The Velvet Forum

mangue wrote:Now that all (? ...more from the Ludlow tape ...?) recorded music is available, covers are all that's to look out for!!

Really like the Brian Eno version of 'I'm Set Free', THANKS searchin4mymainline!!
And also good texts by ENo about VU and the covered song on his website: http://www.brian-eno.net/

a cover = a next Illusion of an original song (=truth)

Actually I meant Ludlow/Broom st. We know there's some more if only it could see the light of day.

I'm afraid that I'd rather listen to new music than other people covering the VU...

in 1994, as an 18 year old, The only Velvet Underground i'd really been exposed to was 'VU'. A friend gave me some bits and bobs from VU&N and WL/WH and around the same time, the Peel Slowly and See box set came out and I grabbed a copy.

The next 6 months was spent listening to the VU on a loop as a whole new world was opened up to me. Around the same time I started playing guitar and bought myself a 4-track (good old student loans!) - although what is quote about everyone who heard the VU forming a band, I was compelled to record a bunch of VU covers as I cut my teeth learning my craft. The first thing I ever recorded was a cover of 'Here She Comes Now' - a hybrid of the album version and the beautifully eerie and reverb-y demo version from the box set outtakes. I'm not a great singer, but argaubly, neither was Lou - my version comes across like an incredibly amateur Ian Brown fronting a drunken Moldy Peaches.

I persevered - cranking out half a cheery and very 80s drum machine heavy 'What Goes On' with the lead being provided by a lady friend (who was a really, really nice girl who didn't have one jot of anything about her to tarnish her Disney-like innocence expect for the fact she loved the Velvets!) and an instrumental (because i could never nail the vocal) 'Lady Godiva's Operation', complete with BBC-style home-made sound effects.

I was likely following in REM's footsteps (another band with a love of covering VU and a band I was already well obsessed with by 1994) and a thousand other bands in trying to emulate such simple, yet deceptively brilliant songs and I'd love to see this thread develop into a compendium of the best and worse of those who loved the VU and attempted to pay their little piece of homage.

That said, 'Bristled Maniac's' various attempts will not be making an appearance. Nobody deserves that...

Waldo_Jeffers wrote:in 1994, as an 18 year old, The only Velvet Underground i'd really been exposed to was 'VU'. A friend gave me some bits and bobs from VU&N and WL/WH and around the same time, the Peel Slowly and See box set came out and I grabbed a copy.

The next 6 months was spent listening to the VU on a loop as a whole new world was opened up to me. Around the same time I started playing guitar and bought myself a 4-track (good old student loans!) - although what is quote about everyone who heard the VU forming a band, I was compelled to record a bunch of VU covers as I cut my teeth learning my craft. The first thing I ever recorded was a cover of 'Here She Comes Now' - a hybrid of the album version and the beautifully eerie and reverb-y demo version from the box set outtakes. I'm not a great singer, but argaubly, neither was Lou - my version comes across like an incredibly amateur Ian Brown fronting a drunken Moldy Peaches.

I persevered - cranking out half a cheery and very 80s drum machine heavy 'What Goes On' with the lead being provided by a lady friend (who was a really, really nice girl who didn't have one jot of anything about her to tarnish her Disney-like innocence expect for the fact she loved the Velvets!) and an instrumental (because i could never nail the vocal) 'Lady Godiva's Operation', complete with BBC-style home-made sound effects.

I was likely following in REM's footsteps (another band with a love of covering VU and a band I was already well obsessed with by 1994) and a thousand other bands in trying to emulate such simple, yet deceptively brilliant songs and I'd love to see this thread develop into a compendium of the best and worse of those who loved the VU and attempted to pay their little piece of homage.

That said, 'Bristled Maniac's' various attempts will not be making an appearance. Nobody deserves that...

Nice story. Great way to learn a 'craft'...

I like those VU demos. I also like the drum machine demo feel of the Cabaret Voltaire version.

I can only imagine what your versions are like

This was on the radio earlier. Not really new, but new to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohitQIT0m7A

I don't think it's for most people here, but this is probably my favorite VU cover:

Apoptygma Berzerk - All tomorrow's parties

https://youtu.be/c8JOZ0CK2F4

I've always had a soft spot for the Big Star/Alex Chilton cover of "Femme Fatale " on 1975's Third/Sister Lovers album:
https://youtu.be/_LZ5LBM-CEQ

Cool cover of "I'm Sticking With You" :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6YhHG4wtxA

Very classy one-man-band cover of Venus in Furs by a lunatic wearing a drumkit on his head. This one will rock any party, guaranteed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/crappymusic/co ... urs_cover/

bradski wrote: ↑31 Jan 2024 20:09 Very classy one-man-band cover of Venus in Furs by a lunatic wearing a drumkit on his head. This one will rock any party, guaranteed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/crappymusic/co ... urs_cover/

Totally totally deranged, but i enjoyed it.

I have a playlist on YouTube containing 480 covers of VU songs titled: Who Covers The Velvet Underground? (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNIN ... ure=shared)
and am looking for more covers. While searching, I came across some astonishing names, such as Motörhead, Tori Amos, or just recently Keith Richards covering Waiting For The Man. So if anybody knows any further VU covers worth mentioning, you are welcome.