What can be said about The Velvet Underground’s music? For starters, I have never heard a band that sounded like them. I still remember my first listen to them, and not quite getting it. I almost pushed them aside and took their music for granted. Within in several forwarded listens of their “hits”, I broke down and bought an album, after being reassured my a friend that this is up my alley. Actually it was a tape of The Velvet Underground & Nico that I purchased my sophomore year in high school. I remember pushing play on my Sony Sportsman Walkmento the delicate sounds of “Sunday Morning”. At that point my ears woke up, my senses became numb, and the birth of a new part of my mind was being awoken.

Throughout the years of collecting, I’ve added all of The Velvet Underground studio albums, bootlegs, originals, and reissues which have expanded the “V” section on my record shelves. I’m the type of person who if I like something, I dig my way through the discography of band and add the LP’s till they are all found. That’s one of the characteristics of me that I felt was my weakness. Being a completest that is. Though I have realized, many years later, that it’s not a weakness, and that I would’ve missed out on several fine recordings if I didn’t dig deep, or deep enough, into the catalog. The Velvet Underground is no exception.

Picking the order of my favorite of their studio albums is like having to pick the order of my children from favorite to least favorite. And taking my favorite songs from each record, and assembling the perfect release would be like birthing a new child, which I don’t have room for. Rather than critiquing their music, and I have a better bond with just listening to it. Each album shows not just growth, but a band that didn’t change with time, but changed time. Yes, members left, and new one entered, producer’s changed and the band’s sound changes. The Doug Yule years had as much impact as the John Cale years in my opinion. Take the LP Loaded for instance. I can listen to that album, and it find it to be a better album than White Light/White Heat one day. Then the next day it’s switched around. I gather up so many different emotions from The Velvet Underground’s music. That’s a good thing because there’s so much music out there that doesn’t do anything for me or what the band or artist set out for it to do.

I have to agree that this box set is essential rock & roll history. For a band to leave such a mark in music and not have the radio hits to show for it says so much. Now I own all of these albums already, and I will be purchasing these when they are available OCTOBER 30th. That’s a no brainer! It’s been just about 20 years since my first purchase of this band, and I don’t see anything stopping me from buying their music 20 years later.

Sir Psych

Pre-Order the release here: The Velvet Underground Box Set
Facebook: The Velvet Underground
Websites: http://www.thevelvetunderground.co.uk/
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