The velvet underground beginning to see the light

The latterвЂ™s cocky strut is disrupted by a desperate lyrical plea: вЂњIf Shelley would just come back, itвЂ™d be all right.вЂќ 20. I CanвЂ™t Stand It (1969)ДЄmid the VelvetsвЂ™ songs about drugs and drag queens lurked the plaintive sound of Reed pining for his college sweetheart, Shelley Albin, the subject of Pale Blue Eyes, I Found a Reason and I CanвЂ™t Stand It. The twist is that her childlike voice and the cute melody conceals an almost unbearably sad song, ostensibly a celebration of small-hours boozing, but filled with longing and regret. The VelvetsвЂ™ eponymous 1969 album ends, improbably, with the drummer, Moe Tucker, singing a song that could have dated from the pre-rock era. (Clockwise from top left) Tucker, Reed, Morrison and Cale. Take your pick from the world-weary, small-hours rumination found on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live, or the more epic studio version that the Velvets biographer Victor Bockris suggested was вЂњan attempt to present some encouraging statements to a confused audience as the 70s beganвЂќ. вЂњIt was fun.вЂќ A delightful late Cale-era outtake that inadvertently captured Morrison, Cale and ReedвЂ™s giggly backchat as they recorded the backing vocals, Temptation Inside Your Heart bears that assessment out. вЂњIt was not Mein Kampf вЂ“ my struggle,вЂќ the guitarist Sterling Morrison once reflected of the Velvet UndergroundвЂ™s career.

It boasts three chords, a distinct rhythm and blues influence, Reed in streetwise, so-what punk mode and explosive guitar solos somehow potentiated by the rough sound quality. Recorded at the White Light/White Heat sessions, but never completed, the April 1967 live recording of Guess IвЂ™m Falling in Love вЂ“ taped at the Gymnasium in New York вЂ“ will more than suffice.

вЂњIf youвЂ™re a mad fiend like we are, youвЂ™ll listen to them both together,вЂќ offered the producer, Tom Wilson. In which the band set a two-chord grind that may, or may not, have been based on their instrumental Booker T in one channel and a blackly comic Reed short story read by Cale in the other. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy 26. The Velvet Underground on stage with Nico.

The velvet underground beginning to see the light