1969: The Velvet Underground Live - Recording and Production

Recording and Production

During 1969, The Velvet Underground toured the United States and Canada, playing well over 70 dates. By this time, the band had picked up a sizeable fan base and every now and then a fan would bring along, with consent of the band, recording equipment to record a set.

Most of the time, this would mean relatively simple hand-held recorders resulting in lo-fi audience recordings. On two occasions, however, professional equipment was used. On October 19, 1969 in the End of Cole Ave. club, Dallas, a fan who happened to be a recording engineer brought along his professional gear; and in November at The Matrix in San Francisco, the band was given permission to use the in-house four-track recording desk.

The band were given two-track mixdown tapes from the recordings for reference, but nothing was done with them until 1974, after the band had dissolved and Lou Reed had become well known as a solo artist. According to bassist Doug Yule, "The release of 1969 Live... was started by Steve Sesnick, who had the tapes and was trying to sell them to get money for himself claiming that he owned the name and the rights to the album... Somehow somebody else got involved and contacted other people in the group and basically Sesnick got done. took the tapes and said 'It's not yours' and released it".

The mixdown tapes were submitted to Mercury Records, who agreed to release a compilation of the best performances as a double album. The songs on the album were compiled by music critic Paul Nelson, who at the time was working in A&R at Mercury. When 1969 was released, it immediately became subject of a lawsuit as The Matrix's management had never given permission for their material to be used on a commercial release. The matter was, however, settled out of court.

The tracks on 1969 are for the most part of good sound quality, resulting from four-track recording equipment being used. Some of the tracks feature light crackling, however, as they were sourced from acetates, the original tapes having been lost. The CD release is worse in this regard, as it appears that some tracks were sourced from a vinyl copy of the album. There is little ambiance or audience sound, however, because no audience mic was used and so the only ambience the listener gets is whatever little the vocal and drums mics picked up. This makes the record sound relatively flat and small and makes it seem that only a handful of people were present.

At the time of the album's release, three of its songs ("We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together", "Over You", "Sweet Bonnie Brown"/"It's Just Too Much") were previously unreleased in any form, two ("Lisa Says" and "Ocean") were previously only known as Lou Reed solo songs, and "New Age" and "Sweet Jane" were radically different from the eventual Loaded studio versions. In addition, much of the rest of the album lends credence to a popular saying about the band—that they wouldn't (or couldn't) play a song the same way twice. In particular, "I'm Waiting For The Man" (credited here as "Waiting For My Man") is performed in a country-rock manner; "Femme Fatale" is louder and more aggressive, and "White Light/White Heat" is extended from two-and-a-half minutes to over eight minutes of avant-garde guitar improvisation. The album is also notable for featuring songs sung by different singers than the album versions: Reed sings "Femme Fatale" (originally sung by Nico) and "New Age" (later sung by Yule on Loaded), and "I'll Be Your Mirror" is sung by Yule (another song originally sung by Nico.)

The album contained liner notes by Paul Nelson and by singer/songwriter Elliott Murphy.