Differences Between VU Releases/Reissues

[iaredatsun]

Latest VU rip, from 'Kel bazar' this time, is a 1986 copy of WLWH.

http://avaxhome.ws/hraphile/velvet_lp.html

[schnittstelle]

Nice that more VU vinyl rips are popping up now...

[iaredatsun]

Nice that more VU vinyl rips are popping up now...

I'm working on an Another View from the 1986 box. Sounds a lot better than the 4 Men With a Beard re-issue to my ears. I'm experimenting with the set up and think I've got something workable.

[schnittstelle]

The Velvet Underground (1969) ( MGM re-issue) Vinyl rip in 24 Bit/ 96 Khz + CD

http://www.avaxhome.ws/hraphile/vinyl/vu_third_lp_.html

[schnittstelle]

The Velvet Underground - VU (German Verve 1st pressing) Vinyl rip in 24 Bit/ 96 Khz + CD by Kel bazar

http://www.avaxhome.ws/hraphile/vinyl/velvet_vu_lp.html

[schnittstelle]

Lou Reed - Rock n Roll Animal

Original US First Pressing

Ripped by Pbthal

http://pbthal.blogspot.com/2010/08/lou- ... al-us.html

[simonm]

iaredatsun brought this up in the rarest items thread here
http://www.velvetforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 926#p20860

This prompted me to do something I'd noticed but never bothered looking into? I'm plumbing the depths of VU geekdom, just for you.

So - below - on left 2 US original 1st press mono VUN&Ns (with + without banana), on right bottom, early stereo pressing (amended back cover but 1st press vinyl), top UK blue & yellow MGM label in US sleeve.

And what you can see if you look closely is that the Peel Slowly text + arrow moves around - 3 variations! The relative horizontal position of the banana is dependant on whether it's stereo or mono. The old style pasted sleeves are printed with mono and stereo cat numbers at the top and bottom, and pasted on the cover to show the mono cat number on the bottom of the back with the banana at the top on the front (as on the 2 on the left), or with the cat number on the back at the top and banana further down on the front (bottom right). When they moved to stereo only (top right) the banana is centralised. I think this is when the pink colour changes also.





An oddity - the Canadian first press stereo with Emerson back cover as front cover, compared to first press US mono Emerson cover?



Canadian pressings are interesting - the only stock mono WL/WH I ever saw on ebay was Canadian (at least 10 yrs ago) and I missed the end of the auction.

[iaredatsun]

And what you can see if you look closely is that the Peel Slowly text + arrow moves around - 3 variations! The relative horizontal position of the banana is dependant on whether it's stereo or mono. The old style pasted sleeves are printed with mono and stereo cat numbers at the top and bottom, and pasted on the cover to show the mono cat number on the bottom of the back with the banana at the top on the front (as on the 2 on the left), or with the cat number on the back at the top and banana further down on the front (bottom right). When they moved to stereo only (top right) the banana is centralised. I think this is when the pink colour changes also.


Canadian pressings are interesting - the only stock mono WL/WH I ever saw on ebay was Canadian (at least 10 yrs ago) and I missed the end of the auction.

But well worth doing, simon. Thank-you for showing us your fine collection.

I'm also glad that my observation has been verified. It appears then that the original design was higher and the whole thing was moved down to make room for the STEREO information. If my interpretation of what you say is correct it makes sense as it looks like a slight hatchet job when I look at the balance of the design, front and back on the stereo copy. Was the STEREO version an afterthought? The mono version looks clearly better with the larger white expanse at the lower edge. I wonder how this happened and why would the colour of the banana get changed? Looking at my copy I assume that they used two spot colours on the banana, rather than 4 colour process that they used on the back? That might explain the difference between colours in the printings (and made the cover even more costly).

This makes the mono copy even more desirable and, unfortunately, probably even more expensive.

At the risk of repeating myself, when I see the pink bananas I just get the feeling that Warhol really knew what he was doing with this. He wanted those bananas to be peeled ? the cover was designed to be seen sans skin!

[anagrama]

Heh, I spotted the mono/stereo cover shift a few years back when I was searching for an original banana album, and assumed it must be common knowledge. At least it allowed me to get a badly listed mono copy for a bargain price

I'm pretty sure the same thing was done with other 60's albums to save printing costs by just requiring a single cover slick for both mono & stereo versions.

[simonm]

Heh, I spotted the mono/stereo cover shift a few years back when I was searching for an original banana album, and assumed it must be common knowledge. At least it allowed me to get a badly listed mono copy for a bargain price

I'm pretty sure the same thing was done with other 60's albums to save printing costs by just requiring a single cover slick for both mono & stereo versions.

The cover shift thing isn't a new discovery - CBS and lots of other US companies used it in the 60s - what I hadn't noticed was that the Peel Slowly text moves around in relation to the printed banana.