The Velvet Forum

Is Klimek still in Cleveland? If so, with Doug Snyder (Columbus 1966) being in the Ohio area as well, maybe it's time for someone to head out there on a road trip with a suitcase full of cash...

I found a few more little things about Klimek and his tapes:

"Last I heard from mutual friends, Jamie's original tapes were deteriorating rapidly but there was no money to get them restored. The Velvets played three shows at La Cave that weekend, two sets each--Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon. I was at the Sunday show, and each set was really long. I think Jamie recorded all the sets from all the shows, so there's got to be more material available. Whether or not it's usable is another question." (comments from 2012 re. the April 68 shows)
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ ... st-8302908

"That's Jamie Klimek's La Cave boot from 1968.04.28. He played me his master and it's unbelievably glorious. Jamie will gladly sell his masters to Universal and what he wants for them is extremely fair. Sal Mercuri did in fact try..."
https://x.com/clevelandbeyond/status/77 ... 09664?s=20

Finally, interview with the man himself from 2013 where he confirms the first time he saw the VU was at La Cave in June/July 1967 - his friend taped the show but it didn't come out too well: https://www.clevescene.com/news/clevela ... ma-3648071

supposedly the rest of that Sister Ray was accidentally/inadvertently deleted by Jamie's sister?

cuckoo wrote: ↑23 Jun 2004 20:00 What about the Sister Ray that follows SSR. We get the first few bars and then it fades out. Did the tape-recorder run out?(unlikely, as it did fade out). OL's web site also hints somewhere that Klimek had some other unreleased '68 stuff - does anybody know anything about him?
Just wundrin.........

Thanks for the input, Mark. I've never seen that Twitter-post before.

>Is Klimek still in Cleveland? If so, with Doug Snyder (Columbus 1966) being in the Ohio area as well, maybe it's time for someone to head out there >on >a road trip with a suitcase full of cash...

I remember reading here on the forum that he lives in Texas now. Which is a bit far for me (I live in Norway!), but hopefully someone with a suitcase full of cash lives a bit closer..!
Given his wish not to be contacted by VU fans it's probably better to contact someone he knows (his brother for example) if one is to make him an extremely fair offer.

>"That's Jamie Klimek's La Cave boot from 1968.04.28. He played me his master and it's unbelievably glorious. Jamie will gladly sell his masters to >Universal and what he wants for them is extremely fair. Sal Mercuri did in fact try..."
>https://x.com/clevelandbeyond/status/77 ... 09664?s=20

Does anybody know how much "extremely fair" is?
And what Sal Mercuri in fact tried??

I'm not on X so I can't comment/ask there.

>"Last I heard from mutual friends, Jamie's original tapes were deteriorating rapidly but there was no money to get them restored. The Velvets >played three shows at La Cave that weekend, two sets each--Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon. I was at the Sunday show, and >each set was >really long. I think Jamie recorded all the sets from all the shows, so there's got to be more material available. Whether or not it's >usable is another question." (comments from 2012 re. the April 68 shows)
>https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ ... st-8302908

I find it hard to believe the tapes are just sitting there deteriorating, but this may be just wishful thinking.
At some point he or someone he knows and trust must surely have made at least a simple digital copy (or even just a fresh tape copy).

Anyway, the same user also writes:

"I first heard Jamie's tapes on a reel-to-reel machine at his band's rehearsal space a couple of years after he made them, and they sounded fine considering how over-driven his mic was (they were a very loud band, and it wasn't a very good mic). When the boots came out years later, I was very disappointed. They were obviously made from copies of copies of copies, with lots of generational loss."

Does anybody know if this is correct?
I always thought Klimek supplied the bootleggers with the tapes since he got so bitter about not getting any of the profits. But here it seems like someone else with a tape copy several generations from the masters was the source.

The Problems in Urban Living CD seems to be from a high gen copy - it sounds pretty horrible. The earlier vinyl boots (Live 68 etc) seem to be close to the source though.

If you listen carefully to the end of side two, when Sisiter Ray fades away, you can hear some more music. The tape has probably been erased. Which is a real shame because it sounds like a great version of the song. I quite agree that Sweet Sister Ray is actually Sweet Rock'n roll. If you think about the title Sweet Sister Ray, why not Sweet Rock n roll?

Wasn't one rumour-story that the taper lent the tape to Lou Reed and when it came back he'd wiped Sister Ray? I'm sure it's mentioned in one of the books. Could of course be more speculation. And then also why would his sister only wipe exactly from the start of Sister Ray? That's seem a bit of an unlikely happenstance.

Think the story is that the tape was in the car and she recorded something from the radio over a portion of the tape (Sister ray, Mr Rain (!!) and Venus in Furs except the last few seconds).

Lou supposedly borrowed and returned it (without making a copy one wonders?).