3rd Album Deluxe - Bill Levenson drops a hint?

[jimjim]

http://www.mynewsdesk.com/no/universalm ... on-1060678

[Mark]

Good spot!

Reservations first: no outtakes, no rough mix acetates, no Countess etc acetate, no fresh 1969 material, no La Cave, and lots of missing Matrix stuff. And I still have my suspicions about this mono mix.

On the other hand, what we do have of the Matrix here is clearly going to be wonderful. And it really looks as if they've nailed the 1969 material: original mixes (which we were previously told were lost) and the new mixes of the tracks that suffered the worst '80s butchery will hopefully be a revelation. And hopefully the remaster will be the best yet. Bring it on!

[jimjim]

Yep, I've vented my disappointment already on the Hoffman forum. This is a real disappointment....a let down....so much that could have been used and instead we get 2014 mixes plus a fake mono mix....hmm...perhaps no-one listens to us real fans...enough to make me glad my 33 1/3 was rejected...only the insanely zealous VU fan is interested in such minutae,,

[Kill Mick]

I have to say I'm completely underwhelmed by this. The mono mix is essentially a fake, and how much better than PSAS (for the Closet mix) and the 1996 CD (for the Valentin mix) can the mastering be? Compared to the previous 45th sets I think it sucks.

[iaredatsun]

As someone with no real passion for the Matrix tapes, my only disappointment is that anyone (like me) who only really wants the 1969 remixes, we have to get a 6CD boxset. Can we hope for a single CD version or LP at some time?

[Caridad Rodriguez]

no Countess etc acetate, no fresh 1969 material and lots of missing Matrix stuff. And I still have my suspicions about this mono mix.

We knew that some of this "intermediate" material was falling through the cracks, as with the Broom St demos. But still, I'd rather have these any time of the day than a mono fold-down. Or more Matrix live stuff, even if 1969 is rather over-represented in the VU live department.

Is all of the mono stuff really just a fold-down? Because especially the "Jesus" single mix sounds different than just a fold-down, with the extra reverb on Doug's backing vocals. But it would be disappointing if they included just a fold-down when there's so much of the stuff mentioned above that could have been included...

So the major incentive here, as iaredatsun rightly states, is the lost album. I'd still buy the set for that alone (if I knew for sure there isn't going to be a single-disc lost album in, say, a year from now...).

[iaredatsun]

No one has mentioned the extra version of Beginning To See The Light (alternate ?Closet Mix?). Is this the one without fade at end - as on the acetate?

[bobbydriver]

That news article seems to contain all the info we need in terms of
1) which ?4th album? tracks are new mixes and which are unheard original mixes
2) which Matrix performances are unheard and which are alternate sources of 1969/Quine Tapes tracks

A few other things that stood out

1) Doug Yule is interviewed for the liner notes ? presumably a new interview? I hope so. After the Hall Of Fame thing I had a feeling he might not have been involved
2) It suggests that there were two Valentin mixes (the closet mix was ?later replaced by yet another Val Valentin stereo mix?). I didn?t know that. Are they obviously different?
3) 6 of the 18 Matrix tracks are the same performances as 1969 Live, so does this hint that a full 1969 Deluxe box is NOT going to happen?

Oh and in response to the question "how much better than PSAS (for the Closet mix) and the 1996 CD (for the Valentin mix) can the mastering be? "
Well it says that all tracks will be available in HD Audio format so I guess that's better quality audio than those standard CD remasters..if you want it

And finally - we did have some official comment from Bill L that at least some of the mono mixes weren'yt fold-downs
""Jesus" is definitely not a fold down. The acoustic guitar part that normally only comes in a couple of times, during "help in my weakness" lines, plays almost continuously throughout the song. "

[stooge]

in R.Unterberger's book: "4 décades later,former Tea Party manager Steve Nelson reveals that he has recently heard newly
mastered live recordings of 3 VU shows at the club from late 68 and early 69 and says that they are notably Superior to
other live recordings of the band from the same period. [...] As to whether the rest of us will ever get to hear these Tea Party tapes, Nelson says:"I' ve been sort of dying to have that released. But apparently it's tied up with various kinds of things with personnel & record companies, and all that usual drivel. I will say that to me, those are the best Velvet
Underground live performances recorder anywhere (!!!) [...]So I think that those are unquestionably the best live recordings
of the Velvets. And I hope to hell they come out some time!"


So,I think they've really missed the opportunity of doing something really nice and mindblowing with this reissue.
Where are those tapes? Who owns them?
It would have fit perfectly with the third album

[rnranimal]

No one has mentioned the extra version of Beginning To See The Light (alternate ?Closet Mix?). Is this the one without fade at end - as on the acetate?

Good catch, I totally overlooked that. Could be. But then where's the rest of the acetate mixes? I hope maybe this was from the session tapes and not just grabbed from one of the bootlegs.