The third album of Velvet Underground is being reissued
The Velvet Underground’s classic 1969 self-titled third album gets a six CD deluxe release to celebrate its 45th anniversary in November.
Spanning across 65-tracks in total, it features the 1969 album reworked with alternate mixes, as well as live recordings from The Matrix in San Francisco, and a case-bound book with liner notes penned by Rolling Stone writer David Fricke.
Featuring Velvets classics such as Candy Says, Pale Blue Eyes, The Murder Mystery and After Hours, the album was the group’s first without its co-founding member John Cale, and saw 21-year-old Doug Yule in his place. As well as its lineup change, the record marked a new style for the Velvets; it was the first album produced and arranged by the band themselves; as Lou Reed is noted as saying in David Fricke’s liner notes: “I thought we had to demonstrate the other side of us.”
Disc 1 includes the album stereo mix of the album by MGM house engineer Luis Pastor “Val” Valentin, the second features a 1969 pressing, dubbed by Sterling Morrison as The Closet Mix, while the third disc is the promotional mono mix of the album, including versions of the first single, What Goes On and Jesus. Disc four is a version of an un-released album, intended to get the group out of their contract with MGM: originally created in October 1969 at the Record Plant in New York City, this release includes 10 previously unheard mixes – four original 1969 vintage mixes and six new mixes, including Lisa Says and I Can’t Stand It, and the original 1969 mix of Ocean, which eventually was re-recorded for the final track on Lou Reed’s 1972 self-titled solo debut.
The final part of the release cherry picks performances by the Velvets from their shows at San Francisco’s The Matrix in November 1969. It is the first time these performances have been compiled and mixed from the original 1969 multi-track recordings made by club manager Peter Abram, highlights of which are Sister Ray and There She Goes Again.
The Velvet Underground – 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, is out on 24 November.
Source: The Guardian
