1969: The Velvet Underground Live
A double live album of the Reed, Yule, Morrison and Tucker line-up, released five years after it was recorded.
The Velvet Underground, 1974
- Released
- 1974
- Recorded
- October to November 1969
- Label
- Mercury Records
- Type
- live
The shows were recorded in October and November 1969 with Reed, Doug Yule, Morrison and Tucker, and the album stayed unreleased until 1974, when Mercury put it out at the urging of the critic Paul Nelson, who worked in A&R there. Nelson asked the singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy to write the liner notes.
The set mixes songs from the first three albums with material that later appeared on Loaded, including New Age, Rock and Roll and Sweet Jane. It also holds Ocean, Over You and Sweet Bonnie Brown/It’s Just Too Much. White Light/White Heat is played at close to nine minutes. Christgau graded it A-. Alexis Petridis of the Guardian described the world-weary, small-hours New Age on this album as one of two varieties of the song.
Track listing
- Waiting for My Man7:00
- Lisa Says5:46
- What Goes On8:47
- Sweet Jane3:58
- We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together3:12
- Femme Fatale3:01
- New Age6:31
- Rock and Roll6:00
- Beginning to See the Light5:26
- Ocean10:46
- Pale Blue Eyes5:50
- Heroin9:42
- Some Kinda Love4:44
- Over You2:15
- Sweet Bonnie Brown/It’s Just Too Much7:50
- White Light/White Heat8:32
- I’ll Be Your Mirror2:17
Personnel
- Lou Reed vocals, guitar
- Doug Yule bass, organ, vocals
- Sterling Morrison guitar
- Maureen Tucker drums, percussion
More from The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), White Light/White Heat (1968), The Velvet Underground (1969), Loaded (1970), Live at Max’s Kansas City (1972)
Sources
- The Velvet Underground, Wikipedia
- The Velvet Underground’s greatest songs, ranked, The Guardian (2021-07-08)
- White Light/White Heat (song), Wikipedia