Save Your Face

If you think of the first half of my BOOTLEG1969 curation as the general release and of this sequel as the bonus material on “the deluxe edition,” you’ll have it about right.  

If you don’t have that first one, start there. It’s meant to be the one-stop companion to “The Complete Matrix Tapes.” 39 tracks; 36 different songs. 

In this three-part expansion pack, I’ve tried to capture everything else from the audience/bootleg tapes that I consider to be compelling listening. I count 18 hours of source tapes, which I’ve curated down to 6.75 hours with my two compilations.  

As with the main compilation, here I’ve endeavored to stack up performances in ways that push them as far out of the bootleg morass and as close to the old “1969 Live” album experience as possible. Nevertheless, the average fidelity of this second set is lower than the first one.

You can download the following three mixes here: 3h15m, 31 tracks, 440MB

Just Like Sister Ray Set (120 minutes)

Aside from “The Complete Matrix Tape” performance, 11 “Sister Rays” from the Reed/Morrison/Tucker/Yule period appear to have made it onto tape. I judge 5.3 of them to be essential. Two appeared on my initial mix, and these are the other 3.3.

Do you need this much Sister Ray? Yes, of course. I wish there were 50 soundboard recordings. 

• The Story of Sister Ray (edit of 5-11-69 with 3-13-69 coda) (9:38)

This is a nearly all-vocal edit of the song that proceeds directly through the story of Duck and Sally, Rosie and Miss Rayon, Cecil and the sailor, the narrator and his ding-dong. It begins with Reed introducing the characters and their situation and concludes with a mutation into “The Murder Mystery,” in which “Sister Ray’s” murdered sailor gets moved from the carpet to the casket to the parapet, and so on. Two otherwise tedious/abrasive recordings of “Sister Ray” happened to contain the pieces to make this totally approachable version of the song – as a song. 

• Sister Ray (12-12-68 Boston) (25:33)
• Sister Ray (11-7-69 San Francisco – Quine) (24:03)
• Sister Ray (1-10-69 Boston) (21:04)

Quiet Again (50 minutes)

In some cases, the audience recordings captured quieter songs quite beautifully, even though the same recordings might offer only terrible versions of loud songs. 

My initial curation included one version each of these songs; here are the other pleasing versions. You might like some of them better than the ones I initially picked.

Reed’s vocals on the 7-11-69 “Candy Says” and “Pale Blue Eyes” are fantastic. Both recordings begin rough, but they straighten out. 

• Jesus (edit 10-68 Cleveland)
• Candy Says (v. Reed 7-11-69 Boston)
• Pale Blue Eyes (7-11-69 Boston)
• Sunday Morning (11-9-69 San Francisco)
• Jesus (3-13-69 Boston)
• After Hours (11-8-69 San Francisco)
• I’m Sticking with You (11-8-69 San Francisco)
• PA: The texture of adultery (10-18-69 Dallas)
• Pale Blue Eyes (10-18-69 Dallas)
• PA: One of our says songs (10-18-69 Dallas)
• Candy Says (v. Yule 10-18-69 Dallas)
• I’m Set Free (1-10-69 Boston)
• 3rd Album Radio Ad
• Heroin (8-2-69 Rindge, NH)
• Jesus (edit 3-15-69 Boston)

Underground: Lo-Fi Jams (72 minutes)

The Velvet Underground rocking out is one of the best sounds ever, but it’s also what typically threw audience tape recorders into the red, particularly during verses and choruses. As the “Rock Set” on my initial compilation sadly demonstrated, finding even one really good, end-to-end recording of a loud song on the audience tapes is sometimes a challenge. 

This collection includes all the additional minutes of fiercely-played material that I find exciting, even at low, or very low fidelity. 

A few tracks include the vocals; all the others are instrumental edits. Because of this, you can pretend that this is a lost jam session tape. 

I swear that this is the best remaining version of “Beginning to See the Light.” The song never (seems to have) had a jam, and there’s nothing in this performance that stands out, but somehow it seemed like the song/riff had to be on a low-fi jams mix.

• I Can’t Stand It (edit 1-10-69 Boston)
• What Goes On (edit 1-10-69 Boston)
• Run Run Run (edit 1-10-69 Boston)
• Foggy Notion (edit 10-68 Cleveland)
• I Can’t Stand It (edit 10-18-69 Dallas)
• What Goes On (8-2-69 Rindge, NH)
• White Light White Heat (edit 3-15-69 Boston)
• Ferryboat Bill (3-15-69 Boston)
• I Can’t Stand It (edit 10-68 Cleveland)
• What Goes On (11-69 San Francisco)
• I Can’t Stand It (3-13-69 Boston)
• Beginning to See the Light (1-10-69 Boston)

And that’s it. Everything from this period’s audience tapes that I recommend you take seriously and keep handy, polished and arranged to the best of my ability.  

Given that The Velvet Underground were essentially a far-out R&B band, you can almost imagine “Sister Ray”as a single on Stax... or Pickwick... in 1968, the 17-minute album version cut down and split into Part 1 and Part 2. 

Here it is. 

Sister Ray (pt. 1): 3:04

Sister Ray (pt. 2): 3:21

The first thing to say about this mix is that none of these performances appear on “The Complete Matrix Tapes” (November 26-27, 1969). 

This compilation is intended to be the second place to go for 1968-1969 live Velvet Underground, in the period when both Mo Tucker and Doug Yule were in the band. It contains a version of every composition that made it onto an audience tape, with one exception, and only three compositions are repeated: 39 tracks, 36 different songs.

Practically speaking, this compilation replaces “1969 Live,” the glorious, old, murky double-LP, which was whittled down to four unique tracks, when the release of “The Complete Matrix Tapes” provided upgrades of all the other performances. Likewise, it upgraded nearly a third of the performances on “The Quine Tapes.” 

So, the live VU universe lies in splinters around the amazing soundboard monolith of “The Complete Matrix Tapes.”

I’ve tried to fix that with these 3.5 hours of lovingly selected audience tape performances. The "Live 1969" leftovers are here in the context of their original show, some tracks are pulled from the Quine tapes, and all the rest are unreleased. 

Many of these selections are the only live recording of a song (at all), the only audience recording of it, or the only version in which the vocals are clear (enough) and the distortion low enough to deliver for real. That’s a sad truth about the poor quality of the few tapes that exist, but it’s also miraculous that so many songs actually exist in versions that you want to hear repeatedly. We got lucky in our unluckiness, I guess. 

I had good, known- or seemingly-uncompressed sources for most of this material, though some come from mp3s. I have applied no compression filters, and very, very little frequency-EQing. (i.e., No attempt has been make to make these diverse recordings "sound like" each other.) However, those who are familiar with VU recordings of this sort will find that I have significantly fixed the problem of wild volume variations between and within songs. It's nowhere near perfect, but it's not all over the place.

The three volumes outlined below are zipped up together here, as 320kbps mp3s - 500MB total.

A Complete Show: October 19, 1969 Dallas – 83 minutes

The leftover songs from “1969 Live” (*) came from this show, including the album's opening address to the audience and first song. It’s a great performance, and it is absolutely the best audience recording of the band in this period. It's the one, complete (non-Matrix) show that everyone should have. (If you already possess it in full, you might still appreciate some of the refinements I’ve made.)

• Good Evening *
• Waiting for the Man *
• It’s Just Too Much
• Band Intro *
• Some Kinda Love
• I’ll be Your Mirror *
• Femme Fatale *
• Beginning to See the Light
• I’m Set Free
• After Hours
• I’m Sticking with You
• One of These Days
• Pale Blue Eyes *
• Ocean
• What Goes On
• Heroin
• Sister Ray

A Quiet Set (composite) – 56 minutes

Low-key VU – concentrated. More from the October Dallas stand, Lou Reed singing “Candy Says,” Doug and Mo singing “Rock and Roll,” “Lisa Says" with four improvised verses, a fast live version of “I Found a Reason,” and – yes, truly – a “Sister Ray” that belongs in something called “a quiet set.” This is the only non-Matrix 1969 “Sweet Jane” (another fun variation) and the only live recording of “Ride into the Sun.” The “Ride into the Sun” demo is one of four tracks that were presumably an acetate at some point, two of the others having been officially released on archival sets (“Countess from Hong Kong,” and “I Found a Reason”). 

Caveat: I did my best to moderate the defects on “Jesus” and “That’s the Story of My Life,” which seem to be on all my VU fan friends’ versions as well.

• Candy Says (12-12-68 Boston)
• Jesus (10-18-69 Dallas)
• That’s the Story of My Life (10-18-69 Dallas)
• I Found a Reason (10-18-69 Dallas)
• Sunday Morning (10-18-69 Dallas)
• Ride into the Sun (unreleased demo)
• Sweet Jane (11-69 San Francisco – Quine outtake)
• Rock & Roll (10-69 Dallas – “after hours jam”)
• Lisa Says (10-69 Dallas – “after hours jam”)
• Over You (11-69 San Francisco – Quine Tapes)
• Sister Ray (10-18-69 Dallas)
• Ride into the Sun (11-69 San Francisco – Quine Tapes)

This set leads with the other unreleased 1969 demo/acetate recording, then works its way through all the rockers not represented by the October 19th Dallas show. Sound quality gets a little rough as it proceeds, but in terms of a balance between exhilarating crunch and listenable songs, these are the ones. "Ferryboat Bill" is unlistenable, with only the delighted crowd response at the end to tell you how great it must have really been.

• Real Good Time Together (unreleased demo)
• It’s Just too Much (11-69 San Francisco – Quine Tapes)
• Sweet Bonnie Brown (11-69 San Francisco – Quine Tapes)
• I Can’t Stand It (11-69 San Francisco – Quine Tapes)
• Move Right In (1-10-69 Boston)
• Foggy Notion (11-69 San Francisco – Quine Tapes)
• Run Run Run (8-2-69, Ringe, NH)
• Follow the Leader (11-69 San Francisco – Quine Tapes)
• White Light White Heat (12-12-68 Boston, MA)
• Ferryboat Bill (3-13-69 Boston)

Follow-up to this compilation here.

Lost 4th album here. 

Cover photograph by Henry Chalfant.

This is my late entry into the “lost fourth album” competition. VU completed its eponymous third album at the end of 1968, and then, in 1970, released a very strange final (actual fourth) album, “Loaded.” 

In between these documents, the Velvet Underground were peaking live and writing and recording new songs for two different labels. But the closing of the fourth album gate was deferred and deferred, until Lou Reed had actually quit the band, and the final batch of released songs only slightly represented what had transpired since December 1968. 

So, this is the space-of-an-album that I wanted to fill:

• Ignore the MGM/Atlantic label divide that has segregated releases of archival VU recordings from this period. Follow the continuous trail of the art.
• Demonstrate that this was a staggering year in Lou Reed’s songwriting and singing history. A “Blonde on Blonde” year. And these are only 20 of the songs he wrote in this period.
• Avoid the sudden, new moves presented on the released “Loaded,” and instead extend the vibe of the third album/1969 VU as far as possible. “Loaded” leans forward into the 1970s and a different VU that never happened; this leans backwards into one that did.
• Capture the 1969 VU groove as far as possible. Quiet or loud, live or in the studio, they were a magical combo that only lasted a little while. Even the absence of Mo Tucker from most of the Atlantic sessions didn’t prevent Reed/Morrison/Yule from sustaining the 1969 band’s shimmery chug, much of the time. Amazing, definitive versions abound. 

This fake double album includes 20 songs, including three straight from “Loaded” and three live ones from “The Complete Matrix Tapes.” The other 14 are studio outtakes, demos, and alternate versions drawn from various vault releases. 

It’s a portrait of a band at its peak, happy to be here with you, appreciative of your ears – intimate, generous, unhurried. Do you want two short sets, or one long one? Anyone have a curfew? 

82-minute mp3 pseudo-album here

Side One:

• Sweet Jane (live at the Matrix)
• Sad Song (Atlantic demo)
• Rock & Roll (Atlantic demo)
• I Can’t Stand It (MGM, 2014 mix)
• Foggy Notion (MGM, 1969 mix)

Side Two:

• Andy’s Chest (MGM, 1969 mix)
• Cool It Down (Atlantic, Loaded version)
• Coney Island Steeplechase (MGM, 2014 mix)
• Satellite of Love (Atlantic demo)
• Countess from Hong Kong (late 1969, demo)
• I’m Gonna Move Right In (MGM, 1969 mix)

Side Three:

• Over You (live at the Matrix)
• Lisa Says (live at the Matrix)
• I’m Sticking with You (Atlantic version)
• Walk & Talk (Atlantic demo)
• Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ (Atlantic, Loaded version)

Side Four:

• Ocean (Atlantic outtake)
• New Age (Atlantic, Loaded version, full-length)
• I Love You (Atlantic demo)
• I Found a Reason (Atlantic demo)