Big news for Velvets fans. Dead Flowers has generously liberated a freshly discovered bootleg of a 1967 Velvet Underground show at the Gymnasium in NYC.
It’s lifted from a message board post by a character calling himself “Furious Wank” who claims, “It’s the ONLY available live stuff from 1967 and has only become available in literally the last two days. Recorded just after the release of The Velvet Underground And Nico and featuring the debut performance of Sister Ray (19 mins long) and the *previously unheard* song I’m Not A Young Man Any More.”
I’ve listened to it (somewhat skeptically) and it definitely sounds like the real deal to my ears. Gotta love Lou Reed whining about no longer being a young man at ripe old age of 25. Dipshit whippersnapper.
This.
Is.
AWESOME!
Haven’t downloaded any of this, but Chocoreve has tons of VU boots.
After doing a little googling, it looks like VU played a series of shows at the Gymnasium in April, 1967. Two live songs from these shows (“Guess I’m Falling In Love” and “Booker T.”) were officially released on the Peel Slowly and See box set. Cale apparently has claimed he has tape of at least one entire Gymnasium show…
Looks like there is lots of other live stuff from 1967 out there, despite what Furious Wank would have us believe. Still though, this song is definitely badass.
The whole set is good, I think, especially the “Sister Ray.”