Sweet Sister Ray / Sister Ray at the BTP Summer 1968

[alfredovu]

This is an extract from an article dated March 1969, describing a Velvet Underground concert at the Boston Tea Party Summer 1968 (so one of the very latest John Cale gigs with the band)

?So this summer, Lou Reed and the rest of the group came to perform at the Boston Tea Party dressed in dirty sweatshirts, baggy pants, and unconscionably short hair. They played with a casual, detached savagery, confronting the audience with basic, all-encompassing evil, crushing" good intentions," "progress," and everything else under the overwhelming weight of their despair. People were just standing there, totally drained of hope; hypnotized by the purity of the group's absolute rejection; completely absorbed in the drone of Lou Reed's 25-minute introduction to Sister Ray; finally, numb to the pain of the electric violin; feeling only a death blow to the structure of their lives. The crowd was up against the proverbial wall. No more lies. And Lou Reed suddenly climaxed the long painful series of losses of faith with a cataclysmic denial of everything. With the inevitable throbbing of the first notes of Sister Ray came total release from all the shit: no more ethics, no more guilt, no more pain. It was all just soundlessly whirling around us: Vietnam, Chicago, racism, religion, philosophy, hunger, war: all the shit, distant, irrelevant. None of it mattered?

[Elvis Plebsley]

What a great review and a shame that no-one was taping.

[Andre83]

in my opinion , something big is going to come out ..... some buried recording is beginning to see the light ....

[Andre83]

dear alfredo ...... the tape of the Hippodrome, San Diego was stolen from Cale ? therefore exist and will be published at some point? please give me a hope

[alfredovu]

Dear Andre

This would be adream come true for me , for sure my most desired tape to surface, if it exists ...but I do not have this information, sorry.

The worst documented period (Spring-Summer 1968) of the Velvet Underground and IMO the best if we could have any live tapes. Best VU live moment for me, if this is just possible, is last ten minutes recording of Swwet Sister Ray/Sister Ray at La Cave April 30 whn they slowly moved from Sweet Sister Ray into Sister Ray, for the mopst painfull moment in our VU lives when the tape abruptly stops ... funny how many tapes we do have from the BTP late 68 and 69 and no one form 67 to Sept 68...

[Sheila Klein]

funny how many tapes we do have from the BTP late 68 and 69 and no one form 67 to Sept 68...

The reason for that may've been the rapidly-widening adoption of personal tape recorders during that period. To understand almost any trend in culture, follow the technology!

--Phil M.

[DavidH]

Thanks Alfredo. I feel like every other longstanding VU fantasy* has been fulfilled except for what would now be called the WL/WH tour. The SSR we have is amazing but, along with recollections like this, seems to just be a teaser of how great they were just before Cale left.

*music-wise. Things like more '65 recordings would be interesting, but probably not as powerful as early 68.

[Kill Mick]

funny how many tapes we do have from the BTP late 68 and 69 and no one form 67 to Sept 68...

The reason for that may've been the rapidly-widening adoption of personal tape recorders during that period. To understand almost any trend in culture, follow the technology!

--Phil M.

Spot on. It's the same with The Doors, relatively few live recordings from 66/67/early 68, but then from late 68 onwards, boom!

[Andre83]

Thanks Alfredo . I want to believe that sooner or later come out a live recording of the era Cale . As happened a few years ago for the Gymnasium . In the end those were the Velvet Underground , with all the good and respect for Yule

[iaredatsun]

This is an extract from an article dated March 1969, describing a Velvet Underground concert at the Boston Tea Party Summer 1968 (so one of the very latest John Cale gigs with the band)

?the drone of Lou Reed's 25-minute introduction to Sister Ray; finally, numb to the pain of the electric violin; feeling only a death blow to the structure of their lives. The crowd was up against the proverbial wall. No more lies. And Lou Reed suddenly climaxed the long painful series of losses of faith with a cataclysmic denial of everything. With the inevitable throbbing of the first notes of Sister Ray came total release ?

He makes it sound so good. I wish this was the version of Sweet Sister Ray that we had. Not sure about attributing it to Lou Reed, given his stated disinterest in that side of the sound once he had removed Cale.

This is what we need to hear. Cale must surely have more tapes. Even Lou Reed must have had some.

We know there is at least the live version of Walk It And Talk It.

Can we organise 24 hour picketing outside Cale's house?

'FREE THE VU TAPES'.