March 15, 1985 PAGE 13 bound is often_plucked, as in country usic, a technique not widespread ntil several years later. Candy Says opens the album — a blow song with. smooth backup vocals. ‘Candy says/I’ve come to hate my body/and all that it requires/in this orld...What do you think I’d see/if | ould walk away ren me?’’ What Goes On is a rollicking rock song with fantastic guitar work — Reed’s best. The particular sound this bong has didn’t show up on the radio ntil 4 or 5 years later in the early. 70’s ‘hard’’ rock phase. Pale Blue Eyes is a poignant love bong with a pretty guitar and a ambourine. ‘‘Thought of you as my ountain top/thought of you as my beak/thought of you as everything/I ‘ve had but couldn’t keep.’ The following song is another love bong, but this time the love is for esus. Candy seeks redemption for 3 inutes and 24 seconds. ‘‘Jesus, help e find my proper place/Help me in y weakness/’cause I’ve fallen out of brace. ’’ The second to last song is truly nusual. The Murder Mystery consists bf a voice on each channel, both telling A Story at different speeds while a great bass line travels trom left to right and back again. The song originally ap- beared as a lengthy poem and well igh impossible to decipher without riting it down. Parts of this album received airplay, as it well deserved, and it looked as if he band could break into mainstream. nough songs were taped to make up a ew album, but Mike Curb of MGM Records (now vice-Governor of Cali- ornia) cut them from the label in his ousecleaning of drug related bands. he Velvets were soon signed to Atlantic, but the tapes stayed with GM. The unreleased album became nown as ‘The Great Lost Velvet nderground Album.’’ Since it was eleased a little out of sequence, let’s g0 on with 1970's Loaded. Their last album was a masterpiece pf perfectly produced pure pop, at least two years before pure pop became commercially successful. It begins with Who Loves The Sun?, a ubtle parody of bands like the Turtles and The Mama’s and Poppa’s — stale, overproduced California pop. After stabbing the sixties in the back, he band goes on to kick off the rockin’ 70’s with Sweet Jane. ‘‘Standing on the orner, suitcase in my hand/Jack’s in his corset, Jane is in her vest/and me, I’m ina rock and roll band.’’ This song has been covered by a number of bands, including Mott the Hoople on he Bowie-produced All the Young OUNC Dudes album and most recently by the Jim Carroll Band. Without doubt, one of the best rock songs ever written. Rock and Roll, which follows is just as good. ‘‘Jeanie said when she was just 5 years old/there was nothing happenin’ at all/Everytime she puts on the radio there was nothing going down at all — not at all/then one fine morning she puts on a New York station, you know she don’t believe what she heard at all/she started shaking to that fine, fine music/you know her life was saved by rock and roll.’’ Naturally, the Velvets didn’t give up on their old themes. In Cool It Down, Linda Lee’s ‘’got the power to love me by the hour/...Hey baby, if you want it so fast/don’t you know that it ain’t gonna last/of course you know that it really makes no difference to me/ You’d better cool it down.’’ New Age is also interesting, about a gigoloand a ‘‘fat blond actress’. ‘‘To the left is a marble shower/it was fun, even for an hour/but you’re over the hill right now/and you're looking for love.”” Reed left the group after Loaded. Another album was released without him, Squeeze, on which Yule imitates Lou’s voice, an ability used to good effect on Loaded’s doubled vocal — tracks. Unfortunately his other skills are far inferior and Squeeze is just a swell frisbee, albeit a collectable one. Two live albums were posthumously released, 1969 Velvet Underground Live and Live At Max’s Kansas City. Maureen Tucker was not on the latter album, replaced for the night by Doug’s brother Billy. Max’s was recorded in mono with a cassette re- corder on a table. Sold to Atlantic Records for $5000, it is the first ‘‘legal bootleg’. Despite the noisy recording (including pieces of candid conver- sation) this is one of the best live ; records around. It is also easier to find . than 1969. However, 1969 includes the first performance of Sweet Jane (it was written that day) as well as a few songs unreleased until this year on V.U. A few songs from V.U. have turned up on bootlegs, some on the double live album, and Lou redid a couple on his later solo albums. Despite this, the album is still fresh. V.U. clears up the previously unusual jump between the rawness of the first two albums, the thematic folk rock of the third, and the perfect pop of Loaded. Some of the ballads on V.U. (especially Lisa Says) fit the tone of The Velvet Underground, yet the smooth rock of Loaded appears in Foggy Notion and She’s My Best Friend. The production is not nearly as polished, however, and the choppy guitars and thumping bass/drum com- bination are similar to Nico and White Light. Several of the songs on the album display a sense of humour. | Can’t Stand It, the first song, contains the lines ‘‘I live with 13 dead cats/a purple dog who wears spats/they’ re living out in the hall/and | can’t stand it anymore.’’ Andy’s Chest is a strange number about an assassination at- tempt on Warhol. The lyrics are an absurd blend of childlike verses and ‘swoop swoop’’ing bats. Reed redid this one on Transformer, but without the loose zany quality of the original. John Cale was with the group long enough to record two songs_ included on this album, the rhythm and blues Temptation Inside Your Heart, and the soft, sad ballad Stephanie Says. “Stephanie says/that she wants to know/why she’s given half her life/to people she hates now’’. Cale’s viola emphasizes Lou’s lyrics with the same subtlety used on Sunday Morning. Temptation not only rocks right along, but also includes funny dia- logue commenting on the song while it: is being recorded, among other things. Childlike innocence makes a sur- prise appearance on I’m Sticking With You, where Maureen Tucker contri- butes a high pitched vocal, later joined by Reed as the song wells up into a 30’s movie style duet. Ocean was included on 1969. It is also one of the best songs the Velvets ever recorded. Tucker taps the cym- bals ever so delicately to simulate surf. under Reed’s emotionally powerful voice, before dramatically crashing the THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (Left to right) Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker, Lou Reed & John Cale. L.A. 1966. beat into the shore (not unlike The Who’s later Quadrophenia). The gui- tar and-bass are blended in for perfect emphasis. This song alone is worth buying the album for. Some critics have charged that V.U. sounds dated. Of course it does, so do Elvis Presley and The Beatles. All are dated by derivative imitation over the years not by lack of merit. The release of V.U. is. like a time capsule that illustrates the integral part the Velvets played in shaping the music of the last 15 years. They were never less than two years ahead of everyone else. In the case of punk music they were 7 or 8 years early. Lou Reed was. also flagrently bisexual when George O- ‘Dowd was still a boy. Immediately after the demise of the band, Reed began working with David Bowie. Brian Eno was also a disciple when Roxy Music was formed. All three have remained innovators in popular music throughout the 70’s and 80's. : There are two punk rock connections — the spirit and energy of the Velvet’s first two anarchial records and The New York Dolls. David Johannson was strongly influenced by Reed in lyrics, style and stage presence in the early 70’s. As the Dolls were fading around 1974, Malcom McClaren, a London sex shop owner, began managing and promoting them in England. McClaren applied the lessons he learned in media manipulation to his packaging of the Sex Pistols. The other main influence the Velvet Underground has had on recent music is expressed through the psychedelic revival. The bands involved in this wave picked up on obscure 60’s bands to forge a new wave/psychedelia blend. Both the Velvets and the Doors’ (who were partly inspired by Reed) were main influences. With the release of V.U. and the first three albums, this is the perfect opportunity to discover why the Velvet Underground are still one of the most important bands in rock. If you're wondering which Velvet’s album is my favourite, it’s simple — whichever one | happen to be listening to. Photo &) GERARD MALANGA