VELVET UNDERGROUND 1969-01-31 Cleveland audience recording RESEED

....the nuns are on the sea wall...

La Cave
Cleveland
1969-01-31

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

01: I'm Waiting For My Man 9.51
02: What Goes On 5.10
03: Pale Blue Eyes (cut) 6.26
04: Sister Ray/Murder Mystery/Sister Ray 28.34

Note: a 2025 post on the VU Forum confirmed that this is the correct date and running order

lineage: unknown generation trade cassettes - Pioneer CT-S670D player - wav - flac (level 8)

original recording by Jamie Klimek
wav transfer February 2008 by lurid_uk
uploaded to Dime February 2008 by lurid_uk
RESEEDED December 2012 by lurid_uk
RESEEDED December 2025 by lurid_uk

This is another "Jamie Klimek" tape - I think that he made all of the VU Cleveland recordings which are in circulation (and some which sadly are not). Quality is not too bad for a 1969 audience recording - a bit of distortion and some tape hiss but still very listenable. The instruments and vocals are generally clear - you can even hear some background audience chatter during the quieter parts of "Sister Ray". There are breaks between the songs on all the copies of this show I have heard, so the true running order is probably open to conjecture. I compiled this show from 2 different source cassettes. Source #1 is better quality but did not include "Pale Blue Eyes". Source #2 has a variety of sound quality defects, but did include "Pale Blue Eyes" in shortened/cut form. Yet another example of how all the extant Cleveland recordings have been butchered and misdated over the years....

This is the first known public performance of "Murder Mystery", even if it's just a fragment inserted into the middle of a lengthy "Sister Ray". You can hear Lou shouting to "Duggie" just before he launches into the "Murder Mystery" lyrics - presumably this was a prearranged signal. (I have heard an interview with Moe where she said that they only ever performed "Murder Mystery" live as part of "Sister Ray")

RIP Lou, Sterling and Jamie