Customer Reviews

The Best of the Velvet Underground: Words and Music of Lou Reed

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you get this, you'll buy everything else they've done. This album contains some of the most pop-chart-friendly songs in the VU's repertoire. But they are all still great songs from any perspective. Although the version of Heroin sounds different than the one on the Nico album, it's excellent. If you're a die-hard fan I don't see why you'd need this but if you want a great light retro album to play in the car or at work, and you miss the songs of the 60's, you've gotta get this! I understand the negative reviews because the 1st time I listened to it I was hugely disappointed. But after listening a couple more times I realized it's really a great small collection -- not as challenging as they were known for, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Reading over previous reviews, all the complaints are valid, however I myself being a casual VU fan picked this compilation up, and found it to be an excellent buy. VU is a truly incredible band, and I was very interested to read in the biography how basically everyone who purchased their debut album started their own band or began producing music. Well, now it's time to review some of this great music.

The disc opens with nice rock energizer called I'm Waiting For The Man. A great opener to this disc, with a strong rocking melody. Femme Fatale is a beautiful song, with Nico providing some sensational lyrics. Run, Run, Run offers strong riffs, and also features a blistering guitar solo to finish off. Heroin is considered by many to be VUs best song, and I would agree in a lyrical sense, with incredible songwriting. Also a sensational guitar strum, and a fiercely ugly guitar solo compliment the song greatly. All Tomorrow's Parties has fantastic dynamic aspects to it, and is very underrated. I love the chorus and building piano introduction. White Light/White Heat is a solid rocker, and Stephanie Says is a popular song that many casual fans are familiar with. I'm a huge fan of Beginning To See The Light featuring an awesome chorus. Pale Blue Eyes is a touching ballad, expressing effectively VU's soft(and sometimes dark) side. Sweet Jane is another popular number, a great track to say the least, and the compilation closely on a high note with Rock & Roll.

Overall, I would definitely without question recommend this compilation to any casual fan of the band(like myself), who just wants one album to capture the essence of what this band is about. Although it does strongly favour VUs debut album, it still contains outstanding music, and no casual fan of VU wants to fork over 25-30 extra dollars to buy all their albums seperately.

This is a good starting point to the legend that was (and still is) VU. And at a very affordable price! While it has been seen by some as not truly representative of this great band, you can go and buy the boxed set to get true representation! No room for "Venus in Furs", "There She Goes Again" or "I Heard Her Call my Name", but classics like "Heroin", "Waiting for the Man", "What Goes on" and "White Light/White Heat" have to have room made for them somewhere. And, yes, this album will want to make you go out and buy the entire VU back catalogue - their sheer brilliance in sonic experimentation and lyrical craft, not to mention their lasting influence on musicians everywhere from Roxy Music to REM, from Joy Division to Pavement will leave you wanting more - start as you mean to go on...

I had heard something in high school about the Velvet Underground being a great band, so I figured the Best Of was a good place to start. What I discovered was that the VU are probably the best band to ever come out of America and that I had completely wasted my money on this CD. The same thing happened to me with those Dylan Best Of CDs, because I ended up getting most of the songs again on the original albums - but at least the Dylan CDs had some unreleased tracks and alternate performances. This CD has nothing.

You're either going to love this band or hate them-and you'll probably know pretty quickly. I can't think of another group that's less well served by a Best Of: each of their albums has its own flavor, and if you're even thinking about buying this album, you'd be better off just starting with their debut, because:

1)

This is a completely unbalanced compilation. SIX of the songs come from the first album - that's close to half the running time. The songs they don't include from that album, with the exception of European Son, are all really good-and one that they leave out, Sunday Morning, is one of the best songs the Velvets ever did. Plus the first album is cheaper (I think it's one of those Super Saver deals) and - if this is your introduction to the band - you might as well listen to one of the albums the way it was intended before making up your mind about them.

2)

This CD is only 60 minutes long! All the songs they put on here are good, but what's their excuse for leaving off Here She Comes Now, Jesus, After Hours, Candy Says, I'm Set Free, New Age...or any of like ten or eleven others? Other than Sweet Jane and Rock & Roll, it's not like the Velvets had any hits - you can pretty much put anything you want on here. At least fill up the 80 minutes. Or give us something we can't get somewhere else.

There is no such thing as an adequate Best Of for this band (I think I saw another compilation with all 17 minutes of Sister Ray on it; I'm not sure what they were thinking) - but the first album is a better and cheaper introduction that this. Then you'll probably have to go out and buy the box set or you may discover, to your horror, that you have no taste, and decide to stop right there. $...is a small price to discover something as important as your complete lack of aesthetic capacity, so don't kick yourself too much for wasting your money.
(If you don't have the money for the box, I recommend their third CD - the Velvet Underground - and then Loaded, their last studio album: and probably White Light/White Heat after that. VU is good too.)

The Velvet Underground is by far one of my favorite bands. But they are not a "best of" band. Don't waste your money on a greatest hits CD!! Go and buy their four full length albums. Any one of those is more enjoyable than Best of: The Words and Music of Lou Reed. Actually I recommend starting with the third studio recording--The Velvet Underground.

An intense, often furious sonic explosion coupled with street-smart style and lyrics makes The Velvet Underground a band that generally provokes a love-it/hate-it response--and while this fifteen track compilation is unlikely to please established fans, it is a reasonably good point for a novice listener who has not formed a clear response.

Granted, the collection leans heavily on their debut album, but that isn't to say that the tracks culled from that recording are less impressive than the band's later work; such songs as "Heroin," "All Tomorrow's Parties," and "Run Run Run" are always good to hear. The Velvet's self-titled third album is well represented by such tracks as "What Goes On" and "Pale Blue Eyes," and even LOADED makes a bow with the likes of "Sweet Jane."

On the other hand, it would not be too much to say that the programers of this particular collection have gone well out of their way to select only the most listener-friendly cuts at their disposal. The full fury of which the band was capable is not on display, with the legendary (and notorious) album WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT represented by the title track alone; "Sister Ray" is greatly missed, and I would have cut one or two of the more widely known songs from this collection to work it in.

Such omissions aside, this "Best Of" collection really doesn't do a bad job of introducing the band in most of--if not all--its colors. And frankly, almost ANY Velvet Underground is WELCOME Velvet Underground to these ears. Recommended, but primarily for newcomers.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This is an introduction to one of the most important bands of all time. Do not knock its lack of songs b/c its just a sampling. You cannot have a "best of" for this band.

The songs are not immediately enjoyable...rather they grow on you. There is beauty, rock, ugliness, noise etc...welcome to the world of VU!

For every rock fan, this should be a top 10 of Dessert Island Discs. For the unfamilair, if you like this, then your next purchase should be VU live 1969. You will hear jam band/extended/mellow verions of these songs.

This is a band for people that take their music very seriously

Just think of this one as a killer mix tape. As much as anyone, I'm an "album" guy - I prefer albums with a common theme, sound or style that captures a time or place. All 4 original Velvet albums often do all those things and are among the best ever.

Still, it's hard to knock a VU collection in which every song is a classic. Save for the gratingly intense "Heroin" (an essential inclusion), this CD pretty much steers clear of the more challenging, experimental side of the band (which I love) in favor of more accessible and even radio-friendly tunes (if radio were to ever get cool enough to catch on) which show off the band's brilliant songcraft. As a result, this CD is an irresistably enjoyable listen and quite useful for turning your less adventurous friends on to the group who might otherwise freak out at being exposed to a song like "The Murder Mystery."

So I would say this is a good place for the new-bee to check out the band. Songs from each album are represented including some key non-album tracks, but I'd be hard pressed to say this is really the "best of" as there are so many other great VU songs not included. Of course, there's a good chance the listener will want to go ahead and purchase the original albums, but they'll still have this great mix that features the VU's poppier side and is great to put on in the car while riding with more "mainstream-minded" company.

The best of the Velvet Underground is a good collection of songs. But it is not representative of the Velvet's career. This collection is not only not the best music from the group, but it is misleading. The collection is overloaded with selections from the seminal first album but the other three studio albums are hardly featured at all. The exemption of all songs but one off of the second studio album "White Light, White Heat" doesn't allow the casual fan to know the sonic madness the V.U. was capable of producing.

If nothing else, the Velvet Underground were one of the great singles bands of the 1960's, perhaps second only to the Monkees or Tony Joe White and this CD proves it. Snuggle up to your honey or hit the dance floor and give this CD a spin to see what I mean. I have fond memories of Grade 5 classroom parties where we sandwiched "I Can't Stand It" between "One Bad Apple" by the Osmonds and "Rockin' Robin" by Michael Jackson. Pure boppin' Nirvana! Do yourself a favor and skip the albums proper and just pick up any of the "best of" VU collections and soak up the nostalgia of those great 45's! (Now if only Lou would gather up the troops for a reunion and the Velvets would hit the oldies circuit I'd have a reason to visit the casinos and bowling alleys of the northeast!)