If you have any thoughts on the album please let me know. I'll be posting my own thoughts over the next month
Previous albums discussed are
Electric Music For The Mind And Body by Country Joe And The Fish (August)
Sounds Of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel (September)
Revolver by The Beatles (October)
In The Court Of The Crimson King by King Crimson (November)
Buffalo Springfield Again by Buffalo Springfield (December)
Disraeli Gears by Cream (February)
in Search Of The Lost Chord by The Moody Blues (April)
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly (May)
Blues Breakers by John Mayall & Eric Clapton (June)
Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys (July)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles (August)
It’s a beautiful thing! I think that this was intended as the first single and you can see why. It’s lush, it’s quite moody in a quiet way and well produced without being over produced.
Not totally representative of the rest of the album but it is a great track. A great way to introduce yourselves to the world
Love this album, right up there with my most revisited albums. First heard this more than 30 years ago (eek) as a student, the Warhol connection and Studio 54/Factory era & undercurrent of drugs and sadomasochism made this an instantly cool album. All the tracks offer something different, but flow together really well. The mystical sounds of Venus in Furs and Nico's singing really elevate the album. Heroin, All Tomorrow's Parties, Venus in Furs, Waiting for the Man, so many great tracks on this album and so different from other albums of this time. _________________ Bluesky · Facebook · Spotify · X
Love this album, right up there with my most revisited albums. First heard this more than 30 years ago (eek) as a student, the Warhol connection and Studio 54/Factory era & undercurrent of drugs and sadomasochism made this an instantly cool album. All the tracks offer something different, but flow together really well. The mystical sounds of Venus in Furs and Nico's singing really elevate the album. Heroin, All Tomorrow's Parties, Venus in Furs, Waiting for the Man, so many great tracks on this album and so different from other albums of this time.
agreed. I was really hoping that this album would come up and so looking forward to hearing it a few times before Septembers get together.
Going to savour it though, like the fine wine that it is. A track every few days I think.
It’s a beautiful thing! I think that this was intended as the first single and you can see why. It’s lush, it’s quite moody in a quiet way and well produced without being over produced.
It was actually intended to not be on the album at all! The original 1966 version of the album is now known as the "Unripened" version, and that song isn't on it — it actually starts with a 9-minute version of "European Son." So after the record label rejected all that, they were sent off to Los Angeles to record something more commercial to lead it off with, plus new versions of some (three?) other songs that the label deemed unlistenable. Other tracks were remixed, cut, edited, etc. (Details at the link...)
Sometimes music forums will get into discussions over "what if" the Unripened version had been accepted and released as submitted, so I know a post like this is risky. (Sorry!) But I do think it's important to note that the band started out trying to be more transgressive and uncommercial than they even ended up being, given that it was the mid-60s and there weren't a lot of bands doing that. (Hardly any, really!)
As it happens, looking this up just now led me to notice that on RSD 2012, they released an official version of Unripened called Scepter Studios Sessions, on limited-edition (5,000 copies) vinyl and an album cover cleverly designed to look like it had been sitting in a box for 46 years in your grandmother's attic. So in theory, someone could even add that to the BEA database if they wanted, just to see if anybody gives it a ranking-point or two... I know adding different/alternate versions of albums is frowned upon here, but it wouldn't be the first time — we're doing it with Live at Raji's, for example. (As you know, since it's your favorite live album ever if I'm not mistaken!) 😄
It was actually intended to not be on the album at all! The original 1966 version of the album is now known as the "Unripened" version, and that song isn't on it — it actually starts with a 9-minute version of "European Son." So after the record label rejected all that, they were sent off to Los Angeles to record something more commercial to lead it off with, plus new versions of some (three?) other songs that the label deemed unlistenable. Other tracks were remixed, cut, edited, etc. (Details at the link...)
Sometimes music forums will get into discussions over "what if" the Unripened version had been accepted and released as submitted, so I know a post like this is risky. (Sorry!) But I do think it's important to note that the band started out trying to be more transgressive and uncommercial than they even ended up being, given that it was the mid-60s and there weren't a lot of bands doing that. (Hardly any, really!)
As it happens, looking this up just now led me to notice that on RSD 2012, they released an official version of Unripened called Scepter Studios Sessions, on limited-edition (5,000 copies) vinyl and an album cover cleverly designed to look like it had been sitting in a box for 46 years in your grandmother's attic. So in theory, someone could even add that to the BEA database if they wanted, just to see if anybody gives it a ranking-point or two... I know adding different/alternate versions of albums is frowned upon here, but it wouldn't be the first time — we're doing it with Live at Raji's, for example. (As you know, since it's your favorite live album ever if I'm not mistaken!) :)
Wow Madhattan that's a lot to take it and really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Love the title Unripened.
I hadn't appreciated that there had been a RSD release. If I had, I would have got it. I bet it's pretty expensive the acquire now.
I love the "what if" scenario. We are going to be covering European Son later (much later to be honest). It is one of the more "out there" tracks anyway. I've looked for the 9 minute version to attach here but couldn't find it. Will keep looking though.
I think that this will be one of the more interesting album discussions and loving the way that it's going so far
YES! Don't get me started on Live At Raji's.
More VU&N tracks to come and would love to hear more of your thoughts on the album
I hadn't appreciated that there had been a RSD release. If I had, I would have got it. I bet it's pretty expensive the acquire now.
You've got to familiarize yourself more with Discogs — they show the high, low, and median prices people have gotten lately for official releases, and in this case those numbers show that it's not as expensive as you'd expect (though that might be because so many copies of the green-banana bootleg version already exist).
Still, it might also indicate that people who have heard it largely agree with me about it — it sounds awful, the track sequencing is a lot worse, and the label people were right to demand new versions of those three songs, not to mention "Sunday Morning." Putting "European Son" in as Side A track 1 seems like a deliberate attempt to get "uncool" people to angrily stop listening to the album before it even gets started. And I hate to say it, but hearing it made me like the official/definitive version less too, if only because it showed how much outside intervention was required to make it the album it became.
You've got to familiarize yourself more with Discogs — they show the high, low, and median prices people have gotten lately for official releases, and in this case those numbers show that it's not as expensive as you'd expect (though that might be because so many copies of the green-banana bootleg version already exist).
Still, it might also indicate that people who have heard it largely agree with me about it — it sounds awful, the track sequencing is a lot worse, and the label people were right to demand new versions of those three songs, not to mention "Sunday Morning." Putting "European Son" in as Side A track 1 seems like a deliberate attempt to get "uncool" people to angrily stop listening to the album before it even gets started. And I hate to say it, but hearing it made me like the official/definitive version less too, if only because it showed how much outside intervention was required to make it the album it became.
So, careful what you wish for, I guess! :-'
So not for me then. It just goes to show that the artists don't always know best. Who knows, if they had gone for the upripped version, The Velvet Underground might have ended up as a rather disappointing footnote in the annals of rock history. Now there's another discussion to have
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albummaster
MadhattanJack
