0:00 Intro 6:30 Candy Says 10:08 What Goes On 12:09 Some Kinda Love 15:17 Pale Blue Eyes 17:59 Jesus 19:20 Beginning to See the Light 23:27 I’m Set Free 25:38 That’s the Story of My Life 27:29 The Murder Mystery 29:55 After Hours 31:54 Conclusion / Outro
People forget one big thing about Lou and the Velvets: they didn't know how the story would end. Imagine knowing you're the best (Van Gogh) but can't sell a song (painting) like,,,Gauging or Picasso or Rothko. Would YOU spend all your time doing the best you can with absolutely no reward or would you find another outlet for your creativity? Hitting your head against the wall gets real old real quick, doesn't I? But Reed stayed in there trying to pitch himself out of a terrible inning. Like a Twilight Zone episode the inning is never over, Reed not able to get that last strike after getting two outs and two strikes. THE INNING GOES ON FOREVER. FINALLY...to continue with the baseball metaphor, the batter hits a shot to center field and outfielder David Bowie is there to spear that ball and make that final out. Which is what happened in real life. Bowie saved Reed commercially from the dustbin of history, even getting Reed a hit single. After that ( plus Rock n Roll Animal) Reed was off to the races, being critically hot and commercially a bit below average.He was well known. Other artists lionized him and so did critics. Audiences meandered to him but they did go to him. He finally made it, with his spiritual children all more successful than he.
@@cwdkidman2266are you a writer? If so I’d like to read more of your work. But if not these comments will do; you pose some very interesting questions here
@@brownpaperbag1651 Not a writer but always wanted to be one. Wrote like crazy in my teens and 20s but family responsibility kept me from working the low-pay jobs that give one time to write in earnest. I didn't want to start an argument about Cale vs. Reed but I remember reading Lenny Kaye's review of LOADED in Rolling Stone when LOADED was released. His praise of Reed (esp. Sweet Jane) made it clear that he considered that song to be Reed's masterpiece. And he considered Reed the best songwriter in rock (along with John Lennon). So to me that meant it was the best song...ever, though I eventually (as in a couple of years) came to prefer the haunting version on LIVE 1969, for personal reasons. Kaye considered LOADED the best VU album so to a kid I thought that was what everyone thought. Rolling Stone was the only counterculture voice available to those of us in the boondocks then. So it went like this: the Rock/Counterculture's official organ was Rolling Stone; it meant Rolling Stone was the official voice of the Rock heirarchy; and if the Voice of the 1960s said LOADED was the peak of the Velvets, then I figured everyone thought that way. It wasn't until MUCH later I learned that most people thought their debut album was the best. I still preferred LOADED but that is nitpicking. Like an argument over Cale. The common enemy is the great mass of unknowing rock fans who never HEARD of the Velvet, and our job is to get them known to everyone. To proselytize. Arguing about Reed vs. Cale is like the Judean resistance groups parodied in Python's Life Of Brian, which Cleese said was really about all the left wing groups in British politics in the mid to late 70s, who argued so much among themselves that they ignored the rise of the Thatcherites. And should so be blamed for not putting up a united front. My only thing is that people forget how ignored the group was until Walk On The Wild Side became summer song of 1972. Then...who WAS this Lou Reed? Where did HE come from? Is he just an American David Bowie? He came from some weird 60s group I hear... So Reed was an unknown, from his mid 60s start until David Bowie plucked him (and the Velvets) from the scrap heap of obscurity. Then came Rock n Roll Animal for the metal/hard rock crowd. And so Reed's name spread. On the back of a super mainstream studio album (Transformer) and a flashy metallic live album. But how did Reed handle obscurity? That KILLS me because he had to know he was the best songwriter around but he couldn't get arrested when it came to anyone outside the Velvets' 5000 to 10,000 core cult across the country. To David Bowie and Lenny Kaye (future guitarist for the Patti Smith Group) it was simple: Reed and the Velvet Underground we're synonamous (sp?). Bowie introduced White Light/White Beat as a Lou Reed song. Not a Velvet Underground song. How on earth did Reed not give it all up? Did he bank on the passage of time to discover him and the Velvets' albums? Did he trust in the belief that genius will always out itself ...eventually? Faulkner may not have been nearly as successful as Hemingway financially BUT he did win the Nobel Prize in 1949. And BEFORE Hemingway won it, even if Hemingway did lobby on his own behalf for the award. Actually, Faulkner is a good model for Reed. Difficult and complex works of art. Cult artist. But unknown to most people. And when someone who knows little of Faulkner picks up a book to try they'll immediately confront a prose style so dense and complicated that first and second and third timers really do need to force themselves to finish an Absolute!Absolam! And winning the Nobel Prize didn't really do that much except expand his cult a bit. And anyone trying out the first two VU albums will have to listen beyond John Cale and his screeching electric violin. And a drummer who was usually mixed too low. I love the VU, and the Velvets means Lou Reed.
I saw them do this in San Francisco with about 50 other people in 1969. It was celestial. That same night, the Rolling Stones were playing in Oakland to 10,000 people. It was released as a great live album. I have no doubt that we had the better concert.
You are one of the lucky few.👍 I can well believe that you had the better concert. If I had to choose between the two it would be the Velvet Underground hands down.
Unless you're talking about a bootleg, that live Stones concert in Oakland was never released. The live album, get yer YaYa's out, was mostly taken from 2 shows in New York's Madison Square Garden, with one track taken from a Baltimore show.
I was obsessed with After Hours as a teenager , hearing Lou Reeds description of Maureen Tuckers vocal delivery makes me realize how brilliantly this beautiful art is constructed. Thank you for an informative insightful and highly entertaining video. I first heard VU from my best friend and music collaborator Chris I was about 13 and Chris a few years older we were inspired like many to form a band and write our own songs and of course cover some Velvets songs including After Hours . As it tends to go the band broke up and Chris and I drifted apart musically and socially we had made a pact to form a "real" band as soon as we could escape to University , unfortunately a pipe dream for me , the last time I met Chris we argued about music and drugs him Punk n Speed all the way and me Steely Dan and pot. Chris was deeply hurt upon realizing we weren't going to be able to put a band together I felt really bad as I felt I had progressed to becoming a 'proper' musician but had somehow let my friend down. A few weeks later Chris walked out of an upstairs window at a party and didn't survive in a cruel twist of fate I had left the country and didn't know of this till some years later , I can't hear the Velvet Underground and not instantly think of Chris , I have tried to write a song many times to convey the story and the memory of my wild mad super intelligent (and way ahead of his time) friend. Hasn't panned out so far but in the meantime After Hours says it all and always will. Thanks for reading this far and always, always stay true to yourself and to those around you.
The murder mystery is my absolute favorite song on the album, it's place on the album, discordant piano, conflicting monologues, and overall dark tone is so creative and fascinating. It's absolutely addicting. It's the sort of song that makes you wonder how Reed possibly came up with the idea.
The concept of the song and how it was arranged originates from John Cale. Listen to The Gift and Lady Godivas Operation from their former lp White Light/White Heat. Çale taught Reed how to implement avant-garde elements into his own music.
Pale blue eyes isn't just my favourite song on my favourite album, it is one of the most moving and beautiful songs I've heard in my life. Great videoanalysis of the album!
It's actually my favorite VU song of all time. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of their more experimental and influential stuff as well, but man, Pale Blue Eyes is just "that song" for me out of all their work.
I'm Set Free is just, to me, one of the most beautiful songs of the 20th century. And that album cover is simple yet I can just stare at it while listening to the music. It works.
Lou Reed was my idol when I was a teenager. I still admire him, fifty years later. He is a devine, profound, decadent fallen angel - a bona-fide crazy and mixed-up giant !
This record came out like 50 years ago and I only really discovered it recently, but god DAMN was it ahead of its time. Candy Says is so haunting and beautiful, and such an empathetic depiction of someone struggling w/their gender identity. Even for today, let alone 1969. Like, who else was writing music about addiction, prostitution, feminism, and gender all the way back in the 60s?? Dude was a pioneer in so many ways, it’s crazy
That was what made Lou's songs so special. He so openly and candidly discussed sexuality in a time when nobody did. He took all of these people who lived "alternative" lifestyles and made them seem more "human" to the rest of us. In other words, I came from a small town and had not been exposed to anything different from myself. The music of The Velvet Underground changed my life and Lou is my idol. Thank you Lou for having the balls to be one of the best songwriters of all time.
Perhaps the best after-hours album ever recorded, it just suits those gentle dark nights of the soul with the curtains drawn and the soft glow of a silent TV in the background, thinking about life 🌃
At this point, this album has been a part of my life for nearly half a century, but I never thought of it as a "concept album." I saw it as a collection of tones and occasional phrases. Your vid made a compelling case for its unity and helped to explain why it feels so powerful. Thank you.
Thank you for a great video analysis. This is probably my favorite record of all . Your commentary gave me a few insights i hadn’t considered before. Thanks.
Great job with the words, breakdown and band photos. I've loved all the Velvet LP's but never realized that one song followed the other. Great job, I'm beginning to see the light.
Brilliant review. I noticed this is only your second video. I hope you do more. This added a lot to my appreciation of what was already my favorite Velvets album.
The fact that Maureen is as much an important vocalist as Nico was what it told me when she sang. For me this album was the first solo Lou Reed Album, but with his most ambitious collaborators. I admire how nuanced and fine the detail is in this doc- very fine job.
I’ve been listening to this record since 1973 and never get tired of it. The original mix on the Super Deluxe version was stunning. I wish that was the original release. What Goes On is a masterpiece of drone and minimalism (Obviously, Cale influenced this).
Very very thankful for this utterly amazing study of Lou and his life's work. I'm absolutely fascinated with reed, Nico as well as John Cale and Warhol and the awful darkness that surrounds them all. Surrounds them all. Respect from Melbourne Australia 🦘🌏
Thanks for the tip , that rendition of candy says by the Antony and lou reed is probably the most beautiful song ive ever heard cant stop listening and watching it
Beautiful presentation of a timeless record. You really nailed the visuals, keeping it B&W and using high quality photos and footage that mirror the stark aesthetics of the music. Your analysis is poignant and excellently researched. Bravo!
Additionally, I want to note the paradoxical nature of its recording. TTG Studios was noted as a studio where loud rock bands could make as much noise as they wanted, much like the Velvets had done on their previous efforts (some of VU & Nico were done there). Yet for this record, they huddled in the corner of the large live room, tracking at very low volumes.
yes ! as others have stated, you should definitely make another video like this, the research is well done and much deeper than a wiki page, which is what most listeners may be familiar with. amazing work mane
I've never really thought so much about their third album and how different it is from their first two albums, despite being a lot more simple and less experimental. Great video.
Amazing work. I'd never looked so closely at this album. You've opened my eyes/ears to SO many aspects of it. Thank you! (Please consider doing a similar study of "The Velvet Underground and Nico".)
I wonder if the sequencing of The Murder Mystery and After Hours were inspired by the ending of the White Album by the Beatles. Both have a penultimate avant-garde track that highlights all of the disturbing undercurrents occurring during the runtime which transitions into a heartfelt epilogue track sung earnestly by the band’s respective drummer.
Fantastic video. I couldn’t agree more on every point. The velvet underground changed my life when my dad introduced me to pale blue eyes in the eighties. More than all of their work some kinda love for me is the coolest f tune in every way and is as good as pop rock music has ever been although it’s hard to not be blown away by the stark originality of Venus in furs especially given it’s age. Awesome.I’ll be sharing this with my old man.
Great video - thanks for your work on this and for insight we all have gained as a result. I always loved "What goes on" but just assumed it was a Cale composition due to the droning technique. I don't think I could ever get tired of hearing that song.
Amazing. Thank you for putting this up. You caught me at a time where I decided to take a deep dive into VU after years of casual listening. The first two completely resonated with me in my 20s. The third didn’t as I was attracted to them via their subversive sound and content. But I have been finding myself opening up to it. This was really insightful.
With the departure of John Cale they had lost their anarchistic and menacing elements. Should have renamed as Joy Division did with the loss of Ian Curtis.
Lou was a genius. Well, all of them were. Sterling, Moe, and of course the mad Welshman John Cale. Yule was good but then he overstepped his boundaries, thought he was the leader which led to the Underground’s downfall. Still my favorite band.
@@joeanthony7759 lol. Yeah that album was a flop because Lou had no part in it, or any of the original VU members which proved that Yule was replaceable while someone like Cale, Sterling, and Reed were on another level. Moe too… she was the heart of them too. It’s a shame, I wish Cale had stayed at least for two more albums… who knows what we could have gotten.
@@dannyhernandez265well Cale went on to produce and arrange Nico's lp triology The Marble Index, Desertshore and The End, furthermore he would also produce the debuts by The Stooges, Patti Smith and The Modern Lovers. So no regrets here, as Reed was pushing for stardom whereas Cale wanted to push the envolopes even further.
Excellent video. Thank you, and thank you also for admitting that you too took time to realise it wasn’t Lou singing ‘Candy Says’. I’ve always been embarrassed about that. I bought this album in the late 70s when I was 16 or 17 at the same time that I was buying Never Mind the Bollocks and Rocket to Russia. What a difference!
Nicely done. One of my all time favorite albums. However, I've never heard it called the "gray" album before, as it's always been the "Couch" album to me.
Tremendous analysis of what I feel to be a grossly underrated work in the Velvet's catalog. A mellow respite from the hedonistic discord of the previous album, upon first listen I was totally hooked by TVU's subtle dynamics, plaintively yearning tones, and introspective lyrics. While I can't say it is my definitive VU album it certainly holds a special place in my heart that very few other albums and pieces of music do.
This was an extraordinary video about one of my favorite albums of all time. One I was first introduced to at 18, when I found a copy on a cassette tape at the back of the long narrow closet of the bedroom I had just moved into. The other side had VU. What a fortunate discovery that was. Whoever made the tape had an older copy of the Velvet Underground record. You can tell by the pops as the needle hits the vinyl just before "Candy Says" begins. By the way, I'd been listening to this record for nearly 30 years before I found out Doug Yule sang "Candy Says."
The four VU albums (I don’t count ‘Squeeze’) are all so different to each other. It’s what makes them so interesting. All 4 are beautiful in their own way. From the covers to the music.
@@gabrielkolletalves493 I'd never heard it but always read about how bad it was. Thanks to RU-vid I finally had access to it and you're right, it's not a bad album. If it was released as a Doug Yule solo record no one would have a problem with it. I think it was just more of Steve Sesnick's machinations.
@michaelwilson2340 when I was trying to describe them, back in the 80s when they could be hard to find copies of, I called them the heroin album, the speed album, the lsd album and the weed album. Procrustean (sorry, its just a great word), especially regarding Loaded, but when I was 16 I thought it was quite clever.
Kind, Accurate, and Thoughtful. when we take our time we can clearly perceive what is happening and know what we are saying and doing with confidence. This guy nails it over and over again. Learn from him.
