Saturday, October 1, 2011

VU - 1969-01-28 - Cleveland, OH

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Dr. Forrester said...

Velvet Underground "28 January 1969" Cleveland audience recording

"the nuns are on the sea wall"

La Cave
Cleveland
"28 January 1969"
(MISDATED - is presumably from one of the 29th January - 2nd February shows)

Lou Reed: guitar, vocals
Sterling Morrison: guitar
Doug Yule: bass, organ
Moe Tucker: drums

track 01: I'm Waiting For My Man 9.51
track 02: What Goes On 5.10
track 03: Pale Blue Eyes (cut) 6.26
track 04: Sister Ray/Murder Mystery/Sister Ray 28.34

track 05: Lou Reed interview segment 1, KVAN FM, November 1969 5.38
track 06: Lou Reed interview segment 2, KVAN FM, November 1969 13.39

lineage: trade cassettes - (WavePad) - wav - flac (level 8) - you

original recording by Jamie Klimek (?)
transfer to wav by lurid_uk
uploaded to Dime February 2008 by lurid_uk

This recording has always circulated as "28 January 1969" but the Velvets didn't play at La Cave on that date. They did play between 29th January and 2nd February, so presumably this recording is from one of those shows. I am assuming that this is another "Jamie Klimek" tape, but that is anecdotal. Quality is not too bad for a 1969 audience recording - a bit of distortion and some tape hiss but still very listenable. The instruments and vocals are generally clear - you can even hear some background audience chatter during the quieter parts of "Sister Ray". There are breaks between the songs on all the copies of this show I have heard, so the true running order is probably open to conjecture. I compiled this show from 2 different source cassettes. Source #1 is better quality but did not include "Pale Blue Eyes". Source #2 has a variety of sound quality defects, but did include "Pale Blue Eyes" in shortened/cut form. Yet another example of how all the extant Cleveland recordings have been butchered and misdated over the years....

This is the first known public performance of "Murder Mystery", even if it's just a fragment inserted into the middle of a lengthy "Sister Ray". You can hear Lou shouting to "Duggie" just before he launches into the "Murder Mystery" lyrics - presumably this was a prearranged signal. (I have heard an interview with Moe where she said that they only ever performed "Murder Mystery" live as part of "Sister Ray")

Tracks 05 and 06 are part of one of the few surviving audio examples of a 1960s Lou Reed interview. Conducted for KVAN in Portland, I'm not sure if it was ever actually broadcast. The exact date has never been confirmed but there is a reference to an upcoming show at "Springer's Hall" - a venue in Portland. This places the interview firmly in late 1969, probably in the week preceding the 21st November. Lou has some interesting comments about the 1st 3 Velvets LPs, but then goes off at a tangent talking about "white light" and having evil spirits removed from his body......remember this was the 1960s...even Lou can't help from laughing at himself at one point. I've had to remove the "officially released" Velvets songs which were on my tape, and were played in between and after the 2 interview segments.

October 1, 2011 at 7:05 AM

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