Velvet Morning Gorilla

One would be hard-pressed to name a rock album whose influence has been as broad and pervasive as The Velvet Underground & Nico. While it reportedly took over a decade for the album's sales to crack six figures, glam, punk, new wave, goth, noise, and nearly every other left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt to this set…

Forty-fifth anniversary box set release from The Velvet Underground & Nico featuring the latest remastering. Set consists of 6 discs includes 29 unreleased tracks in a 92-page hardcover book packaging with a sticker of banana. Japanese edition features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player). The set includes both stereo and mono versions of the album "The Velvet Underground & Nico" (Disc 1-2), as well as Nico's 1967 solo debut CD "Chelsea Girl" (Disc 3), a studio session at Scepter Studio recorded to acetate, and unreleased recording footage from rehearsal at Andy Warhol's Factory in January 1966 (Disc 4), and a live show from Columbus, Ohio (Disc 5-6).

At this point in music history, it's become a given that the Velvet Underground were one of the most important and innovative rock bands of their era, and that the four albums they released during their lifespan rank with the most challenging and satisfying work in the rock canon…

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.

Does this five-CD box set feature an abundance of essential material? Certainly. It has all four of the studio albums released by the Lou Reed-led lineup, and a wealth of previously unreleased goodies. Is it an essential purchase? That depends on your level of fanaticism. Most serious Velvet fans have all four of the core studio albums already (although the third, self-titled LP is presented in its muffled, so-called "closet" mix), and will be most interested in the previously unavailable recordings, which do hold considerable fascination…

Most reviewers of this well-packaged, 57-track, three-disc set can’t help but comment on the overwrought essay by clinton walker who starts with superlatives, then works up to a screech. He sets up the customary and needless rock-crit comparisons (vu more street-damaged than the beatles. So?) To advance the case that the velvets were the most important band ever in rock – maybe even, like, in the cosmos. It’s hysterical stuff for the most part (although it levels out into an insightful essay after he runs out of hyperbole and huff) and would be hysterically funny if it wasn’t almost true.