The Velvet Underground - The Quine Tapes

I've been a VU fan ever since fellow Gizmos, Kenne Highland, told me that I played just like Lou Reed (due to crappy equipment and little talent, my attempts at sounding like Jimi Hendrix came out like Lou! Which is not meant as an offense to him!) and gave me their first couple of albums. While I have been augmenting my collection ever since, some of the many new-ish releases have escaped me due to their price tag, but I finally laid down the shekels for this after discovering it while researching the Live 1969 album. Robert Quine, who later would play with Reed, among others after debuting with the Voidoids, was a VU fanatic who just happened to have some decent recording equipment and the band had no issues with fans taping them, hence this box set! While the fidelity can vary a bit, possibly due to the venue's sound systems, or Quine working with his machine, overall the sound is pretty damn solid and the performances always differ and are pretty damn terrific.

This is the last Lou Reed-fronted version of the combo, with Sterling and Mo joined by Doug Yule (who would later lead a faux-VU, which is not that far-fetched as his voice sounds amazingly like Lou's) and while the songs' tempos may be somewhat sedate, the playing is exciting and original and nothing is played quite the same way twice. Although hampered by relatively simple techniques, each member manages to create a beautiful sonic landscape within the boundaries of the songs. Of course, the early material will have a different feel without Cale and Nico, but Lou and Sterling's interactions are always wonderful to hear, while Mo adds just the right rhythmic touches - sometimes more advanced than the recordings, sometimes even simpler - and Yule adds either bass solos ("Ride Into the Sun") or fine organ washes, even in unexpected places like "Black Angels' Death Song".

We start in San Francisco in 1969 with a take on "Waiting For the Man" with extended sections and a rave up ending, a kinda standard rock'n'roll number in "It's Just Too Much" and the fabulously hypnotic "What Goes On" with its extended keyboard solo. Side 2 gives us a stompin' "I Can't Stand It" with an excellently fuzzed out, extended Lou solo followed by a mid-tempo fave of mine, "Some Kinda Love" - love the lyrics! - then a positively frantic "Foggy Notion" with more terrifically ragged solo work (maybe Sterling on this one?). I never really cared for the corny novelty of Mo's "After Hours" or "I'm Sticking With You", although I could imagine that some audience members would enjoy this break from the intensity of the rest of the set. Side three of the first set is a free-form workout on "Sister Ray" that includes instrumental bits of "I Know I'm Losing You", of all things - every version on this set is extremely different and highly interesting - while side 4 gives us a pretty straight forward "Sunday Morning" and an unreleased VU number, "Follow the Leader", that Reed eventually cut on his own in 1976, although I don't remember it off the top of my head, as this version is a bit meandering.

Opening the second set is a Lou-sung "Femme Fatale" that is followed by an intense "White Light / White Heat" with Lou and company performing a truly fantastic, elongated, freak-out lead section and then "Venus in Furs", which works really well despite the lack of Cale's viola. A potent "Heroin" portends the dreamy, mesmerizing "New Age" (with Doug Yule giving a long bass solo) and then another two (!!) album sides are given over to another take on "Sister Ray", with lots of strong dynamics and improvisation. They producers do a good job of the splice and the second part starts right on beat in a logical place and is filled with some terrific drum dynamics'n'accents and some wild bursts of noize guitar.

"Black Angel's Death Song" trades Yule's organ for Cale's viola, and this, along with the variations the other musicians play, give the song a very different feel - fascinatingly unique. A later VU number, the mid-tempo, kinda soft-rock "Over You" has some variations, but works well as this was the line up that initially recorded it, and "I'm Waiting For the Man" is again slower and extended with a long guitar workout. The anthemic "Rock'n'Roll" is always a joy, even if I miss the harmony guitar licks from the later versions, and "Ride Into the Sun" is another lengthy jam, with almost "Ocean"-esque keyboard/drum/rhythm swells backing up the solos. Two more sides make up the last take of "Sister Ray" which closes out the set, with Lou given introductions to the characters while expanding on the lyrical as well as musical themes with some incredible, fuzzed-out guitar and effortlessly becomes a medley with the then-brand-new "Foggy Notion".

Obviously, this type of bootleg live set is not the best starting place for a novice, but for fans, this is pretty damn essential, taking up where Live 1969 leaves off. Great stuff!