No doubt Sir Mick is stroking his chin and furrowing his brows over the latest reissue trend to surface in the music industry: the single album as box set. Scarcely a week after the Sex Pistols first and last album is released in box-set format, as outlined in another thread, so too will the landmark Velvet Underground and Nico album see reissue in box-set format with a whopping 6-CD set due for release on October 1 (on the Universal label).

The box set will include alternate takes and mixes from sessions at Scepter Studio in Manhattan, along with practice tapes from January 1966 rehearsals at Andy Warhol's factory. Nico herself, who sang three Lou Reed penned songs on the album, will also get her due with the inclusion of her entire 1967 post-VU solo album Chelsea Girls. Two discs of the box set will also be devoted to an undated live show recorded at the Valleydale Ballroom in Columbus, Ohio.

The original album, released in March 1967 on Verve Records, was produced by Andy Warhol and Tom Wilson (the latter of which probably did most of the heavy lifting and knob-twiddling in the studio, though Warhol designed the iconic album cover).

Cover of the early LP edition with banana peeled



Cover of the 1986 CD edition (top) and the 1996 CD remaster edition (bottom)



Label of the original Norman Dolph acetate version from Scepter Studios cut on April 25, 1966

Cover for the 2002 double-CD rarities edition

Wow, wow and thrice wow. Cannot wait for this. I have loads of material from around this time in bootleg format but to get an official release is amazing. Shame they won't put out the great live footage they have. I'm sure the Warhol estate is sitting on hours of unreleased video treasures.

The original studio version of Femme Fatale recorded in 1966





and the live version performed by Nico, Lou Reed, and John Cale at Le Bataclan Club in Paris, France, in 1972

Artwork for front and back cover, vinyl front and back labels, and inside for original Verve Records LP release

Original studio recording from 1966





and Nico performing the song solo, 1980s

Vu is the best

I've largely eschewed single album 'box sets' except for the stones GYYYO, Some Girls and Exile, but this will be on my Christmas list.

With these box sets we now know how much Sex Pistols and Velvet Underground is too much.

Disc One - 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' (Stereo Version)
Originally Issued As Verve V6-5008, March 1967
'Sunday Morning'
'I'm Waiting For The Man'
'Femme Fatale'
'Venus In Furs'
'Run Run Run'
'All Tomorrow's Parties'
'Heroin'
'There She Goes Again'
'I'll Be Your Mirror'
'The Black Angel's Death Song'
'European Son'
Alternate Versions:
'All Tomorrow’s Parties (Alternate Single Voice Version)'
'European Son (Alternate Version)'
'Heroin (Alternate Version)'
'All Tomorrow’s Parties (Alternate Instrumental Mix)'
'I'll Be Your Mirror (Alternate Mix)'

Disc Two - 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' (Mono Version)
Originally Issued As Verve V-5008, March 1967
'Sunday Morning'
'I'm Waiting For The Man'
'Femme Fatale'
'Venus In Furs'
'Run Run Run'
'All Tomorrow's Parties'
'Heroin'
'There She Goes Again'
'I'll Be Your Mirror'
'The Black Angel's Death Song'
'European Son'
The Singles:
'All Tomorrow's Parties'
'I’ll Be Your Mirror (Alternate Ending)'
'Sunday Morning (Alternate Mix)'
'Femme Fatale'

Disc Three - Nico: 'Chelsea Girl'
Originally Issued As Verve V6-5032, October 1967
'The Fairest Of The Seasons'
'These Days'
'Little Sister'
'Winter Song'
'It Was A Pleasure Then'
'Chelsea Girls'
'I'll Keep It With Mine'
'Somewhere There's A Feather'
'Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams'
'Eulogy To Lenny Bruce'

Disc Four - Scepter Studios Sessions
Acetate Cut On April 25, 1966
'European Son (Alternate Version)'
'The Black Angel's Death Song (Alternate Mix)'
'All Tomorrow's Parties (Alternate Version)'
'I'll Be Your Mirror (Alternate Version)'
'Heroin (Alternate Version)'
'Femme Fatale 2.36 (Alternate Mix)'
'Venus In Furs (Alternate Version)'
'Waiting For The Man (Alternate Version)'
'Run Run Run 4.23 (Alternate Mix)'
The Factory Rehearsals: January 1966 Rehearsal, Previously Unreleased.
'Walk Alone'
'Cracking Up / Venus In Furs'
'Miss Joanie Lee'
'Heroin'
'There She Goes Again (With Nico)'
'There She Goes Again'

Disc Five - Live At Valleydale Ballroom, Columbus, Ohio
'Melody Laughter'
'Femme Fatale'
'Venus In Furs'
'The Black Angel's Death Song'
'All Tomorrow's Parties'

Disc Six- Live At Valleydale Ballroom, Columbus, Ohio
'Waiting For The Man'
'Heroin'
'Run Run Run'
'The Nothing Song'

This was probably the first truly subversive album I ever heard. I was in my mid-teens growing up in Southern California and this music sounded like it came from a different world. And it did. From this album I worked backward to the earlier albums. They were dark, frightening and terribly exciting. My world started to expand.

Original studio version recorded 1966





Acoustic version with John Cale at Le Bataclan Club, Paris, France, 1972





Reunited Velvets version from Paris, 1993

The beginning of H in '93 is met with the audience's approval. In '66 in Ohio the performance was met with stunned silence. A delicious moment in time when a band is ahead of its audience. I think the equivalent time for the Stones was the '69 tour and the equivalent album, Exile. It is an imperfect analogy, but that is what comes to mind. When I listened to Dirty Work my mind wandered to the VU/Nico album. For some reason I draw pale comparisons. One has the ring of truth and the other doesn't.

There She Goes Again as rehearsed at Andy Warhol's Factory





and the recorded studio version

this is a great album, maybe a little bit overrated but that´s ok. to make a six disc boxed set out of it is crazy, just for specialists maybe

There's a great Velvets bootleg called Caught Between The Twisted Stars. Anyone heard it?

Hasn't there already been a massive, several disc VU&N box set several years ago? Yet another filthy lucre exercise in marketing!

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SonicDreamer
Hasn't there already been a massive, several disc VU&N box set several years ago? Yet another filthy lucre exercise in marketing!

are you thining of the boxset PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE?

Universal? ABKCO? Rolling Stones?

Come on now, please, it's time for stones stuff just like this!!!

* His Majesty, Prince Jones smiled as he moved among the crowd *

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keefriffhard4life

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SonicDreamer
Hasn't there already been a massive, several disc VU&N box set several years ago? Yet another filthy lucre exercise in marketing!

are you thining of the boxset PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE?

That's the one I have; very good.
I am thinking this new one is just too much. I don't need Nico's album wedged in there. Already own it. But not twice.

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stonesnow
There She Goes Again as rehearsed at Andy Warhol's Factory





and the recorded studio version

This is probably my favorite VU song. Coincidentally, its main riff is a total ripoff (homage?) to the Stones' "Hitch Hike" from Out of Our Heads.:

I think you can have too much of a good thing. There's a point at which it just seems like overkill to me. I've got the Pet Sounds boxset, but it's been years since I've played it. I'm not sure I've ever actually listened to the entire thing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-07-28 18:27 by tatters.

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tatters
I think you can have too much of a good thing. There's a point at which it just seems like overkill to me. I've got the Pet Sounds boxset, but it's been years since I've played it. I'm not sure I've ever actually listened to the entire thing.

I am a humongous Beach Boys, "Pet Sounds" fan and I agree -- the only time I play it is when I want to hear the actual album! Similarly with another of my favorites -- "The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society." Although it does contain several B sides, outtakes and such that are excellent.

Boxsets of these great albums seem to be scraping the product barrel for baby boomer cash. I said on the Sex Pistols thread that they'd be better served just releasing a half dozen 45's -- that's what's there really. We've heard most of the unheard gems of our favorite bands by now.

Except maybe one....

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Wry Cooter

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tatters
I think you can have too much of a good thing. There's a point at which it just seems like overkill to me. I've got the Pet Sounds boxset, but it's been years since I've played it. I'm not sure I've ever actually listened to the entire thing.

I am a humongous Beach Boys, "Pet Sounds" fan and I agree -- the only time I play it is when I want to hear the actual album!

I guess you don't care for the studio chatter and hearing Brian instruct the musicians on how to play then? I found that absolutely fascinating. Pet Sounds is one of my favourite box sets because of that.

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GumbootCloggeroo

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Wry Cooter

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tatters
I think you can have too much of a good thing. There's a point at which it just seems like overkill to me. I've got the Pet Sounds boxset, but it's been years since I've played it. I'm not sure I've ever actually listened to the entire thing.

I am a humongous Beach Boys, "Pet Sounds" fan and I agree -- the only time I play it is when I want to hear the actual album!

I guess you don't care for the studio chatter and hearing Brian instruct the musicians on how to play then? I found that absolutely fascinating. Pet Sounds is one of my favourite box sets because of that.

I didn't say I had never listened to it. But I pretty much only read a book once, whereas I return to music. Those sorts of things are instructive and even inspiring, but don't sound as good in the car.