Live at Max's Kansas City
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| Live at Max's Kansas City | ||
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| Live album by The Velvet Underground | ||
| Released | May 30, 1972 | |
| Recorded | August 23, 1970 at the Max's Kansas City nightclub, New York City | |
| Genre | Rock and roll | |
| Length | 38:21 | |
| Label | Cotillion | |
| Producer(s) | The Velvet Underground | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| The Velvet Underground chronology | ||
| Loaded (1970) |
Live at Max's Kansas City (1972) |
Squeeze (1973) |
Live at Max's Kansas City is a live album by The Velvet Underground. It was originally released on May 30, 1972 by Cotillion, a label of Atlantic Records.
Contents |
[edit] About the album
The Velvet Underground signed a two-album deal with Atlantic in late 1969 and released their fourth studio album, Loaded, in September 1970. By the time of its release, however, singer/guitarist/main songwriter Lou Reed had left. The band soldiered on with bassist Doug Yule moving to vocals and guitar and Walter Powers being drafted in to play bass guitar.
This line-up did a tour of the United States and Canada promoting Loaded. As the band still had a contract for another album, they wrote and played new songs eventually to be included on the new album. Atlantic, however, had lost faith in the band's commercial prospects and, wanting to cut their losses after the disappointing chart showings of Loaded, decided to release an archive live recording instead.
The tapes that would later become Live at Max's Kansas City were recorded on August 23, 1970, by Andy Warhol associate Brigid Polk on a portable cassette recorder. At the same time the band were recording Loaded, The Velvet Underground held a nine-week engagement (June 24–August 28) at New York nightclub Max's Kansas City, playing two sets a night. Polk recorded almost everything happening around her at the time, and this happened to include her attendance of the last concert that Lou Reed played with The Velvet Underground. She recorded both the early and the late set. Later that year, Atlantic A&R employee Danny Fields heard the tapes and submitted them to his superiors, who accepted the recordings and in 1972 decided to make an album out of them.
Originally, Live at Max's Kansas City was a single album distillation of both sets re-sequenced and edited by Lou Reed and Atlantic staff producer Geoff Haslam to reflect the band's loud and quiet sides, respectively. On August 3, 2004, Warner Music re-issue label Rhino Records released a 2CD Deluxe Edition that contains both sets in their entirety in their original running order.
As far as sound quality is concerned, Live at Max's Kansas City is often and rightly described as the world's first legitimate bootleg recording. The songs were recorded on a mono recorder using a simple ferro musicassette in a small venue, resulting in tape hiss and an audience often drowning out the more quiet bits of music. On the other hand, the record is high in feel, giving the listener the experience of actually being present at the concert.
Musically, the band are in surprisingly good spirit, considering the fact that Reed planned to leave, and play dynamic versions of the fast songs and heartfelt versions of the slower songs. The only minus is that stand-in drummer Billy Yule, an enthusiastic sixteen-year-old at the time who stood in for the pregnant Maureen Tucker, is perhaps a bit overbearing in the slower songs.
Author Jim Carroll can be heard speaking on the album, ordering drinks and enquiring about drugs between songs. He was with Polk that night and so sat close to the mic.
[edit] Track listing
All tracks written by Lou Reed except "Sunday Morning" by Lou Reed and John Cale.
[edit] Original release
[edit] Side A
- "I'm Waiting for the Man"
- "Sweet Jane"
- "Lonesome Cowboy Bill"
- "Beginning to See the Light"
[edit] Side B
- "I'll Be Your Mirror"
- "Pale Blue Eyes"
- "Sunday Morning"
- "New Age"
- "Femme Fatale"
- "After Hours"
[edit] Deluxe edition
[edit] Disc one
- "I'm Waiting for the Man"
- "White Light/White Heat"
- "I'm Set Free"
- "Sweet Jane"
- "Lonesome Cowboy Bill"
- "New Age"
- "Beginning to See the Light"
[edit] Disc two
- "Who Loves the Sun" (fragment)
- "Sweet Jane"
- "I'll Be Your Mirror"
- "Pale Blue Eyes"
- "Candy Says"
- "Sunday Morning"
- "After Hours"
- "Femme Fatale"
- "Some Kinda Love"
- "Lonesome Cowboy Bill"
[edit] Personnel
[edit] The band
- Lou Reed – vocals, rhythm guitar
- Sterling Morrison – lead guitar
- Doug Yule – bass guitar, backing vocals, lead vocal on "Lonesome Cowboy Bill", "Who Loves the Sun", "I'll Be Your Mirror", "Candy Says" and "New Age"
[edit] Additional musicians
[edit] Technical staff
- The Velvet Underground – producers
- Geoff Haslam – tape editor, executive producer
- Brigid Polk – engineer
[edit] External links
| The Velvet Underground |
|---|
| John Cale | Sterling Morrison | Lou Reed | Maureen Tucker | Doug Yule |
| Willie Alexander | Angus MacLise | Walter Powers | Billy Yule |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: The Velvet Underground and Nico | White Light/White Heat | The Velvet Underground | Loaded | Squeeze |
| Live albums: Live at Max's Kansas City | 1969 | Live MCMXCIII | Final V.U. | The Quine Tapes |
| Box sets and outtake compilations: VU | Another View | What Goes On | Peel Slowly and See |
| Selected best-of compilations: Rock and Roll | The Very Best of The Velvet Underground | Gold |
| See also |
| Chelsea Girl | Exploding Plastic Inevitable | Lou Reed | Nico | Steve Sesnick | Songs for Drella | Andy Warhol |
