BORED at Max's Kansas City

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

SO ANYWAY, I am of the opinion that your chosen favourite members of the Velvet Underground sez a lot about you. And if you do not have favourite members of the Velvet Underground, and/or do not know who they are (hello the lex), you hate ramshackle fun. The question as to whether Nico counts also says something about you! I personally think Doug Yule doesn't count either, but that says something about ME.

ANYWAY, in the comments, members of the Velvet Underground in order, from CLASSIC to DUD please.

Thank you!

(Supplementary factoid: once I have had a few beers I can be heard claiming that the Velvets featured both Sterling Clover and Sterling Moss on their books. This is of course classic).

Comments

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

The original fab four, in order:
1 - John Cale
2 - Lou Reed
3 - Mo Tucker
4 - Sterling Morrison

If Nico and Doug are in, Nico goes second and Doug goes last.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Number one is correct! The rest are incorrect! And Nico doesn't count - if Nico counts then you might as well count Andy and Edie and then everyone in New York and seeing as New York is a pie that includes EVERYTHING, you're doomed!

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Nico not only counts but WINS, because the saddest song in the world was written about her.

I am so bored with Nico

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

She seems quite marginal in the grand scheme of things, you know?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I know and like the Velvet Underground but do not know who they were except John Cale (and beyond his name I know nothing about him) and of course Nico (I really like her solo stuff! Apparently she wasa massive racist but people seem more keen to defend her and Daniel Johnston than they do for Paris Hilton).

Oh xpost I know who Lou Reed is, I did not know he was in the VU! He always seemed a bit dirty-old-man to me.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Oh xpost I know who Lou Reed is, I did not know he was in the VU! He always seemed a bit dirty-old-man to me.
You got that right.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

John Cale has done loads of solo albums, most of which are probably guff, but he also did Paris 1919 which is absolutely wonderful. I have another album of his, Honi Soit, but I can't remember ANY of the songs on it which probably says it all.

I dunno about Nico being a huge racialist - was she? It was prob all the smack wot dunnit.

[friedslice.livejournal.com]

Kale
Morrisons
Tucker
Reed

Reed was by far the easiest to place here.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

More love for Mo Tucker needed here I think - it's between Cale and Tucker as my favourites, with Reed far down at the bottom.

salad of all the sterlings

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

angus maclise = classic
everyone else = dud

Re: salad of all the sterlings

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

It was a sad time for rock'n'roll when he left to start up those chains of steakhouses.

people like to think that if someone's changed society in some profound way, then perhaps they don't

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

SUCK, but they're wrong in thinking this, my first example is lou reed (listen up)
lou reed wrote some good songs including a couple that made me cry
when i was breaking up with my 8th grade girlfriend
he also made it cool to wear black all the time
and to be a junkie

if it wasn't for lou reed, maybe it wouldn't be so hot in summer
maybe axl rose wouldn't be a social phenomenon

lou reed sucks
sterling morrison sucks
mo tucker sucks
jon cale sucks (and he's welsh, nico also sucks [mumblemumblemumble])

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

yes, i am bored at work.

[koganbot]

Lex, not knowing that Lou Reed was in the Velvet Underground is like not knowing that Timbaland had anything to do with "Get Ur Freak On," except it's even more extreme than that.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I'd put Lou first, but that's very much based on Lou-then, as he has been the most painful embarrassment since, and if I were assessing whole careers that would move him well down. John Cale I think was kind of a bad influence at times - too much artiness - but he brought the noise, which is vital too. Sterling was great, so was Mo (if not in a technical sense), and she did some wonderful things since, also. Nothing terribly wrong with Doug Yule either, but that was the last kickings of a band on the way out.

Nico doesn't count, which is why they had to label it 'the Velvet Underground and Nico', which they wouldn't have done had she been a member.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

I like Lou the best because he wrote all the VU songs I like the most, but I have a major soft spot for Mo because she sings "After Hours," which is one of my favorite songs ever.

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

Cale
Tucker
Mozzo
Reed

Lou Reed is nature's Paul McCartney, i.e. bottom of any list containing four things. Possibly also true for any list containing more than four things. I do not know what would happen in a list containing both Lou Reed & Paul McCartney, possibly the universe would crack like a egg.

My tiny mind cannot handle a list of more than four things anyway which is why I have left Nico out.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Ringo >>> Reed

[koganbot]

I think you guys are not fair to Doug Yule: he's on over half their material, including a whole hunk of truly extraordinary stuff (viz. "What Goes On," "I Can't Stand It," "I'm Set Free," lots more). I'd put Lou first with really no contest. John is good, but as the aforementioned extraordinary stuff shows, they could do it without him. I think Lou and John both brought the noise and drones, and a lot of it was cribbed from the Yardbirds anyway. (I have nothing against people cribbing from the Yardbirds. I wish Led Zeppelin had done it more.) Eno was right that a lot of people who heard the Velvets went and formed bands; problem is that few of these people listened well, so what they heard was "noise" and "darkness" and "grim lyrics" and what they managed not to notice was rhythm & blues and doo-wop and Yardbirds (meaning the percussive guitar rhythms as well as noise and drone) and Motown and Bo Diddley and how Lou and Sterling as guitarists and Lou as singer brought everything to the rhythm, the vocals and the guitars being the rhythm section at least as much as the drums and bass and keyboards were. Lou's said that he's coming out of doo-wop, and I think that among other things it's the rhythmic syllabic interplay of doo-wop that shows up in the Velvets, though since the Velvets mostly only had one singer going at a time the interplay was spread out among singer and instruments. To hear what I mean, listen to the Marcels' "Blue Moon" and then listen to the Velvets' "What Goes On." For that matter (for soul/r&b similarities) listen to the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" and "You Keep Me Hangin' On," the rhythms of the first and the obsessive sound of the second.

I'm guessing that the people here who are low-rating Lou remember what they found irritating about him while forgetting or not realizing how much of the band's overall sounded like was his doing. (And Sterling is the mystery man, since his contribution may well be crucial but it's integrated so much into what Lou's doing on guitar that you really don't know how much of the guitar sound is Lou's and how much is Sterling's.) Unless you basically dislike the Velvets, it's hard not to put Lou at the top.

[koganbot]

"how much of the band's overall sounded like was his doing" = how much of the band's overall sound was his doing.

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

What has Lou done that's been so embarrassing these last few years? I mean, from reading all the stuff w/Lester Bangs he's always been on that line. I always keep meaning to check out "Ecstasy" cuz I heard about "Like a Possum", which is apparently a bit like "Sister Ray".

But that's more of a sukrat thing.

They were all equally GRATE it is IMPOSSIBLE to choose!!

[cis.livejournal.com]

Dude I was just reading this review of a book about them (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n06/grei01_.html)! My answer therefore is

la monte young
john cale
mo tucker
sterling morrison
lou reed
sacher-masoch
andy warhol

[sbp.livejournal.com]

1 - Sterling Moss

joint several million - John Cale, Lou Reed, Mo Tucker, Sterling Morrison, Nico, Nicorette, Mo Foster, John Cage, Looby Lou, Pound Sterling, etc

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

I'll get straight in without reading all the 'discussion' and post my list. I daresay it will change when I read everyone's heartfelt and impassioned pleas for YULE and such (who doesn't count, but I think I should add him, high up, after reading Tanya's piece and his comment).

1. John Cale
2. Mo Tucker
3. Sterling Morrison
4. Lou Reed

Because I don't like his lyrics and he can't play viola, can he? Or drums? Or, er, well he probably can play guitar, I suppose. I don't know. He's a moody get as well. I don't really like him.

LR

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Though I'm not disputing that he is a central figure in VU and been influential, the stuff I really really like about VU are the drones (I like Cale's solo stuff more and also his weird drone stuff from the time that's been released more recently, and Angus MacLise as well, who left VU before they even recorded anything so prob doesn't count), I like Mo's fractured drumming and her vocals on 'After Hours', and I like Morrison's guitar sounds. Then towards the end I like the more overtly pop bits on Loaded, and that's YULE isn't it? So an alternate list might be:

Cale MacLise Tucker Yule Morrison. End of.

Should I be doing anything this evening? Oh, are you watching HOUSE?

[koganbot]

Bom ba ba bom ba bom ba bom bom ba ba bom ba ba bom ba ba dang a dang dang Ba ba ding a dong ding Blue moon moon blue moon dip di dip di dip Moo Moo Moo Blue moon dip di dip di dip Moo Moo Moo Blue moon dip di dip di dip Bom ba ba bom ba bom ba bom bom ba ba bom ba ba bom ba ba dang a dang dang Ba ba ding a dong ding

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Cale
Nico
Reed
Mo
Sterling

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

- John Cale
2 - Lou Reed
3 - Mo Tucker
4 - Sterling Morrison

Nico
Mo Tucker
John CAle
Lou Reed
Sterling Morrison
Doug

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

fucked up there, the last list is the right one

[boof-boy.livejournal.com]

1. JJ Cale
2. Jim Morrisson
3. Oliver Reed
4. Tucker Jenkins
5. Stevo

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

I have that Velvet Underground album with the banana on the cover, God, it's terrible. They are a previous generation's Yo La Tengo.

I thought Mo Tucker was in the Replacements.