The Velvet Forum

(a) 52%
(b) heroin
(c) sister ray

p.s. i hope i'm not too late

I'm a couple of hours late, but I want to make a prediction, too. I'm not trying to win anything anyway, I find the voting fun in itself.

Sister Ray beats Heroin by 18%

tarbaby2 wrote:SR is my all time favorite VU song

It isn't mine but judging from the previous polls I do think it's gonna win.

tarbaby2 wrote:so... would the votes go to the whole SR grouping or to one version? it could make a difference to somebody.

The idea was to think of your faviourite version of any given song.

Well, I sure want the book! I will sob for days if I don't win.



Now she puts the kid away, and she?s gone to get a hit
She hates her life, and what she?s done to it
There?s one more kid that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

Ok, I'm in (*grumbles*)..


73%
Heroin
Pale Blue Eyes

We're all so funny, are we not?? Heehee. We say funny things.

I don't even like Sister Ray much - although, I will say in it's favour that it is early-early-early punk - like subconscious punk before punk was a conscious movement and music.

Except that most punk songs were/are less than 3 minutes.

Sister Ray goes on for... 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, almost 40 minutes!!!

Most "jam bands" don't even carry a song on for that long.

The Velvets defy categories - they are unique/one of a kind - which is why i like 'em so much.

'Tis true that punk was short slams of music. But I always think of VU as being the foundation-layers for punk, as in the sounds, generally. I'm not (unfortunately) a musician, so don't know well how to explain what I mean - it's just something in the sound-delivery (some of VU songs, certainly not all). Of course, true punk had a whole political movement behind it, the anarchy as result of working-class anger, injustice. I'm sure y'all in Britain understand even better than I do, about the punk politics. Hmm....might start a thread on this subject, as it is an interesting one....

But, yes, VU was unique, by that I mean, truly one-of-a-kind, and the reason I, too, adore their music and personas as much as I do.

The Velvets were the first punk band in my mind. The Sonics in the west coast came out at the same time and have a punk sound too, they both started it IMO

Anybody here ever hear The Monks? The album is "Black Monk Time," I've never heard it, but it has a reputation as being another raw, relentless touchstone on the path to punk. Came out in '65 I think. I've long been meaning to check out both The Sonics and The Monks, just haven't gotten around to it yet.