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Velvet Underground: The Best of the Velvet Underground |
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Genre: Experimental Rock and Roll/ Early Punk Rock |
Dates: 1966-1970 |
Each of the Velvets' four studio albums is an essential purchase for the self-respecting rock and roll fan; the music on each, with the exception of Lou Reed's hard-boiled lyrical vision of the city streets, sounds like it was made by a different band. As well, you've probably heard the claim that, while the four records didn't sell diddley at the time, everyone who did buy one ended up starting a band. Well, this single-disc compilation does as fair a job as one could ask of representing those records. If you've never heard the Velvets, prepare for a shock: along with the Mothers of Invention (see below), they countered the Beatles' optimism with brutal negativity and cynicism, though Reed sewed threads of redemption and gentleness into the lining of the Velvets' dark musical fabric. Screeching feedback, morbid subject matter Poe would have appreciated, gallows humor, raw production and execution that prophesies punk—in every respect this is an adult dose of modern rock and roll, especially the (parental advisory!) 16-minute, two-chord onslaught of "Sister Ray."
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Playlist: 1. I'm Waiting For The Man |
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