The Velvet Underground

Here are the facts: it's three discs of V.U. performing live in 1969 before they went back into the studio to record Loaded. All in all, there are more than 90 minutes of "Sister Ray." The albums were recorded direct to cassette and sound like it. There are maybe ten people in the audience. It's essential listening.

I was cynical too, especially once I'd ascertained that the audio on these three discs was as faint as I'd feared. Played loud, though, the sound improves--not quite crisp or bright, but there. Note that this trick doesn't work with Live at Max's Kansas City and ask yourself if you wouldn't maybe like to hear the number three band of the '60s, after the Beatles and James Brown and His Famous Flames, without wearing out its tiny catalogue. No new songs, true. But over the two hours that aren't devoted to three long, distinct versions of "Sister Ray," no title is repeated, even though every one was recorded in a one-month span in San Francisco in 1969. That's pretty impressive. As is all the new guitar. (Grade - A-)