Velvet Underground- VU

Last weekend I began to think about "lost albums", records that may have been recorded and for whatever reason never was given a proper release. The album could have been a concept that was intended, but because of record label bottom lines and lack of commercial potential may have been shelved for later release or never at all. One record that comes to mind is Juliana Hatfield's, God's Foot which was recorded in 1996 and never released officially by her label, and instead Atlantic elected to drop her from their label. She made ill-attempts to buy back the rights, but to this day it has only seen the light of day through bootlegs and the songs circulated on the Internet.

I've always been interested in outtakes and unreleased material because it sometimes shows the artist in a different light. Sometimes the songs aren't up to the standard of the label or what they feel their fans wouldn't want to hear. It's always interesting to listen and think to yourself, "What's wrong with this?" or "why don't they release this?". A lot of the time it's obvious, but the odd time you shake your head and wonder. I've spent the past week searching online and looking through my CD's to find records that fall into some of these categories and I've uploaded some cool items. The first album I'm posting is actually a record that was eventually released even if it was 16 years after it was recorded.

The Velvet Underground's, VU was intended to be the band's 4th release, between Velvet Underground (third album) and Loaded, but because MGM records was purging their less profitable acts, the band was released from their contract. The band had previously recorded 14 songs that were possibly intended for their second album on MGM, but instead the tracks were shelved and weren't rediscovered until Verve/MGM was re-releasing their first three albums and the unreleased "lost" tracks were found. These tracks were remixed and cleaned up for release as VU along with some John Cale-era songs. The result is the missing link between Velvet Underground and Loaded which explored the band's evolution to a more pop-rock sound from their art-rock, experimental sound especially on their first two albums. Personally, overall my favourite Velvet Underground record is VU, it's loaded with some truly great songs that might have changed the perception of the band in 1969, as it might have had commercial potential, so it's too bad it took so long for these tracks to become available in their more or less original form. Some of these songs appeared on 1969 Live and many were re-recorded on Lou Reed's early solo albums, but the Velvet Underground versions are much better.
Enjoy!!

VELVET UNDERGROUND
VU (1985)

1. I Can't Stand It
2. Stephanie Says
3. She's My Best Friend
4. Lisa Says
5. Ocean
6. Foggy Notion
7. Inside Your Heart
8. One Of These Days
9. Andy's Chest
10. I'm Sticking With You

VELVET UNDERGROUND- VU. rar