Velvet Underground / Nico [Limited Edition Peelable Banana Cover Art] [Original recording remastered]

Velvet Underground | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 25, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 1967
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Polydor / Umgd
• ASIN: B000068PNQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,663 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Sunday Morning

2. I'm Waiting For The Man

3. Femme Fatale

4. Venus In Furs

5. Run Run Run

6. All Tomorrow's Parties

7. Heroin

8. There She Goes Again

9. I'll Be Your Mirror

10. The Black Angel's Death Song

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Sunday Morning

2. I'm Waiting For The Man

3. Femme Fatale

4. Venus In Furs

5. Run Run Run

6. All Tomorrow's Parties

7. Heroin

8. There She Goes Again

9. I'll Be Your Mirror

10. The Black Angel's Death Song

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

31 Track Remastered Compilation (Stereo & Mono Versions - 1. Sunday Morning 2. I'm Waiting For The Man 3. Femme Fatale 4. Venus In Furs 5. Run Run Run 6. All Tomorrow's Parties 7. Heroin 8. There She Goes Again 9. I'll Be Your Mirror 5. Run Run

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FIVE STARS IS NOT ENOUGH!!!, July 26, 2002

By 

Walter Five (13th Floor Elevator, Enron Hubbard Bldg. Houston Texxas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Velvet Underground / Nico [Limited Edition Peelable Banana Cover Art] (Audio CD)

So much has been said and written about this album since its release in March 1967, that a review of the material is irrelevant, and commentary pointless. Inarguably, it is one of the most influential LPs of all time. So let's look instead at what this *release* of "The Velvet Underground and Nico" IS.

Over the years, the Velvet Underground catalog has begun to get the overhaul it has always deserved, and this Deluxe Edition set is another example of that. If the "Peel Slowly And See" Box Set and the "Fully Loaded Edition" of "Loaded" appeal to you, you'll find this indispensable.

Why both the mono *and* stereo versions of the LP? Differences in the mixes, my friends. Some subtle, some more immediately evident. The casual listener might not spot the differences immediately, but track to track comparisons between the two will be instructive to the faithful. The mono version has been deemed collectable enough to be bootlegged in the past, so it is fitting that it be legitimately released for the completist collectors among us. For what it's worth,I found the mono versions of the singles excessive, as the stereo versions are to be found on the "Peel Slowly And See..." box set, HOWEVER, the tracks from Nico's "Chelsea Girl" were penned by Velvets Cale, Morrison & Reed, who also perform on these tracks. As such, they deserve to be included in the band's output *somewhere*, and as they chronologically follow the 1st LP, it makes sense that they be included here--they're certainly as strong musical numbers as anything else on these CDs.

If you're a Velvet Underground fan (as I've been for well over two decades), you've already bought this CD, perhaps, like me, several times, between the initial release, the remaster, the box set, the 24K Gold Edition. If you have that level of dedication, TRUST ME, you won't feel cheated when you get this baby home, BUT it's not ONLY for completists--more casual fans will find, I'd predict, that they'll have a greater appreciation for this LP, and the ones that follow it because of the breadth of this CD, the liner notes, and lyrics--it truly is "The Deluxe Edition."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's redundant to give CD 1 any rating at all., January 10, 2003

By 

Tad Nastic "Tad" (place USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Velvet Underground / Nico [Limited Edition Peelable Banana Cover Art] (Audio CD)

It's nice to have the stereo and mono version in one package. But the compilers completely screwed up by adding along with disc one (consisting of the stereo version most people already have), Nico tracks from "Chelsea Girls" that most people already have. No doubt, CD 2 is an essential product to put on the market, so I may sound nitpicking here. But they should've either have sold disc 2 separately or, ideally, to make the double package with the stereo version (of which this is the third time I'm purchasing it) worth it, as a double CD with long overdue tracks long available on bootleg (but deprived from people who adhere to distribution laws as myself): the song "Chelsea Girl"'s demo with Lou Reed on guitar (with the proper dose of feedback), or the complete "Melody Laughter" (which has already been earlier compromised on the VU box set by being edited down to make room for these same Nico tracks). Let's get it straight, folks: Most people interested in this band have already long owned a copy of Nico's "Chelsea Girl" (and prefer the complete version). I know I'm essentially repeating what [another] reviewer said (of which "The Nothing Song" is unknown to me), but that's why I'm saying it. I suggest a new trend involving CD compilations: Let people who care compile them, (please)! a-hem.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overpackaged, over-priced, but some how it seems right, October 21, 2003

By 

Sacco (here there and everywhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Velvet Underground / Nico [Limited Edition Peelable Banana Cover Art] (Audio CD)

Sure it makes more logocial sense to simply buy the 'standard' version, its cheaper and you get what is really important, the music. I purchased the 'Deluxe Edition' because it was there in the record store and they didn't have the regular version. I paid more than twice what the standard edition cost (as I found out later at another record store), and yet somehow I don't feel cheated. Part of that i'm sure is the fact that the songs, unique, raw, powerful and like nothing I'd ever heard before, despite being into 'indy' bands supposedly heavily influenced by them. When "The Velvet Undergroud & Nico" was first released in '67, Andy Warhol, the 'producer' and 'manager' of the band, had previously mutated 'The Velvet Underound' into an art show production. The whole thing was wrapped up in Warhols packaging. From the peelable bannana to the stage show he had set up around it. So in a way this 'Deluxe Edition' somewhat caputures a fraction of what purchasing this album back in March 1967 might have been like.

The inclusion of a dual 'mono' mix of the albums seems a waste, which would have been better used if it contained outtakes, b-sides or other bits from the era. Though the Nico tracks included here are all from Chelsea girl and seem somewhat of a pointless inclusion I guess the general idea was to show what was being introduced in that era. The best thing however is the liner notes and CD packaging, which do as something to the asthetic feeling of the album.

Now to the music. The intense sounds and gritty realism of this album are bone chilling. Nothing else quite sounds like 'Velvet Underground'. Claimed by so many as an influence, from the cathartic and somber "Swans" to the lo-fi pop sound scapes of "Yo La Tengo", yet none come within a mile of replacting the genius and beauty of what Lou Reed and John Cale did back then. Soft, yet dark, melodic, yet dissonant. Essentially done by the band themselves the production is perhaps the best ever. Its raw without being incompotent, stripped down while still managing to seamlessly stitch together the musics layers.

Despite the bands annoyance at her having been thrust upon them, the 'Nico' songs are beautiful, and surreal. "All Tomorrow's Parties" sad cynicism and shuddering rythmic pummeling are beyond mere words. However its the Reed sung tracks, 'Heroin', 'Venus In Furs' and 'European Son' which really elevate this to a higher plane. Epic and desolate they invade the mind them shatter it.

Eventually whatever edition you get it doesn't matter. Just find the album and listen to it or you might well regret it.