an album that should be heard in its entirety, but for purposes of compilation, the three tracks here do fine.



Disc 2 is where the trouble is. The "grey album" is neatly condensed for casual listening, and six of the seven "V.U." tracks included clearly do belong, but "Temptation..." is one more dog than this set can afford, given the major letdown that lies at the end of the disc (the absence of the _Loaded_ material).



Well, anyway, it's nice to see the good ol' V.U. included in the same series as the Jackson 5 and Olivia Newton-John, so that the world can be reminded what a great pop singles act they were. Cheerio!





p.s. - I think if you order three of these, you get a free salad shooter

"

Good, but flawed introduction

Freelance Consumer | the isle of product | 06/25/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Velvets haven't had the best of luck being compiled. That's a strength and a weakness in my eyes. There albums are very diverse, their four main albums all having a different focus on their sound. Though, it's this very diversity that makes things potentially difficult for compilations.



Here, the dreamy haze of their first album is represented almost in full, which is to be expected, I guess, since it routinely ranks high in 'greatest albums polls.' And with good reason, since it remains one of the most influential rock albums. The noizy, distortion / dissonance driven White Light/White Heat is also represented by most of it's tracks, including the mighty, 16-minute 'Sister Ray'



The second disc then, starts off with a few 'extra tracks' recorded for an uncompleted album. This disc definetly shows the velvets in a transitional period, instilling their previous, more experimental work with more accessable song styles. Their third album is well represented, as well. It's decidedly low-key after the furious assault of "White Light/Heat", and was undoubtedly quite shocking to long-term follwers of the band when it was released. How much of a difference could there be, really?



After this is when the compilation begins to fall apart, sadly. After their third album, the band switched record labels and recorded the seminal "Loaded" album. While not as experimental as the first two albums, it features the bands best performance as a single, rock n' roll unit, despite the missing founding drummer, Maureen Tucker. This compilation, like many others, can't (or won't) buy the rights to feature songs recorded on another label, and are represented by unrepresentative live versions of several songs. Sad, really. The originals work much better.



And where are the Maureen Tucker songs? Any introduction to the velvets should feature "I'm sticking with you" or at the very least, "Afterhours" from their third album. Aside from being a duo of great songs, they provide a great contrast to the sand-and-glue vocals of nico, lou reed, and john cale, and shouldn't be ignored.



So, a good introduction, but the box set, "Peel Slowly and See" is the best complete velvet package you can get. It features all four albums, plus TONS of bonus stuff.



For an introduction though, it's a bit expensive, so GOLD, paired with LOADED would be perfect.



smooches."

Universal's "Gold" series shines...

dvdtrkr | San Diego CA | 12/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sony had been putting out the "Essentials" for a while, and I guess Universal realized that people wanted something that had the hits and deep cuts.



The "Loaded" cuts are left off due to being on Warners (although the 1 CD greatest "hits" had "R&R" and "Sweet Jane" and "Peel Slowly" had all of the albums, this is more about the Verve era). However, this collection in my humble opinion is worth it because it has the live cuts from "1969" (which wasn't part of the box set or the hits pack) containing the slower, loose version of "Sweet Jane" and a couple of the Nico cuts from "Chelsea Girl" (and "VU"/"Another View")that "Loaded" isn't really missed that much, it just makes the VU collection somewhat incomplete...but then again there are songs from Verve that were left off.



I like the collections Universal and Sony are putting out in their respective "Gold" and "Essentials" series. It's not really a "greatest hits" series or the quick buck as much as recognizing a great band that is in Universal's catalog and assembling a group of songs that are the hits as well as fan favorites. For most great bands, you need 2 CDs to cover the territory needed.



This is a great intro into the Velvets before picking up the CDs, or those that want some Velvets for the road trip (although this is disturbing stuff to listen to at 3AM on a dark road). Most diehards will download their own "best of". Lou Reed's "NYC Man" is recommended for the wider overview.



"