Re: (TV) "Blue Mask" / VU box demo disc

["Philip P. Obbard" <pobbard@yahoo.com>]

I don't know why everyone hates the first disc of the VU box so much. Sure, I
only play it about once a year or so, but it's a fascinating high-quality
glimpse at a bunch of pretty famous stuff when it wasn't quite together. I
think the real problem most people have is the unedited nature of the disc -
all those takes can definitely make your interest fade. But otherwise, it's
about as amazing and revealing for the VU as the March 1975 Island demos are
for Television fanatics - more so, actually, like finding a tape of Tom
Verlaine and Richard Hell writing songs together c. 1974. 

The demo disc also underscores, for me, what a fantastic, otherworldly voice
John Cale has; he sounds terrific on stuff like "Waiting for the Man" and
"Venus in Furs". He was clearly under-used vocally on the first two VU albums.
And those early arrangements are so radically different - a world away from the
first VU album - that they give you a whole new perspective on where Reed and
Cale were originally coming from (despite what they say now - open-bar tuning
and John Cage, et al).

All I can say is: if they hadn't included this tape, everyone would complaining
that it should have been released!

As for me, I tend to lean on discs 4 and 5 of the VU box - the "closet" mix of
the 3rd LP plus the VU-era stuff ("Foggy Notion", etc.), and "restored" version
of LOADED with the LOADED-era outtakes. I like the first two albums, but I love
the second two, and the versions on the box made me love 'em even more. Oops,
there goes *my* street cred, too.

--Philip

--- Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com> wrote:
> 
> I must admit I jumped while reading about folks dumping their VU
> boxed sets - it's essential in my collection.  That said, I almost
> always listen to the VU&Nico and Loaded disks, with occasional
> spins of the other 2 albums.  The fifth demo disk has been played
> once, just to say I listened to it.


=====
"It's amazing how our industry is strewn with beautiful, dead technology and bitter engineers." --M. Huyck__________________________________________________
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