Velvet Tones

Mindy Silver a few blocks away bought the first record and everyone used to borrow/trade records back then. She was very Avant Garde. But I didn't like it. They played Heroin on the Underground radio. That didnt really work as well as St. Peppers, IMO at the time. The second record... White Light White Heat and Sister Ray..at 6.30 in the morning the overnight DJ would put something on and split...something long like InnaGaddaDavida...or Sister Ray... and that really got my attention.. was played repeatedly. This was on a little clock radio that woke me up for school. I bought the record. I liked it almost as much as Canned Heat. My friends who were more adventurous went to Chicago to the Electric Circus to see them on a bill with the Grateful Dead....When the Third Record came out...that was a shock...the mildness of it was pretty unexpected. Again Milwauke underground radio..WTOS.. played it all the way through. Oddlly, late one night, they appeared on The Paul Benziquin show out of Chicago. They looked nothing like the White Light Black Leather crew of the year before. In the year 1969 I was invested in dates and only bought Nasvhille Skyline and The Velvets 3rd record. Only Murder Mystery was like the earlier stuff. But it was much more open to a Teenager in Love. Loaded really did not get played. I didnt know it had come out but got it as a twoffer sale along with Grateful Dead American Beauty [maybe]. And it was so rocking and positive I was gone about it. It inspired me to get a few other guys to play music in our folks basement. Sweet Jane was doable for us. And it was so rocking and positive I was gone about it.  Out of 400 kids at my high school I doubt 10 people knew about the Velvets. In college it wasn't too different, but on the East Side of Milwaukee they were not unknown. They used to say they were big in Boston and Cleveland. Started reading Lester Bangs deliberately, Creem magazine. /// Told anyone who would listen about the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed./// If you came over, you were going to hear Loaded. It wasnt overloaded with drugs. It was Loaded with Hits1! Decided to move to New York but it was too late to see the Velvet Underground. Saw Lou with the Long Island Band at Avery Fisher Hall. Pretty flat. Saw RocknRoll Animal tour at Boston's Orpheum. That was a flip out... he didnt play guitar, and they guys who did sounded like Alice Cooper.

THis screed is inspired by a Reddit Fan Group. All I can think: You had to be there. You cant guess about this stuff. Amazing the AI is learning from Reddit, because so much of it is poses based on guesses.

Velvet Underground was king of the drone. And feedback. World weariness to go! It is everywhere now. At Walmart even. They also wrote about sick characters in a way much copied. You really have to find a time tunnel to know what it was like before and during the Velvet Underground, who didnt really 'happen' until well after they broke up. But everything comes after them. Everything in terms of rocknroll of the demimonde. Reading Lester Bangs is time well spent. Confuting the gorb points in a Reddit commentary would take a lot of effort , tho it did cause the electrons on this screen to appear - I prefer to continue my work building the first quantum transporter. Yes some good stuff came out from band members after the breakup. But nothing matches quite the 4 VU records.