229,500+ hits. Amazing, for one vinyl LP.
A few photos:
Posted on 12/09/2006 8:56:59 PM PST by jdm
Forty years after it was made, The Velvet Underground's first recording has become a financial hit - in cyberspace.
Bought for 75 cents four years ago at a Manhattan flea market, the rare recording of music that ended up on the influential New York band's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico," sold on eBay for a closing bid of $155,401.
The buyer is a mystery, only identified by the eBay screen name: "mechadaddy."
But a greater mystery endures: How did the 12-inch, acetate LP end up buried in a box of records at a flea market?
Warren Hill, a collector from Montreal, bought the record in September 2002 at the flea market, according to an article written by his friend, Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records in Portland, Ore. in the current issue of Goldmine Magazine.
Isaacson helped Hill decipher the nature of the lucky find.
"We cued it up and were stunned - the first song was not 'Sunday Morning' as on the 'Velvet Underground & Nico' Verve LP, but rather it was 'European Son' - the song that is last on that LP, and it was a version neither of us had ever heard before!" Isaacson wrote.
The recording turned out to be an in-studio acetate made during Velvet Underground's first recording over four days in April 1966 at New York's Scepter Studios. The record reportedly is only one of two in existence; the other is privately owned, with rumors circulating about the owner's identity. Columbia Records rejected the album.
"I immediately took the needle off the record, and realized that we had something special," Isaacson wrote. Hill and Isaacson photographed the album, made a digital backup copy of the music, and decided to put it up for auction. The first bids, which began Nov. 28, rose $20,000.
Velvet Underground left its musical stamp on hundreds of other bands.
The band, named after a book about edgy sex practices in the 1960s, was fueled by Moe Tucker's hard-driving drumming, John Cale's anxious viola, and lead singer Lou Reed, whose lyrics spoke of drug-induced beauty and gritty Lower East Side realities.
The first album featured Nico, the European model-actress-singer in a first and last recorded appearance with the band.
Thought you might find this interesting...
Awesome! I had the good luck of attending a tribute to The Velvet Underground at the Pacific Design Center in late 1995. There was very rare video and sound (most done by Warhol)of the band in studio as well as loads of artwork. There was of course, great never seen pics, video and art of Nico.
VU was waaaaay ahead of their time.
L
Technically it isn't vinyl, it is accetate. "One of". Not a pressed record.
THAT said, as a rarity it ISN'T so rare. There are other VU accetates in existence.
The most IMPORTANT one was the one that wound up in David Bowie's hands BEFORE the first VU album came out. It inspired him, got him to change his music, and he was even covering an Underground song live before the album was released.
David Bowie has always been incorporating things from other musicians in his work. The name "Ziggy Stardust" came from The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. I'm not sure, but the same music industry guy may have given Bowie both of those records.
Later he worked with Iggy Pop and even Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Maybe this was "the first" recording but it didn't change the course of music. The band would be recorded again and again. Bowie's accetate DID change a course of music.
Norton Records has issued a 4-song ep of Lou Reed from his high school days.
Billy Millar, head honcho at Norton, has an accetate for Heroin. I think he said it was labelled Lou Reed & The Underground. He found it digging around in a box of Bell, Mala, and Amy records at a warehouse if I recall the story properly.
Man I love John Cale when he is on the sound.
I can even appreciate Lou Reed.
You can keep Nico L0L.
Im going to look through the old lps maybe I can retire next week?
I think that is what I have. Actually, my son bought for me in Australia a few years ago, we listened to it once and it has been relegated to the shelf ever since.
Well, I had the store-bought version of the LP. Sadly it is not in my box of vinyl anymore.
Actually, "Sunday Morning" was chosen by the record company as a single. They even brought in Tom Wilson, who remastered and added electric instruments to make "The Sound of Silence" a hit, to produce that track.
Didn't care for "White Light White Heat," a subpar effort and a disappointing follow-up to the first album. Reed was smart to redo the title track on "Rock and Roll Animal."
On a final note, I had two encounters with Lou Reed in my life: when I was 20, he and Laurie Anderson stood next to me on the corner of Houston and 6th and, when I was in grad school, I sold a coffee machine to him.
Did she look as much like a weird, elfin little space alien in person as she does in pictures? I actually like Laurie Anderson a LOT, but she's an odd woman.
really great post. thanks. i have some rare records but nothing this rare. the most expensive record i've ever seen was a Beatles album that had a $22,000 price tag. the guy let me hold it and check it out.
thanks again guys
I sold coffee and housewares to many celebrities when I was in grad school (Elvis Costello, Matthew Broderick, Melanie Griffith, Holly Hunter, Francis Ford Coppola, among others), but the only one who was an a--hole was Chris Kattan from Saturday Night Live. Of course, he hasn't worked in awhile, so maybe he will be serving coffee to me in the near future.
Best version of "Sweet Jane" ever. I spent months trying to learn the bass guitar licks from that one.
Classic album for sure.
L
I hear that a bootleg of the recording was floating around before the auction began.
Certainly it would've been in the band's/label's best interest to buy it since it would be cheaper than going into the studio to record an album.
I ran across another FReeper on a thread who was was IN Laurie Anderson's band.
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