Lou Reed's lyrics are a literary achievement for the simplicity and gritty directness of his descriptions.  He once collaborated with Lori Anderson who remembers they were working on a song and she couldn't find the right words.  Lou asked her what she was trying to say, and then said "Say that."  Lyrics aren't often poetry, and they don't need to be.  Poems often make bad songs, and great poetry has the music built in.  Lou's writing stands up on the page and he has compiled a book called "Between Thought and Expression" containing lyrics and other writing.  I was astonished to read that Lou received shock treatments (ECT) when he was growing up to cure him of his homosexual activity.  When I was living in Los Angeles during the uprising, riot, or insurgency following the Rodney King verdicts in Simi Valley, I drove to The Greek Theater to see Lou without knowing what was happening in town but for smoke rising from some of the buildings.  I got the news from the stage as Lou summed up what was happening.  Lou's guitar work is praised by some and attacked by others, but his songs have stood the test of time.  He once remarked that he had less to do with the Transformer album than any he had made and if he had done nothing on that album it might have been even more popular.  That was the album with "Walk on the Wild Side," his signature tune, with David Bowie playing sax.  In a remarkable departure, he came out with "Berlin" soon after, which is a dark and brutal portrait based on the writing of Christopher Isherwood.  The album was a brutal masterpiece as stark and uncompromising as the writing of Hubert Selby in Requiem for a Dream or Last Exit to Brooklyn, but it didn't sell.  Lou Reed's fearless artistry has made him an icon of real importance in alternative rock 'n' roll. 

John Cale began as a church organist in Wales, but his songwriting, composition and musicianship has taken him to some very surprising places.  When Velvet Underground was formed, he was participating in gatherings with composer La Monte Young, whose exploration of a collective drone in music may have lead to what is called "minimalism."  Early Velvet Underground performances featured jams that went on for lengthy periods similar to Cale's work with La Monte Young.  Cale was the influence that expanded the Velvets from a Reed vehicle into something truly unpredictable.  After the Velvets, he wrote the very dark song "Fear (Is A Man's Best Friend)," which he performed with absolute abandon actually physically ripping up the linoleum in one filmed concert while screaming the lyrics.  He wrote a setting for orchestra of the Dylan Thomas poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," which I played for weeks when my mother was dying.  Cale's collaborations with Eno and many others have resulted in some extraordinary songs in a cerebral, literary and quiet way.  My friend Michael Jerome has toured with him as a drummer.  Michael is the man who first told me I should be writing about music.  I've heard a few stories about Cale from Michael, but mostly I caught the profound respect he has for this man and musician.  I have long believed that Cale was the best musician in the Velvet Underground, and a much more restless and innovative songwriter and composer than Reed or practically anyone in pop.  He's clearly underrated, as I see it.  I think the case for Cale is best presented in a documentaries called "John Cale: Fragments of a Rainy Season" [Netflix] and to a much lesser degree "John Cale:  am exploration of the work of one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in music."  [Netflix]  I believe his interpretation of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is among the best.  He has collaborated with or produced work by pop, rock, punk, alternative, "classical" or current composers:  Lou reed, Nico, La Monte Young, John Cage, Terry Riley, Cranes, Nick Drake, Kevin Ayers, Brian Eno, Patti Smith, The Stooges (as the first to produced work by Iggy Pop), The Modern Lovers, James Dean Bradfield, Marc Almond, Squeeze, Happy Mondays, Ambulance LTD and Siouxsie and the Banshees.  Cale is sometimes thought of as the secret weapon in The Velvets.  The creative tension between Cale and Reed made the band what is was, but that tension may be why their more recent reunion tour was an unequivocal end for the band. 

Sterling and Lou Reed met and jammed on their instruments while at Syracuse University studying English.  While Reed graduated in 1964, Morrison had dropped out and the two had lost touch.  When Reed met John Cale in 1965 and they set out to form a band, Reed reconnected with Sterling and invited him to join as a guitarist with Cale on bass and Lou on a second guitar.  Reed and Morrison traded roles on lead and rhythm guitar, but when Cale started playing viola and keyboards with the band it became Morrison's job to play bass.  He didn't like playing bass, but his bass lines on Sunday Morning and Lady Godiva's Operation are thought to be distinguished.  After John Cale left VU in 1968, Sterling and Lou both played guitar for The Velvets.  The third and fourth albums feature Morrison on lead guitar, with Reed playing rhythm and singing.  In 1970, Morrison completed his undergraduate degree at NYCC, and later earned a Ph.D. in medieval studies at The University of Texas at Austin.  Morrison left The Velvet Underground after a gig in Austin by traveling to the airport with an empty suitcase where the band was about to board for the trip back to Gotham.  He accompanied the band to the gate before telling them he was quitting the band.  Sterling left his academic career to captain a tugboat in the 1980's.  He can be heard on solo albums by Reed, Cale and Tucker, and has rejoined with The Velvets for reunion tours.  Sterling Morrison joined Maureen Tucker's band to tour in 1994 until he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.  Sterling Morrison died on August 30, 1995 just before he turned 53.  (See, "Velvet Underdog — Sterling Morrison:  An Oral History With Interviews" in The Austin Chronicle)

Maureen played a smaller the usual drumkit and seldom used cymbals.  Her approach was non-standard and drew from Bo Diddley [Website Wiki] and Nigerian master drummer (and political activist) Babatunde Olatunji [Website Wiki].  In the non-tradition mode of eccentric Americana, Moe most often used mallets instead of drumsticks on tom toms and the bass drum which which was overturned to face the floor as a second and bigger tom tom.  When her abbreviated drumkit was stolen, she played garbage cans she found in the alley next to the club. She didn't sit to play the drums, but stood up as a classical tympanist might approach the tympani.  In her philosophy, a drummer was there to "keep time" which made the high hat and cymbals an unnecessary distraction from the other instruments.  She was a female drummer when that was very rare, she played the drums all wrong by prevailing standards, and she was an integral part of the enigmatic sound of The Velvet Underground.  You can visit Moe Tucker's website for an update at TajMoeHall.  Moe has five albums of her music for sale on CD, or on cassette for a lower price, or for a dollar less if you send her a CD.  Her website is fun, personal and musical.  It's worth a look.

WHAT WAS NICO LIKE? (by Moe Tucker from the TajMoeHal website)
I can't pretend to have known her at all! Nico and I had nothing at all in common--she was worldly, gorgeous, and guarded. I was this schlep from levittown wearing t-shirts and dungarees, having no self-confidence whatsoever, trying not to be seen! We didnt dislike each other, we just had nothing to talk about. I found out after seeing Nico Icon (excellent movie!) that she didnt really talk to ANYONE! That was a huge surprise to me. The last time I saw her was in 1981 or so. I was in Los Angeles and found that she was playing at the Whisky so I decided to go say hello. I assumed that would be it--Hello, how are you? Goodbye. However, I was VERY pleasantly surprised when she greeted me very enthusiastically and asked me to meet her after the show. We went to her hotel and drank beer and talked for hours. She seemed so genuinely happy to see me! My last memory of her is very pleasant.

THE SONGS

01. FOGGY NOTION (Sterling Morrison, Doug Yule, Maureen Tucker & Hy Weiss) [Lyrics / VU Videos:  Live Studio]



"I loved Lou Reed in the early seventies, when he was a contemporary of many of my heroes (Bowie, etc.), but didn't really discover the VU till 1977, when I was part of the original Hollywood punk scene.  Even though they were from the sixties, everything about the VU fit in perfectly with the punk rock aesthetic.  From their black clothes to their badass attitudes, their sloppy-but-brilliant recordings, and outrageous lyrics (filled with sex and drug imagery) they were the ultimate punk rockers."
~ Jane Wiedlin [Website Wiki Facebook Myspace / Bands:  The Go-Go's  / Videos]

(Produced by:  Jane Wiedlin & Travis Kasperbauer / Engineered & Mixed by:  Travis Kasperbauer / Recorded at:  Robot Recording, Madison Wisconsin / Vocals & Rhythm Guitar:  Jane Wiedlin / Rhythm Guitar:  Travis Kasperbauer / Lead Guitar & Background Vocals:  Peter Ress / Bass:  Gavin LeFebvre / Drums:  Pete Duff / Background Vocals:  Loren Wollerman / Photo by Arnold Neimanis)

Confession time:  I am not a fan of the Go-Go's.  Don't care why.  Life is short.  This Jane Wiedlin character doesn't have any of that poppy glitter at all, and I'd just as soon dispel the nasty rumors about her Go-Go gestation.  I feel a little dirty listening to Wiedlin's version of Foggy Notion.  Was that song always about S&M?  I was much younger when I heard the original.  There's a simple sense of wild-eyed excitement and drama in that Jane's cover of Foggy Notion that brings out the delicious sense of dangerous appeal I hadn't sensed in that song before.  The arrangements on this album are whip smart, and this cut is a good example.  There's an elemental solo on acoustic in the middle of the tune that feels like thinking things over.  So maybe the singer will take the straight and narrow, and listen to the voice of Mommy, back off, and walk away, but NAAAAH!  The next verse lights up a little mischievous twinkle in the eye like a gal who knew all along there was no stopping now. 

P.S. The original version of "Foggy Notion" ends in a repeat of the name "Sally Mae" which has never been explained to me. Jane does something astonishing by substituting "Billy Joel" for those repeats. I have no clue what that means in the original or this version, but I think it's brilliant. Somebody please explain this to me! Hey Jane, what up? That sort of fearless irreverence is something the original Velvets would love. If I were Billy Joel, I'd be flattered probably a little disturbed.

P.P.S. Just got an email from Jane Wiedlin:
"Hi Billy,
Billie JOE, not Billy Joel!!!!!!!
Laughing my ass off,
Jane"
So I have to do my best Emilie LaTella and say, "Never mind," and thanks for the correction, Jane. This is too funny not to leave in the review.

02. HERE SHE COMES NOW (Reed Cale Morrison) [Lyrics / VU Video] 



The Velvets' ragged beauty reached me in my early teens.  I think Lou Reed's guitar work is vastly underrated.  John Cale is a secret weapon.  Tucker's drums were tough.  Sterling's glasses saw the future…  I've always been struck by how varied the Velvet's songs were through their short career. Really pretty songs — really ugly songs.  Loud, soft, atonal, melodic.  One chord, lotsa chords.  Hope you dig the song.  We had a blast doin' it!"
~ Frank Agnew [Wiki The Adolescents Social Distortion / Videos]

(Produced & arranged by:  HO / Engineered by:  HO / Mixed by:  HO & Chas Ferry / Recorded at:  MonoDelux, Doom Kounty, California / Vocals, Lead & Rhythm Guitar:  Frank Agnew / Bong Guitar & Feedback:  HO / Bass & Piano:  Yeah, Frank did that too / Drums:  Rob Klonel / Background Hand Signals:  Ho)

Frank's version sounds like an alternate take from The Velvets at first, but there's a quality in the musicianship that was unavailable in the original.  Agnew keeps the spirit of the original but adds the energy of experience learned from touring and working a crowd with energy.  This is a folk song as simple as they come, but with a build that takes it to another level.  There are no clever twists in the lyric save the line "She looks so good / She's made out of wood."  Frank makes this anticipation ballad work just right, and it paints a picture to fit whoever you like walking down some New York street to the alley where you stand. 

03. RUN RUN RUN (Reed) [Lyrics / VU Video Live Audio]



"I never particularly liked Velvet Underground.  I considered them New York Art Fags.  But individually, Lou Reed/John Cale/Nico, I believe are very talented in their own right.  They've written some great music, past and present.  The lyrics in this song paint a great picture of scoring and drug addiction in NYC — very clever.  This track was recorded and mixed in one 17-hour session…  Hope you like it… Love, Hunt Sales."
~ Hunt Sales (The Hunt Sales Memorial) [Wiki

  No questions about it, the story of this song is no breakthrough and the subject of a drug run has been beaten to death since those true underground artists playing blues in juke joints and road houses when Perry Como was pop.  Hunt dives into this pit head first and makes it sound like it ought to:  reckless, exciting and empty as a dry well.  Lou Reed's New Sensations contains a hint at his current frame of mind with the line, "I don't want to give it up / I want to stay married."  What doesn't kill you maybe makes you stronger.  Don't let it kill you, kids.



04. SWEET JANE (Reed) [Lyrics / VU Video Live Audio]

"The Velvet Underground wasn't a band I listened to during my formative years.  I discovered them in my early twenties from some cats who were in my band, The Broken Homes.  I've come to deeply respect their songs and craftsmanship.  Lou Reed is an amazing storyteller and songwriter.  This is my take on Sweet Jane."
~ Michael Doman [Myspace Videos The Broken Homes]

(Produced & Arranged by:  Michael Doman / Engineered by:  Jason Hiller / Mixed by:  Jason Hiller / Recorded at:  Walden Recordings by Jason Hiller / Lead Vocals:  Michael Doman / Lead & Rhythm Guitar:  Michael Doman / Acoustic Guitar:  Michael Doman / Bass & Drums:  Jason Hiller / Featured Vocal:  Nostalghia ~ Michael Doman appears courtesy of Impact Artist Records)

Then there's Michael Doman's "Sweet Jane."  I love this song when Lou Reed sings it in his cool and conversational baritone, and that Cowboy Junkies version is so laid back it draws me in.  I think it may be safe to say the prevailing wisdom on this tune is to lay back and let the audience find the emotion.  Worked before, right?  So when I first heard Michael Doman's anxious unvarnished frustration and involvement in this version, knocked me back a little.  Lou really is a great storyteller, and he can sometimes deliver a song like a good poetry reading from the author or Gene Wilder's Willie Wonka warning Veruka Salt full knowing she's not gonna listen.  Doman's genius is immediacy and drama.  I've seen him play live in at least a dozen large and small venues in Los Angeles and even at a few open mics, and every song is a performance.  Doman's Sweet Jane is an intervention from a friend.  He's using all he can muster to change the course for Jane and he wants her to know he's as serious as a car wreck.  Now that's a great storyteller, even if it isn't a story he wrote!  He loses the cool for a hot sell, as though he were telling the story to convince friends and family he did all he could but she didn't listen.  That's a bold choice for a song so successful as a presentation, but this nuanced tune sustains the drama of a hot performance and it reveals the pain of a friend who can't stop a bad decision.  Like that one recording of Flannery O'Connor reading A Good Man Is Hard To Find, he slips into character when he's pleading with Jane, and steps back with his head shaking "no" in disdain when the song becomes a narrative.  Doman's Sweet Jane takes the song back when the story was fresh and the storyteller can remember when the outcome wasn't inevitable.  It's closer to what Reed might have done telling a friend at the airport in New York how Sterling Morrison had waited until they were boarding the plane before he told them he wasn't gong.  That first telling of the story just isn't that cool.  One doesn't say, "I tried real heard to talk some sense . . ."  For a moment in the telling of this story there's a glimmer of hope and that's when the storyteller is confronting the idea that this fiasco is really happening, and it hurts.  Sweet Jane is an ironic story any way you sing it.  Common wisdom on this song is to present it like a poet studied in the rules of verse, but Michael's version gets me to roll my eyes.  The lyrics of this song are a plea for engagement living vivid and real as though life was more Technicolor than the movies.  Life isn't a joke!  Lou attacks Barbara Streisand at the Academy awards thanking "the little people."  Doman makes one significant change to the song, which I've always thought should be made.  The line:  "Anyone whoever had a part / Wouldn't turn around and hate it" never made any sense to me.  "Hate" doesn't rhyme with "break," so it doesn't make as much sense as "Anyone who ever played a part / Wouldn't turn around and fake it."  Alright, so Lou clearly sings "hate it" in version after version, even on Rock 'n' Roll Animal.  It's the "evil mothers" who say "everything is just dirt."  The message of the song is clear:  Women really do feint, villains don't always blink their eyes, children aren't the only ones who blush, and life is not just to die."

This song is about choosing reality over fantasy with fantasy standing in for a kind of suicide.  The consequences of that choice couldn't be higher.  That "Heavenly wine and roses / Seems to whisper when she smiles" is the truly ironic line in this song.  Nostalghia, the featured vocalist, delivers the line like a voice out of a 1920's feel good movie as a perfect ironic twist.  Get real!  That's the message.  In Lou's several versions and especially the looser live performances, he assumes the audience is in on the joke.  In Michael's version, I truly believe the audience is Jane.  He's pleading with the crowd numbed by sound bites and bullshit to see what they already know and play a part in a world duped by the evil mothers who have taught us to believe what's real is what's on TV.  The story of our lives isn't syndicated.  The revolution can never be televised.  Life isn't a story and it's no joke!  Stop living in the flatland and discover the third dimension.  Accept what you are told are your flat screen life and everything is just dirt.  Wooden soldiers never really die.  (One variant of the song follows "wooden soldiers" with "All you protest kids/You can hear Jack say, Get ready!")  Flesh and blood bleeds.  Choose!  Don't just get high, get even!  If you don't think you are Jane, you probably don't know Jack.  It's all on the line.   Michael sings to wake the living dead.



05. I'M SET FREE (Reed) [Lyrics VU Video]

"I originally became aware of the Velvet Underground the way most peolpe my age did; courtesy of the greatest name dropper of all time, David Bowie!  He talked about them a whole lot, so I bought Transformer first and then got the Banana Album and White Light-White Heat.  Suddenly Bowie wasn't so original, so clever.  Good hair though…  Hmmm, OK this makes sense.  I used to listen to Sister Ray till my nose bled.  Those were the days.  Luv on ya, HO."
~ HO [Myspace Interview

Videos]

(Produced & Arranged by:  HO / Engineered by:  Ho / Mixed by:  HO & Chas Ferry / Recorded at:  MonoDelux, Doom Kounty, California / Lead Vocals:  HO / Lead, Rhythm & Bass Guitar:  HO / Acoustic Guitars:  HO / Piano:  Frank Agnew, Esq. / Drums:  Rob Klonel / Background Vocals:  HO & Frank Agnew)

This is a simple song with a lot to say.  I have something wrong with my ears and something about the phrasing of "I'm set free" sounds like "acid rain" in this version and the original VU version.  Needless to say, I never quite understood this song.  HO gets it dead to rights in this breakup or life change anthem.  "I'm set free / And I've been bound" has that slightly distant echo of a voice like some jaded Elvis singing in a stairway.  I can feel both the loss and the embrace of a new reality in this song, and it reminds me of going to Kroger after a brutal breakup in my own experience buying whole milk for the first time in six months.  I didn't have to get that Rice Dream, soy or 2% now, so I got the whole.  I was free in that little detail of my life and in the big stuff, but damn if it didn't feel a little empty.  A "new illusion" set me straight and made it possible for me to taste the food I bought, and get up in the morning with some sense of purpose.  That gnawing loss liked to kill me, but there's something comes along to kick start my life force time and time again.  The big loss in the process is a bigger gain.  What motivates me most is the next illusion whatever it turns out to be, and chances are that bubble will burst.  Gotta rely on Lou Reed, HO, and Mark Twain on this one:
   
"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."
~ Mark Twain

06. HEAD HELD HIGH (Velvet Underground) [Lyrics VU Video]



"I love the Velvet Underground!  To be part of this project was a great experience.  I chose Head Held High because I identified with the lyrics and i love the driving beat of the song.  There are so many great songs by VU, but really I liked this one.  Thanks Chas for the opportunity."
~ Christine Martucci [Website Myspace Facebook Videos]

(Produced By:  Tim Quick / Engineered by:  Tim Quick / Mixed by:  Tim Quick / Recorded at:  Tim Quick Studios / Lead Vocals:  Christine Martucci / Lead, Rhythm & Bass Guitar:  Tim Quick / Keyboards:  Tim Quick / Drums:  Chris Badami / Backing Vocals:  Joanna Nottage / Photo by Tonette Madsen)

Christine Martucci brings an unapologetic positive spirit to this anthem of encouragement.  I've been unable to find a writer's credit for this song other than "Velvet Underground."  Nevertheless, it comes from a band that includes Lou Reed who was treated to shock treatment to cure his "homosexual activities," so it comes from a vivid understanding of misguided parenting writ large.  It has been my experience that rejecting the wisdom among the bullshit from a flawed parent is a bad choice.  Hopefully, somewhere in those troubled years growing up a good bit of advice slips through and "Hold your head up high" is a good bit that will work in vastly differing circumstances.  A half-hearted gloss of this song could do some harm. Christine takes this song as far as it can go as the anthem to individualism and life in general. I've attacked the hollow optimism of "Up With People" repeatedly and needlessly, but that sort of false positive just pushes me closer to the edge. You can't be this positive without a pure heart, or the demons will rip you apart. I believe Christine, and that makes this the feel good song of the year among Velvet covers, without a doubt.

07. THE BLACK ANGEL'S DEATH SONG (Reed, Cale) [Lyrics VU Video Live Video]



"The Velvet Underground set the standard for that essential fine balance between beauty and chaos.  I chose The Black Angel's Death Song because i like the way the root notes climb up under the never-changing two-note pattern on top.  It's stately and a little bit menacing.  And of course, what a great title!"
~ Mitch Easter [Website Wiki Interview Interview2 Myspace Let's Active

]

(Produced & Arranged by:  Mitch Easter / Engineered by:  Mitch Easter / Mixed by:  Mitch Easter / Recorded at:  Fidelitorium Recordings / Lead Vocals:  Mitch Easter / Lead & Rhythm Guitar:  Mitch Easter / Organ:  Mitch Easter / Drums:  Mitch Easter)

Mitch Easter is best known as a producer for such bands as R.E.M. (1981-1984), The Hang Ups, Pavement, Suzanne Vega, Game Theory, Marshall Crenshaw and Velvet Crush and many others.  As a musician, he and Chris Stamey and Will Rigby formed The dB's.  He was a member of the band Sneakers in the 1970s and Let's Active through the 1980's, as well as short lived supergroups The Orange Humble Band and Coronet Blue.  Mitch's "Drive-In Studio" was an important part of the indie scene, allowing bands to record at a cut rate in a studio constructed in his parent's garage.  The Fidelitorium is Mitch's studio near Winston-Salem and where he recorded this song.

Easter constructs a bit of controlled chaos for the experimental Velvet collage in The Black Angel's Death Song, with the quantum of possible notes and beats in cozy proximity to the key and the rhythm.  The Velvets did such a thing on the seldom played and never covered The Gift among other such narrative songish experiments.  The original VU version features John Cale on fiddle sounding thin like a field recording of an Appalachian obsessive compulsive playing arpeggios as fast as The Flight of the Bumble Bee under Lou Reed's three-note vocal talk/sing narrative with mouthy sound effects.  Mitch switches out the fiddle for cellophane thin guitar setting and pumps up the drama with a dramatic Middle-Eastern tinged cloudburst punctuating the story.  Easter has taken this experimental dash off of a song and given it the pomp and circumstance of a Cineramic mental battlefield soundscape.  The words are percussive elements in a waltz to the winged reaper.  This version of the song gives it a musical substance missing in the original, like maybe The Velvets had forgot the pectin when they made this jam last time out.  I love the backward masking on this one.  Easter use of tremolo recalls some of the best moments of R.E.M. without quite falling off the cliff into Jesus & Mary Chain.  I've been listening to the song on repeat for longer than I had intended, and I'm still sporting that sidelong pickerel smile this rendition gave me first listen.  I'd call this a wall of sound, but the effect is a little more like shrapnel of what once was.  This waltz will join Manic Depression in my collection of deeply dark 3/4 time melodies.  That fiddle figure in the original and Mitch's guitar version sound like very early Steve Reich on the road to minimalism.  This is a scary song about a disjunctive frame of mind like a latent schizophrenic egg about to shatter from repeated little insults.  It makes me smile.  Go figure.  Yes, Virginia, there will be watzes in hell.

08. NEW AGE (Reed) [Lyrics VU Video Live Video Wiki for this song]



"I know it's probably trite but I love how dark the Velvets were in contrast to the hippie love-fest of the time.  Venus in Furs was already taken so my boyfriend suggested New Age.  I think the original New Age sounds like it was three different songs that were tape spliced together.  I enjoyed reinterpreting and arranging it as well as sort of coming from a place of the fat blonde actress in my vocal."
~ Abby Travis [Website Bio Wiki Myspace Facebook Videos]

Abby Travis is a femme fatale torch singer not far from Lotta Leyna or Ute Lemper doing Kurt Weill's caustic polkas as the sweetest voice in punk.  Washington Post calls her a "Brecht-Weill epiphany."  [Weill Wiki]  She will be accepting new bass students according to her website. 

New Age is thought to be a sarcastic tribute to the actress Kim Novak.  It was sung by lesser known member of the Velvets Doug Yule on the studio recording, and by Lou Reed on the live.  Lou thought the studio recording was "corrupted," and has been known to sing a longer version and one with different words.  All that said, this Abby Travis version is a gem.  The song is a triptych of a dream sequence about fading fame.  Some poems are puzzles and Travis solves this one as a fantasy performed on a typewriter, which is literally suggested in the percussion, as though the words were being read from from Lou's Remington manual back in 1968.  There's a pattern emerging in my understanding of Lou Reed's songwriting.  That third section this song repeating in the full version "It's the beginning of a new age" is this song's version of "Heavenly wine and roses / Seems to whisper to her when she smiles."  I've considers those lines a red herring for years, but I think that's Lou twisting his bitter and ironic knife a little deeper.  It's like the happy ending montage in Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" or any number of other old Hollywood manoeuvred happy endings.  Abby emphasizes this irony by committing to it fully.  This orchestration is symphonic and lyrical building to a big sound worthy of a psychedelic Phil Spector.  Harps and a grand piano over Abby's classic crooner's angelic voice and that frenetic tick of typing form the perfect cloud for this ethereal song.  Lou Reed's sarcasm is legendary, but it isn't a bit more potent than that found in Kurt Weill.  This should be familiar territory for Abby.  Another tribute compilation some years ago brought Jeff Buckley to Leonard Cohen's audience.  Once this song got into me, I thought Hallelujah!  This one is truly a gem.  I've gotta hear more from Abby Travis. 


09. I CAN'T STAND IT (Reed) [Lyrics VU Video Live Video]



"Back in the day my brother bought the record with the Andy Warhol banana on the front and it moved me.  it was pretty far out for Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I liked their hypnotic sound and East Coast storytelling ability.  Chas suggested it and after listening we thought we could rock it out a bit 20/20 style.  We had a damn good time doing that session at Ron's studio in Austin."
~ 20/20 [Wiki Myspace Twitter Videos]

(Produced & Arranged by:  20/20 / Engineered & Mixed by:  Ron Flynt and Steve Allen / Recorded at:  Jumping Dog Studio, Austin, TX and Blue Planet Studio, Nashville, TN / Ron Flynt ~ Bass, Vocals / Steve Allen ~ Guitar, Vocals / Vicente Rodriguez ~ Drums)

20/20 is rock 'n' roll!  This song drives like a blistering blues overamped for the rock festival and hell bent for leather.  They play this one to blast the paint off the walls in any black box concert hall you want to name.  The guitar is a percussion instrument used to make feeling bad feel good on this track.  No need to get fancy describing anything here.  I'd drop what I'm doing and head out to see this band anytime.  That's that big nasty rock 'n' roll they play, and it comes straight out of Sun House, Hound Dog Taylor and the roots that make rock bloom big and garish like a Bronx cheer at a pep rally.  Loves these guys. 

10. WHO LOVES THE SUN (Velvet Underground) [Lyrics VU Video]



"As for how we chose Who Loves The Sun…  We wanted to choose a song that we could work our sound into while keeping the original notion intact.  For me Velvet Underground songs don't always sound like they feel or at least the way they make me feel.  We really tried to bring forth the weight of the words in our musical arrangement rather than compete with Lou's style.  We also pay a little homage to Slowdive's Souvlaki bringing Lately Blu Blu in to sing some backup."
~ The Ivy Walls [Website Facebook Myspace Videos]

(Produced & Arranged by:  Erik Colvin and The Ivy Walls / Instrumentation by:  Jeff Yanero:  vocals/piano/guitar / Ryan Varon:  guitar/synth / The Count:  bass / Adam Waldon:  drums / Guitar Backing Vocals by:  Lately Blu Blu / Photo by Will Joines)

Video of The Ivy Walls cover of Who Loves the Sun

The Ivy Walls are good at creating suspense in their songs leading to a sense of drama.  This version Who Loves The Sun begins like something from Deep Forest.  The wispy synth with Blu Blu's vocalization in perfect Percy Faith backing style create a dreamy juxtaposition of styles.  The feel of this version reminds me way back when I was listening to Waiting For The Love Bus by The Jazz Butcher.   The music fills the room, but you can't quite grab it.  It feels like I'm overhearing some musical subconscious drifting out from the next apartment like a crossed connection on the old dial up.  It's like a Velvets cover by The Cocteau Twins, if you can image such a thing — maybe This Mortal Coil.  They play chords in sheets or waves like smoke.  I like it here.

11. SUNDAY MORNING (Reed, Cale) [Lyrics VU Video Live Video]

"I'm kinda new to the Velvet Underground.  They've opened up a brand new world to me musically.  So many great songs.  The words so unique.  Lou Reed is a great singer.  New York City ……  When HO played me this song, I knew I wanted to do it.  We recorded the whole thing in about two hours.  Smoked a lot, laughed a lot.  His wife fed me mexican food.  Good times."
~ Jevon Piper [Myspace Facebook]

(Produced & Arranged by:  HO / Engineered by:  HO / Mixed by:  HO & Chas Ferry / Recorded at:  MonoDelux, Doom Kounty, California / Lead Vocals:  Jevon Piper / Rhythm Guitar:  Jevon Piper / Acoustic Guitar:  Jevon / Lead Guitar & Bass:  HO / Drums:  Rob Konel / Background Vocals:  HO & Jevon Piper)

This version replaces the toy xylophone bell sound of the VU original with a wink and a set of morning chimes as though from a local belltower.  I learned that song in the John Thompson piano book right at the beginning.  "Watch out, the world's behind you…" gets a little rise from Jevon in an appropriately weary rendition of this morning after song.  Someone will call, "it's nothing at all."  I never got this song as a hangover from something done that haunts the morning until hearing Lou Reed's intro on that YouTube live recording (with still pics).  This song is one of those Velvet tunes that seemed to be a nod to Rod McKuen or Percy Faith.  There's a bunch of them.  The lyrics are a little cracked, but the music is deliberate easy listening for nihilists.   The backing vocals form HO and Jevon are appropriately sweet just this side of saccharin.  Those who love the aroma of smelling salts in the morning may get this one right up front.  One of these days… this party… will be over.  Remember that in 1967, they hadn't closed Studio 54 yet.  They hadn't open it yet either.  Look forward to hearing more from Piper.  He like's Mexican food, and he's got a good voice.


12. CONEY ISLAND STEEPLECHASE (Velvet Underground) [Lyrics VU Video]



"I wasn't a music fan.  I was a criminal.  I learned music through punk rock and then got turned on to the Velvet Underground when my mind started opening up.  It was sickly beautiful."
~ Jack Grisham [Website Wiki Interview ZZZList Bio Interview2 Facebook TSOL Videos]

A steeplechase is a "course of action containing many obstacles" [Answers.com] or a type of horse race or foot race derived from the "from the use of church steeples as landmarks to guide the riders," [Webster's] but the Coney Island version may have another subtler meaning.  Jack Grisham's insinuating crooner voice makes this song sound like an invitation from Wierd Uncle Ernie somewhere you'll wish you could forget.  Listen for that left handed octave pounding like a clock designed to suspend time and suck the air out of the room.  Jack's day job is the Center for Change is a place for Neuro Linguistic Programming, Recovery Mentoring, and Hypnosis.  Guess Wierd Uncle Ernie kicked them bad habits.  This song raises a smile, so long as you aren't worried about the kids taking this day trip.  There's not that much in this song to make it such a sick but exciting offer.  There's a sister and brother out at Coney who discover their parents aren't around.  There's something sinister going on.  They recommend taking this trip on weekdays, but not Friday or the weekend.  Guess the crowds can be a pain.  There's a roller coaster involved, but it still sounds dirty.  Jack offers to meet "In-Residence or in YOUR Home" for all that hypnosis and recovery work.  The whole sheebang has me nervous.  Think of the vocals on Cheap Trick's Surrender over an invitation to the Steeplechase.  Get your wry smile on for this song.  It's a hoot.

13. VELVET UNDERGROUND (Jonathan Richman)



"I got a chance to see them play many times (between 70 and 90 times or so).  On a good night, they hypnotized ya.  For me they changed everything."
~ Jonathan Richman [Wiki Facebook Myspace iLike Videos]

Jonathan Richman's Wiki entry describes a boy so taken with The Velvets he moved to New York to sleep on the couch over at their manager's place.  Richman's 50's rock tribute song drops as many references as Don McLean's American Pie.  Maybe that's where they got the name American Velvet, but I'm just guessing.  Jon's song sounds like a tune from Eddie Cochran, complete with a nod to Summertime Blues.  Since The Beatles had their first hit in 1962 with "Love Me Do," and The Velvets began three years later, there must have been quite a few Carl Perkins/Johnny Ace/Big Bopper fans who might have found the inspiration to sing this song in that style. 

WHERE TO BUY THE ALBUM:

Darla (for downloads)
Rock Talk Records (from the label) Support Indie!

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