Welcome Duke to TheCascellaMusicClub.  Very interesting selection for your choice.  I know very little of The Velvet Underground (T.V.U.).  I think I know 2 or 3 of these songs.  I know Lou Reed (r.i.p.) was a member of the band, and that they were big in the NYC Bohemian life of Greenwich Village in the ‘60’s and 70’s.  I know that they were Andy Warhols favorite band (which scares the shit out of me).  Other than that, this will be all new to me.  Let’s do the dive:

SWEET JANE-  Wow, haven’t heard this song in maybe 25-30 years.  Classic song from the late 60’s or early 70’s (I think).  Love the simple production, almost sounds like it was recorded live in the studio.  Easy strumming chords with the unmistakeable voice of Lou Reed telling a story of Jack and Jane.  The yowl’s and whoa’s are fantastic in the choruses.  Such a cool, grungy song.  Great opening.

PALE BLUE EYES-  Very soft music to a very soft song.  Not much going on here.  Simple ballad tale of having and then not having a loved one, he loved her but couldn’t hold onto her.  Very few and rudimentary lyrics.  Easygoing guitar lead midway was not bad.  And let’s get this out of the way now.  Lou Reed will never be mistaken as a great singer.  While he definitely has his own unique style, he sings softly, almost talking, his way thru this one.  Deep dive showed this was written about a college-time girlfriend.  It’s an o.k. Song.

OH SWEET NUTHIN’-  With this opening, which pulled me right in, I thought I was listening to The Marshall Tucker Band “Can’t You See”.  This cool song has a Southern Rock sound.  A statement song about the poor and homeless, telling the story of Jimmy/Ginger Brown.  No doubt that Marshall Tucker nipped this song from T.V.U.  Really liked the slow, deep bass work.  The more and more I’m listening, the more I’m realizing that other bands have borrowed from this song, including The Stones, which is a big complement to T.V.U.  This is most definitely my kind of music.  Love the buid-up at the 4:20 mark.  Yup, keep going!!!  Damn, now I’m hearing some Grand Funk flavor.  Bring that lead guitar now, yea!!!  This one going in my playlist.  And I’m glad the guitarist, Doug Yule, took the vocals on this one.

FEMME FATALE-  Geez Duke, after that last one, you give us Lounge Music??  Like Lou Reed, I don’t think Nico will ever be considered as a great singer.  I don’t know why, but every site I found with this recording sounded kind of muted or not great quality.  Don’t know if it was produced that way, but hard to listen to it over and over.  Interesting story of the muse for these lyrics, Edie Sedgwick,  an Andy Warhol acolyte, who apparently was a tease and a heartbreaker.  Sorry Dukey, the whole thing just didn’t work for me.

ROCK AND ROLL-  Yup, I know this one.  Excellent rhythm based song, with the band really in a zone, and some of Lou Reed’s best talking/singing.  Don’t really like the guitar lead at 1:05, should have been more rockier/edgier.  See 2:10 mark, that’s what I want, that’s where production should go more.  A song about how rock and roll saves Jenny.  Very few, but very cool lyrics gets the point across.  Such a cool sound, kind of pre-punk.  Especially love the last minute.

I FOUND A REASON:  Simon and Garfunkel opening?  Almost doo-wopish mellow song with some singing (I guess) and spoken word.  I do like the soft guitar lead throughout.  With lyrics about finding a person worth living for.  Listening several times, I think the music and guitar work are good, but wasted in that production reduced it to make a rather boring song.  And sorry, the spoken word part?  Ugh!!!

TRAIN ROUND THE BEND-  Another rhythm based song with cool guitar work following the rhythm.  And while Reed many times sounds like Dylan, it’s greatly evident in this song.  Basic rock song, basic lyrics.  I liked it enough, maybe it fits different category as it is straight ahead rock and roll, just kind of bland though.

WHO LOVES THE SUN-  Again, the rhythm really stands out in this pop-ish song.  Not crazy about this one, especially the hokey change at the 2 minute mark.  When I think of T.V.U. I think cool.  This one was as nerdy as a Hansen song, so I guess unique/different.  C’mon man, get me back to some good rock and roll.

HEROIN-  Okay, we definitely got a unique/different start.  Yup, liking the guitar/drum and the fast and faster build-up.  Then a real cool slow-down.  This is in the wheelhouse of T.V.U. music.  Love the stripped down guitar chords.  The pacing of the music is definitely different for them.  Oh man, I wanted, and frankly needed, an explosion of music and power at the 4:10 mark,  but I think production missed a chance there, giving us another slow-down.  A song about this bands obvious choice of drug, “Heroin, it’s my life, it’s my wife”.  Good, unique song, but I think it could have been better with a harder sound.  I mean, really, it’s about Heroin, the song should have been more edgier.

SUNDAY MORNING-  Really Duke???????  This is your choice for an extra song??????  I really don’t want to abuse you too much, seeing that you are a guest selector, but you just lost another ½ point for your favorite music artist.  I can see David Cassidy And The Partridge Family performing this atrocity, BUT, T.V.U.??  I want to write so much more, but I just threw up in my mouth and I need to go and gargle.  Shame on you!!!!

Okay, The Velvet Underground was a little surprise for me.  I know that T.V.U. was a very influential, avant-garde rock band, mostly active from the mid 1960’s to the early 70’s.  I know their home base was N.Y.C., where they are legendary.  But after listening to these selections, I’m not swayed too much.  So as always, I listened to live versions along with studio recordings.  Firstly, finding good, quality live recorded performances was kind of hard.  My favorites were L’olympia, Paris June 1993, Live MCMXC111 and a home video recorder from Glastonbury Festival.  Funny that many of the live shows I watched opened with the same song, Sweet Jane.  Anyway, I’d like to talk briefly of the song HEROIN as performed at L’Olympia, Paris.  10 minute version, and a great version at that.  Louder, fuller, edgier.  While the band didn’t fully open up to jamming, it was even better than the studio version.  As with many bands, T.V.U., I found, was a better band live than in studio.  I really liked 4 of these selections (though I did criticize some of their productions) but I had a tough time with the other 6.  Kind of rockish, kind of pop-ish, kind of folk-ish/poetic, and sometimes kind of punk-ish.  The mixed bag was not always to my liking.  While Lou Reed is the main man, the other musicians, while playing solid rhythm-based music, never really get a chance to stand out.  Watching the band live performances was pretty cool and they were definitely louder and fuller playing live.  But as I stated in Heroin, I would have liked to have heard the band bust out a bit.  I know, I know, this was not that sort of band.  It’s only my personal preference to music.  So based on these selections, I’m going with a score of 6.4.  Sorry Duke