The Velvet Forum

FROM TOP OF MY HEAD IT WAS IN HER WGO #4 INTERVIEW.

nick257 wrote:Check out the woman dancing at the very end of Sister ray...........If I was gonna dance in public to Sister ray I'd dance exactly like her!

I saw this at the Boston showing last month. I sat in front of a man who was the former manager of The Boston Tea Party. When that girl first came on screen he said "it's Betsy!" and a little later he said "go Betsy!"

If it's the same BTP dancer I'm thinking of -- she was in an orange dress, I believe -- she was seated in my row, along with a group of friends and relatives. When she came on the screen that whole row erupted in screams, laughs and applause, whichi began anew each time the camera returned to her and exceeded only by their laughter when, near end of the song (and as the rhythm wound down) her dancing became extremely awkward and idiosyncratic.

It took a while for the rest of us to realize that this same young lady seen on the screen in 1967 is the not quite so young lady in our row watching it -- and, mind you, not two miles from the site of that original Boston Tea Party. While the events in the movie were in certain ways quite remote from our experience today, her presence as well as the reaction of her loved ones made it seem much more direct and connected to our 2011 experience.

In sum, it was quite an event!

--Phil M.

The end of Sister Ray sounds "ritualistic." As if the audience could get down on the floor and start chanting. In fact there's brief footage of one girl doing an up-and-down chanting motion as she's dancing.

At least this time the cops weren't there to shut the band up ...

where Nick 257 hears I Heard Her Call My Name, I'm hearing European Son. There's a bit of Black Angel's Death Song after Venus too.

Very interesting historical document. It's a darn shame the audio quality is so horrendous and Warhol chose to be such a spazz with his camerwork. If only he'd just set the camera up on a tripod and gotten a decent mic. Even so, this beats nothing. Many many thanks to all involved for it. (I removed it from my list so it won't reseed).