Even Better Than The Real Thing

July 26, 2011 By Kyle Leave a Comment

Along with most other Shore Fire employees, I delved into Spotify recently and it’s blown me away. It’s almost too overwhelming. Since I don’t even know where to start most of the time, I’ve caught myself typing in a favorite artist followed by “demo” or “live” just to see what I haven’t heard yet. It reminded how many artists tinker with songs well past perfection – and on the flip side – how many artists give it another shot only to completely nail it.

Below are a handful of demos, alternate versions and second tries that I believe exceed the original album version, from the simple country twist on Velvet Underground’s “I Found a Reason” to Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s slightly tongue-in-cheek but completely gorgeous reworking of his own “New Partner.” (Unfortunately, Dylan tunes are hard to come by on the web unless you’re looking for embarrassing bedroom covers, but I’ll gladly throw his demos of “Mississippi,” “You’re a Big Girl Now” and “Idiot Wind” into the discussion.)

In the spirit of Spotify, open the program, copy and paste the below links into your browser and they’ll play instantly. For those who have yet to take the plunge, I’ve included a few YouTube links as well.

The Velvet Underground – “I Found a Reason” (Demo):
http://cleanify.net/play/track/the-velvet-underground/i-found-a-reason-demo-version

Red House Painters – “Have You Forgotten” (‘Vanilla Sky’ soundtrack):
http://cleanify.net/play/track/red-house-painters/have-you-forgotten

The National – “Terrible Love” (Alternate Version)
http://cleanify.net/play/track/the-national/terrible-love-alternate-version

Big Star – “Thank You Friends” (Demo)
http://cleanify.net/play/track/big-star/thank-you-friends-demo

The Strokes – “I’ll Try Anything Once” (‘Somewhere’ soundtrack)

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – “New Partner” (‘Sings Greatest Palace Music’)

What are some of your favorites?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Alternate Takes, Big Star, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Demo Version, Spotify, The National. Red House Painters, The Strokes, velvet underground

VU Redux: Reed, Tucker and Yule talk to David Fricke

December 11, 2009 By Mark Leave a Comment

If you know me, you know I’m a little obsessed with the Velvet Underground. So you can imagine what a thrill it was to attend the on-stage interview this past Tuesday between David Fricke and Lou Reed, Mo Tucker and Doug Yule at a grand hall deep inside the main NY Public Library building. (Which begged the question: when was the last time Reed and Yule were in the same room together)? What a rare event: Lou prepared to talk about the Velvets. While it was pretty familiar turf to a train spotter like me, even I (and David) learned a tiny new nugget, that the VU had opened for Bobby Bland in a black club in San Francisco. Never heard that one before. The event was to promote the new book Velvet Underground: New York Art, one of three awesome new VU books. To cap the evening, I waited on line and got my book signed. One for the ages. Here’s the audio of the event that’s posted on WNYC:

http://culture.wnyc.org/media/audioplayer/red_progress_player_no_pop.swf

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: velvet underground

Hey Mr. Rain: It’s Pouring Velvet Underground books

September 16, 2009 By Mark Leave a Comment

I can’t say why there have been two landmark books about the Velvet Underground published in the last few months but I can say boy does it make me happy. Richie Unterberger’s train-spottingly in depth White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day By Day is the book I’ve been waiting for for years. On the other hand, Jim DeRogatis and friends full color, densely-packed ephemera and photo-filled The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History, is the book I didn’t even know I was missing until I bought it yesterday. Between these two hefty works this is the most important time in VU scholarship since the days of Phil Milstein and MC Kostek’s “What Goes On” fanzine three decades ago. And that’s not to mention a book called The Velvet Underground that Amazon has down for an October release and describes as “A definitive anthology of unseen photographs, posters, and rare ephemera documenting the influence of this legendary band.”

You won’t get me to chose between the two. I”m learning more about the Velvets from Unterberger’s 368 page (small print!) tome while (it’s taking me a while to digest all the information), while I learned more about Velvets visual history from DeRogatis’ coffee table book. Day By Day is image packed too, but An Illustrated History looks to have access to the Andy Warhol Archives in Pittsburgh and other private collections, re-printing among many other things, Lou Reed’s manuscript, with chords and lyrics, to Heroin; dozens of ads for albums and concerts, ticket stubs, and a bigger collection of posters than I’d ever seen since, well, VU Day by Day.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: books, velvet underground