Review Summary: A flashback into the past, the Velvet Underground tries to reinvent itself in a double-disc live album that signed the very end of the noise rock/proto-punk group.
Year 1992. After 22 years from "Loaded", the last actual VU album, the original Velvet Underground line-up suddenly decides to reform and start a "Reunion Tour".
Reed and Cale, who had always had a sour relationship thus far, started to get on well in the early 90s, something that didn't happen even during the "Velvet Underground & Nico" glorious days.
The guitarist Morrison and the drummer Tucker join the group, too, without even thinking of poor Doug Yule, who replaced Cale in 1968 after the bass player’s departure and did his best to help out, receiving no support at all from Reed, who abandoned the group during "Loaded" editing, which was mainly done by Yule.
But in late 1992 it was all water under the bridge and the VU were ready for a big and somptuous reunion.
Live MCMXCIII (1993 in roman numbers, the year in which the tour took place) can be found in a double or single CD edition.
The double-CD edition contains 23 tracks, all of them are already-published VU songs, from the four studio albums and the two compilations “Another View” and “VU”, out only in 1985 and 1986. The only two new songs are “Velvet Nursery Rhyme” and “Coyote”.
The first is a sort of reunion-theme and the second is a Reed/Cale collaboration, nothing special, though.
The hot tracks are obviously the band’s great successes, such as “Heroin”, a long-lasting 10-minute version, which will make all your fears, problems and sorrows fade away, leaving you a fulfilling sensation of emptiness inside your body and mind (this is really what this song was made for).
“Sweet Jane” and “Rock & Roll” are also well-performed and in a more phrenetic way than in the studio versions. But there’s more.
Every song is a fully-charged rock ‘n’ roll weapon, especially “Beginning to see the Light”, “I Can’t Stand It”, “Waiting for the Man” and “White Light/White Heat”.
There are also two big surprises: the almost unknown “Hey Mr. Rain” from “VU” happens to be the most experimental, together with the well-known “Black Angel’s Death Song”, but also the longest: almost 16 minutes.
The other big surprise is “Some Kinda Love”, which contains a great rock and roll guitar solo, the best, in my opinion, of the whole album.
Even if Nico’s absence is conspicuous – in fact she had passed in a bicycle crash in Ibiza 5 years before -Cale copes well in performing her parts in “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and “Femme Fatale”.
And last but not least, there are also some examples of good slow and, somehow, sad songs, which complete the range of variety this awesome band offers in the album. “After Hours”, sung by the drummer Moe Tucker, is sure a great example and “I’ll Be Your Mirror”, sung by Reed instead of Nico, is also a good love song.
This tour was the end of the chapter “The Velvet Underground”, for no reunion would be planned in the following years because of Reed-Cale tensions; plus, the death of the guitarist Sterling Morrisons made all the hopes to see together once again the band that invented punk rock turn into ashes.
Recommended songs:
Hey Mr. Rain
Some Kinda Love
Heroin
Sweet Jane
Rock & Roll
All Tomorrow’s Parties
Pros:
Many good classics but also some less-famous tracks, which have been improved a lot in their live versions.
Cons:
No Doug Yule
Only two songs from “Loaded” were performed.
This gets 4/5 for me!
P.S. I apologise for eventual grammar mistakes for I’m no English mother tongue.
