Though the 45th anniversary of The Velvet Underground's self-titled third album came in March, the album's deluxe 45th anniversary box set was released today, Nov. 24. The album was the band's first without founding member John Cale and marked a noticeable shift in their sound, away from the avant-garde noise of their first two albums and toward more subdued pop that would go on to influence countless indie rock bands. In celebration of the album's 45th anniversary box set, here are its 10 songs ranked from weakest to best.
10. "I'm Set Free"
Few songwriters have such a potent sense of melody as Lou Reed, but on "I'm Set Free" Reed comes up a bit short on his typical melodic brilliance. Still, the song's jangly dream pop guitars are just one of a thousand things that VU pioneered, and went on to influence the guitar playing of classic alternative artists such as Galaxie 500 and The Feelies.
9. "That's the Story of My Life"
"That's the Story of My Life" is the album's shortest song and possibly its most upbeat, a jaunty folk-pop tune that sounds like a lo-fi precursor to Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle with You." It is a catchy and fun song, but too slight to make any lasting impression, especially when surrounded by so many stone-cold classics.
8. "The Murder Mystery"
The Velvet Underground return to their avant-garde roots with the nine-minute stereo experiment "The Murder Mystery," in which the band basically recorded two different sets of lyrics for the same song and mixed them together. It might be the strangest song VU ever recorded, but it does offer a fascinating, almost transgressive detour from the album's more straightforward pop sensibilities.
7. "Jesus"
With John Cale's multi-instrumental capabilities no longer in the mix, The Velvet Underground placed more emphasis on the interplay between Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison and Doug Yule, which is at its best on "Jesus." The track is anchored by Yule's hypnotic finger picking pattern, which at first sounds like guitar until Reed and Morrison chime in with their dreamy string bends, making you realize that this pattern is actually being played on bass.
6. "Some Kinda Love"
"Some Kinda Love" is somewhat of a counterpart to "Jesus," both being twangy, hypnotic tracks with great guitar interplay. Two different takes of this song were released — one on Lou Reed's Closet Mix and one on engineer Val Valentin's mixc — but I prefer the quieter Closet Mix take, even if it is only has one guitar track.
5. "Beginning to See the Light"
Though The Velvet Underground is known as the band's "folk" album, there are still some more straightforward rockers in the bunch, such as "Beginning to See the Light," which sounds like a preamble to the bright, breezy pop of VU's fourth album Loaded and boasts the album's most exuberant vocal performance from Lou Reed.
4. "After Hours"
After enduring the impenetrable nine-minute odyssey that is "The Murder Mystery," the album closes out on the sweetest note possible with "After Hours," a simple acoustic pop number sung by drummer Moe Tucker. Despite his dark art rock sensibilities, Lou Reed was really a traditional pop songwriter at heart and could deliver songs such as "After Hours" that would not sound out of place on a Pixar soundtrack — if you removed the line about the wine glass, anyway.
3. "Candy Says"
The cover of The Velvet Underground shows the band sitting on a couch in what could easily be someone's living room — it was actually Warhol's Factory, but whatever — which is exactly what the album's opener "Candy Says" sounds like: four people sitting in a living room, recording a song into a four-track so softly as to not wake up their cat. It is an absolutely gorgeous track, and definitively signals the band's new pop-conscious sound.
2. "What Goes On"
Much of The Velvet Underground does not rise above a whisper, but "What Goes On" is by far the album's biggest song, with a soaring guitar solo, sparkling organ and huge melody — the album's best, by the way. It is the sort of great, late-1960s rock song that would have killed at Woodstock, if enough people knew who The Velvet Underground were in 1969 to have invited them to perform — though they probably would not have come, anyway.
1. "Pale Blue Eyes"
The Velvet Underground were famously underappreciated during their time, but what sets them apart from their proto-punk contemporaries such as The Stooges or MC5 is that their songwriting is clearly accessible enough for Top 40 radio. If Lou Reed had given "Pale Blue Eyes" to, say, The Rolling Stones or even a country singer like Dolly Parton, it would be one of those heartbreaking classics that you hear all the time on oldies radio. It is a good thing that did not happen though, because instead we have VU's beautifully minimalist version, which sounds like a template for Yo La Tengo's folksier side.
What are you favorite songs from The Velvet Underground? What did I get wrong? Let me know down in the comments section.
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