Blue Velvet

This 2 CD soundtrack was curated by the documentary's director Todd Haynes, and music supervisor Randall Poster. It features well-known and rare tracks from the Velvet Underground, as well as songs and performances that influenced the band including the doo-wop of the Diablos, the groundbreaking rock n' roll of Bo Diddley, and the avant-garde compositions of La Monte Young.

On January 10th, 1969, the band took to the stage and looked out across a crowd of misfits and mischief-makers. One notable attendee of the event was none other than soon-to-be Modern Lover, Jonathan Richman.

Tensions were growing within the Velvet Underground following the release of their sophomore album, White Light, White Heat: the group was tired of receiving little recognition for its work, and Lou Reed and John Cale were pulling the group in different directions. The differences showed in the last recording sessions the band had with Cale in 1968: three pop-like songs in Reedx27s direction (Temptation Inside Your Heart, Stephanie Says and x27Beginning to See the Light) and a viola-driven drone in Calex27s direction (Hey Mr. Rain)n Reed told Sterling Morrison and Mo Tucker that Cale was out, and while neither was happy with the idea, faced with a choice of either no Cale or no band at all, the pair reluctantly sided with Reed. Cale played his last show with the Velvets at the Boston Tea Party in September 1968, and was fired shortly afterwards.Before work on their third album started, Cale was replaced by musician Doug Yule, formerly of the Boston group the Grass Menagerie, who had been a close associate of the band.

The Velvet Underground are arguably the most important American band of the second half of the '60s, but few seemed to think so at the time. The Velvets flew under the radar of public recognition through most of their career, and no one bothered to professionally record their live shows between 1966 and 1970…