[porkmarras]

 

 

 

[porkmarras]

 

 

 

[porkmarras]

 

 

[porkmarras]

PSF: Some of your fans on the internet talk a lot about a bootleg of the Velvet Underground called the “Gymnasium tapes”--

The quality of those tapes is just unbelievable to me. Somebody knew what they were doing. I don’t know who made those tapes, but DAMN! You know, I saw a photograph of us the other day at Paraphernalia, ‘cause I was trying to figure out the layout of the Dom, I was trying to remember where everything was. And I called Paul, and I said “Paul, where did we get the PA from for the Dom?”

He said, “What PA? You didn’t have a PA.”

I said, “What are you talking about?”

“No,” he said, “you never had a PA.”

“So where did the voices come out of?”

“I dunno,” he said, “your amps! Your guitars, your voices— everything came out of the amps!” And I remember that we were spending a lot of money on speaker cords, because we broke them all the time. We had the viola, the bass in one amp, a Silvertone, and there was another guitar in the bass amp, and I don’t know where the voices came out of— you know, in those days, we used to think that if it’s in a different channel, it’s okay, right? But oh, boy, we must have sounded like shit! [Laughter]

The people that were there, Walter Cronkite and Jackie Kennedy, listening to Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancin’ in the Streets,” that was easy; those were coming out of those little speakers on the projectors, there were three projectors. So, in general, what you’re talking about is a pretty nasty sound environment.

PSF: The contention on the internet is that you have these tapes and you refuse to release them.

Look, believe me, there’s a guy at Universal named Bill Evanson, and if there were any tapes he would have got ‘em out years ago. But the Gymnasium tapes are really good. “Walk It as You Talk It” is really crunchy. Great guitar sound. But no, I don’t know where they are.

PSF: You’ve said that you find the cult of the Velvet Underground distasteful.

I don’t know what I meant by that; it must have been in response to something. People are trying to pigeonhole you. . . it was just four guys, you know, that came together and did something for, like, three years? I’m proud of it. Really lucky to be around those people. You go looking for creative circles ‘cause you can’t live without it. You’ve gotta find somebody in your trade. You know, I did it in London when I was in college; I used to go up to the West End all the time, there were artists and painters. But then getting to New York— when you saw it around Andy, you saw how he. . . nurtured it, in a way. Some people say he took advantage of it and controlled it. Valerie Solanas certainly did.

[porkmarras]

Saturn Records, based in Oakland, California, who were handling on the online sale, have since received an email from the apparent auction winner - who claims a friend made the astonishing bid on his behalf "as a lark".

"I'm so sorry," the email partly read. "I can barely afford gas for my car," it went on.

haha

[CHOUT]

Check out the $15,000 lazer turntable someone recommended buying for this in the questions for the auction.
http://www.elpj.com/

 

Laser stylus reads record grooves using light, not a needle
No groove contact, no record wear
Pure analog playback without any digitization
Easy to use
Accurate and musical
Starting list price: $15,000 US


Anything new about this record?

A while ago I managed to dig out Norman Dolph's email address and ask him a couple of questions that had occured to me after reading the Joe Harvard book. Amazingly, he was kind enough to reply and has given me permission to post the answers here. So....

Q: Did you ever make any headway in your investigations as to whether Columbia (or anyone) still has the orginal tapes from the Scepter sessions?

ND: No but I suspect it is on Columbia Record Productions shelf at Columbia records Archive Storage in Iron Mountain. I know there will be a blue 5 x 7 index card there which will list all the facts about the tape and the disk and to whom the tape was returned if the tape is not there. If I am listed as the returnee of the tape, then I gave it back to Warhol - but I don't recall handling anything but the acetate after the fact. It is my belief that Warhol/Vu kept the multtrack master and the reference acetate. The tape from which the reference was cut (John Licata's mix) could still be sitting in the vault at Iron Mountain. filed under that XTV number.

Q: Do you recall whether the track 'There She Goes Again' was recorded in the sessions over which you presided? I'd always assumed so, but on the other hand it's not included on the acetate that's recently made it into circulation...

ND: That is curious, I need to give that some thought. There she goes again was on the original session.
[...]
The Holy Grail for all of this would be the cassette tapes Warhol had running in the control room (he was only there for a relatively small part of the sessions) but always carried a recorder just to "sop up" what ever was going on. If there is an archvist in Pittsburg, and the tapes are dated, you would find some interesting stuff I am sure.

---

There are also one or two other things that I'm waiting to hear back from him on!
_________________
Michael Barbiero, J.C. Convertino - no no no! Gary Kellgren, Val Valentin - yes yes yes!
http://www.thevelvetforum.tk/

[gmku]

Very nice research, Prokie. Ask Nahm what he thinks of this?

 

There's a thread about that on their forum. I've uploaded an awesome bootleg on the 'obscure-ish velvet question ' thread on here, if you are interested.

[gmku]

Whose forum?

EDIT: Oh, never mind. I'm especially dense today.

The Velvet Underground's.

http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=10369