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Happy Birthday Lou Reed Archetypes / The Velvet Underground Review by Joe Viglione AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
MGM re-released the first three Velvet Underground discs in all sorts of combinations, but this one is the strangest. Archetypes: The Velvet Underground is the exact White Light/White Heat album minus the brilliant skull and crossbones black-light cover by Andy Warhol. Instead, the Archetypes cover resembles The Terminator and has nothing to do with the music inside: Two helmeted bikers stand outside a Woolworth store flanking what looks like a weight scale. What this has to do with White Light/White Heat is anybody's guess. In addition to the Velvet Underground, this series re-released albums by Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Allen Ginsburg, Tim Hardin, The Blues Project, Hank Williams, and the Small Faces. What, no Herman's Hermits or Cowsills? The liner notes on the Velvets' Archetypes album sleeve (presumably used for all the albums in the series) notes that Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" was a recent hit around the time of this release, putting it circa 1972 (good old MGM didn't put the date on the label). For a company that allegedly unloaded acts involved with drugs (probably dropping the Velvet Underground during that "housecleaning" phase), the five-and-dime down-home album cover for a re-release of this psychotic classic is more than deceptive, it is the epitome of paradox. But look on the bright side: It is yet another Velvet Underground collector's item. To capitalize on Reed's solo success, a definitive statement splashed on the cover might have been more successful: "Vital music by Lou Reed -- Contains the 17-plus minute classic 'Sister Ray'." But no such luck. Heck, even the Mobile Fidelity reissue of the album contained the famous skull and crossbones on the back cover, making for yet another collector's item. Come to think of it, a "high-end" version of this grunge classic is just as much a paradox as the five-and-dime cover. Absolutely necessary for Velvet Underground completists. https://www.allmusic.com/album/archetypes-mw0000844864
______________________________
Reviewer: Joe Viglione
Liner Note Author: Bruce Harris.
Photographer: Joel Brodsky.
A
very interesting double LP retrospective two years after Jim Morrison's
version of the Doors had officially closed. Weird Scenes Inside the
Goldmine contained the first album release of two B-sides, Willie
Dixon's "(You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further," sung by Ray Manzarek,
originally on the flip side of the 1971 45 "Love Her Madly," and the
beautiful "Who Scared You," "Wishful Sinful"'s flip with Jim Morrison on
vocals from a session in 1969. Both are worthwhile additions not found
on their first "greatest hits" collection, 13. This compilation is a
strange amalgam of their music, the LP title taken from a line in the
song "The End," which concludes side two. Five of the 22 songs are from
the L.A. Woman sessions, including the title track of that album and the
full length "Riders on the Storm," both clocking in at seven-plus
minutes. With "The End" and "When the Music's Over" at 11:35 and 11:00
respectively, that's 38 minutes and 38 seconds between four titles, more
than a third of the 99-plus minutes of music on this collection.
Nothing from Absolutely Live is included, and surprisingly, the classic
"Waiting for the Sun" is not here, though that Morrison Hotel number
would fit the mood perfectly. "Love Street," the flip of "Hello I Love
You," is here, but pertinent singles like "Wishful Sinful" or "Do It"
and its flip, "Runnin' Blue," from The Soft Parade, are all missing in
action. The cover art pastiche by Bill Hoffman is worth the price of
admission if you already have all this material, while the inside
gatefold picture looks like an outtake from the first album. Bruce
Harris' liner notes are truly the '60s merging with the '70s; he calls
Jim Morrison "merely the index of our possibilities" and states that
Morrison didn't want to be an idol "because he believed all idols were
hollow." The essay is all the more silly when you realize it isn't
tongue-in-cheek in the way Lou Reed's incoherent ramblings inside Metal
Machine Music are more enjoyable than the disc. Harris seems to actually
believe what he pontificates. But the music is awesome, so put it on
and read the Metal Machine Music scribblings instead. Weird Scenes
Inside the Goldmine is a work of art in the first order, the way the
Beatles #1 album is wonderfully redundant, and it should see the light
of day again. This time they could add "Tree Trunk," the flip of the
"Get Up and Dance" 45 RPM from 1972's Full Circle album. ~ Joe Viglione
https://www.fishpond.com/Music/Weird-Scenes-Inside-Gold-Mine-Doors/0081227960346BUZZCOCKS
Full disclosure: I helped mix this album at Blue Jay Studios back in the day.
Lest We Forget [+] by Buzzcocks [+]
https://jvmiscellaneouswritings.blogspot.com/
While the Buzzcocks were on tour in 1979 and 1980, Joan McNulty, the publisher of their official fan magazine Harmony in My Head (and then-girlfriend of singer Pete Shelley), taped all their shows on cassette the way Judy Garland's husband Mickey recorded her final shows. Decades after these recordings were made, their value is obvious. After lengthy legal haggling between 1982 and the date of release, 1988, Neil Cooper of Reach Out International records was able to issue this very worthwhile series of 19 songs culled from various live performances on the tour. Who better to compile the music than the woman who gave attention to the group before anyone else in the U.S.A.? The cassette tapes were brought up to Blue Jay Studios in Carlisle, MA, the place where the Joe Perry Project, Aimee Mann, Phil Collins, and others worked, and the material was transferred from the master cassettes into organized form. There are tons of Buzzcocks favorites here, energetic versions of "What Do I Get," "Fast Cars," "Airwaves Dream," "Fiction Romance," "Something's Gone Wrong Again," all preserved for the ages, presented with love and care by someone who knew their music as well as the band itself. Boston; Chicago; Minnesota;, New Jersey; Providence, RI; New York; and Birmingham, U.K. are all represented with songs from their respective concerts. As the Doors release all the live tapes from their archives, and artists from Frank Zappa to the Velvet Underground and Jimi Hendrix have their concert tapes being issued to acclaim and sales, Joan McNulty's efforts can be viewed as pioneering. Decades after it was conceived and released, Lest We Forget is as pure a document as you'll find on the tour of a vital power pop band. The recording quality is not state of the art, but that adds to the charm.
Posted by Joe Viglione [+] | Jun 18, 2004
