The Velvet Forum

I realy like the Scepter acetate versions. Are the banana album versions of Waiting/Venus/H technically superior? Undoubtedly. But those earlier versions (Waiting especially) have a rawness that's probably a truer picture of what the band sounded like at the time. Some of the acetate mixes of the other tracks are also far better than the final ones for my money - especially Run Run Run and Femme Fatale.

I'm a big fan of the Scepter acetate too, but having first bought Unripened and then upgraded to the RSD LP, I can't see myself forking out again for higher fidelity. I can do without another essay by David Fricke or whoever (I never read them), but if if was a nice package with more studio pics I might be tempted. Of course this is all pointless speculation, but that's about all we have for now. I wasn't that excited by the 1965 demos album or the 1970 demos, but I did end up buying them both...

MartinVU wrote: ↑15 May 2023 10:31
As for the Boston tapes Norton did actually say that they had some unreleased stuff but I'll believe when I see it. If they suceed I'm hoping their example will be they way forward, ie smaller labels negotiating with Universal (and tape owners?) to release the rest of the scrapped Bootleg series and other rarities. I think they will be more inclined to release stuff that only appeals to a small group of fanatics and also do a better job (not spreading the unreleased stuff out on super ultra deluxe rip off box-sets on cd only)

I am also doubtful about "unreleased stuff". Remember, to non-diehard fans, ALL the Boston material is "unreleased".

Regarding BTP recordings what they actually write is a bit vague : "You may see bootlegs of these show, but they are taped from a radio broadcast years ago. We are deep into a book (coming from Kicks Books) tentatively titled The Velvet Underground At The Boston Tea Party, with an introduction and photos from Jonathan Richman, who was a teenage fan in attendance, osmosing every iota of electricity from other planets! The book includes the full story from the surviving fan who made these recordings as a a student in Boston and includes, OMG, lost recordings never heard or issued before."

Does the book contain "new" audio (in which case it's not really lost anymore)? Or does it tell the story of recordings now lost? Really looking forward to the book regardless as I love these recordings and always wanted to know more about them.

Is it true that all bootlegs are based on that radio broadcast though? I thought the improved ones that were leaked some years ago were based on a 1.gen tape (but were not the same as the mastered tapes prepared for the bootleg series?)

The current crop of good quality BTP bootlegs that started coming out in about 10 years ago, e.g the LPs on the Keyhole and Spyglass labels that you can get on Amazon, are sourced from new digital transfers from the Professor's tapes, that were made around 2005. All the bootlegs that predate this are from low quality tapes (copies of copies of copies), and some were from radio broadcasts - there was a special VU weekend on a Boston-area radio station in the late 70s sometime that played a load of live tapes (I forget when/ which station, maybe it was WFMU?).

To complicate things, many bootlegs in general (not just VU ones) purport to be from radio broadcasts but aren't, to take advantage of different copyright laws relating to live music broadcasts. Again, I forget the details, but I think that copyright in a given recording would expire after 50 yrs if it was first broadcast in the '60s, making it public domain in the 2010s. So an easy way to claim something is public domain is by saying it was broadcast on the radio.
A 50+-yr old recording that is unreleased, will have a copyright period starting from its release date.

I have the Btp box sets, the 2007 Scorpio and the 2019 Keyhole. I doubt there is any better sound than these recordings. Let's hope so.

simonm wrote: ↑20 May 2023 15:35 The current crop of good quality BTP bootlegs that started coming out in about 10 years ago, e.g the LPs on the Keyhole and Spyglass labels that you can get on Amazon, are sourced from new digital transfers from the Professor's tapes, that were made around 2005.

So are the keyhole/ spyglass releases better than the 1st gen professor tapes that were released to us via this forum by Sheila more than ten years ago? I had always assumed that they were the same. So that would make them 1st gen rather than from the master tapes. Or are you saying that Keyhole have released new digital transfers from the mater tapes? I haven't heard the keyhole/ spyglass releases, which is why I am interested as to whether they are superior sounding recordings.

They are the same I think - probably I got the dates wrong - I was being coy about how the tapes came to be digitised and deliberately didn't mention individual members and their part in that since it's not really public knowledge. They are digital files made direct from the original tapes IIRC. They could be tweaked to sound better probably. Maybe Norton will spend some time + money on new digital masters if they have access to the original tapes.

nick257 wrote: ↑21 May 2023 23:30

simonm wrote: ↑20 May 2023 15:35 The current crop of good quality BTP bootlegs that started coming out in about 10 years ago, e.g the LPs on the Keyhole and Spyglass labels that you can get on Amazon, are sourced from new digital transfers from the Professor's tapes, that were made around 2005.

So are the keyhole/ spyglass releases better than the 1st gen professor tapes that were released to us via this forum by Sheila more than ten years ago? I had always assumed that they were the same. So that would make them 1st gen rather than from the master tapes. Or are you saying that Keyhole have released new digital transfers from the mater tapes? I haven't heard the keyhole/ spyglass releases, which is why I am interested as to whether they are superior sounding recordings.

After a cursory listen (I don't have the time I had 20 years ago, dammit) I'd say the Spyglass box is better than the Scorpio one.

Driven Insane wrote: ↑06 May 2023 21:55

urchinn wrote: ↑30 Apr 2023 17:01 Months ago we all heard about Norton Records releasing the "Professor Tapes" of Boston VU concerts. Then we heard that a reel was discovered in the Warhol collection. Any news about these being released to the public?

I recently contacted Norton regarding this matter, but no answer yet.

No news, two months later. I guess the project must have been dumped.