Velvet Underground 1968-12-12 Boston 1st generation "professor" audience recording NO FLAC ERRORS

Boston Tea Party
Boston
1968-12-12

disc 1
D101: Heroin (9.11)
D102: Move Right In (5.42)
D103: Waiting For The Man (7.18)
D104: I'm Set Free (5.02)
D105: Foggy Notion (8.17)
D106: Beginning To See The Light (6.17)
D107: Candy Says (4.44)

disc 2
D201: White Light White Heat (5.18)
D202: Jesus (4.50)
D203: Sister Ray (26.17)
D204: Pale Blue Eyes (6.09)

Lou Reed: guitar, vocals
Sterling Morrison: guitar
Doug Yule: bass, organ, vocals
Moe Tucker: drums

lineage: master reels > 10" reels (7-1/2ips, w/ modest EQ) > AIFF > FLAC > WAV > FLAC (level 8)

original audience recording by the "professor"
tape preservation, digital transfer and track splitting courtesy our very, very best friend, Sheila Klein
uploaded to Dime December 2012 by lurid_uk

artwork included

December 12th 1968 was the first show of a 3 night stay at the Velvets "second home", the Boston Tea Party. This recording was made by the "professor", who reputedly smugged his reel-reel recorder into the venue under a large poncho.

This show has long been my personal favourite of all the extant Tea Party recordings. Lou and Sterling's guitar playing is outstanding, and Moe never misses a beat. "Move Right In" is just great - Sterling sounds just like a tape loop and Lou's "improvised on the spot" lyrics are tantalisingly almost intelligible. "Foggy Notion" is a joyful breeze, with buzzsaw guitars and fine vocals. Going by Lou's introduction, this would appear to be the first public performance of "Candy Says". It's certainly the only Velvets recording of it which I am aware of where Lou actually sings it himself - he cant quite reach the high notes but there's a certain weary tenderness to his vocal which I dont think Doug ever managed to achieve, live or in the studio. This is undoubtedly my favourite version of one of my favourite songs.

No words I can write can adequately describe this performance of "Sister Ray" - over 26 mins of musical mayhem and lyrical debauchery. Outstanding.

In 2007 I seeded a 4th generation copy of this recording. Needless to say, this is (slightly) better quality. I understand that the master reels are now in the possession of Universal Music Group, and were transferred and mastered for potential release as part of the "Bootleg Series". It seems unlikely that that will ever happen now, so this 1st generation copy is as good as it's gonna get.....

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