OFF : Velvet Underground

[John McIntyre]

Doug Pearson wrote:

> On Wed, 5 Sep 2001 13:45:16 EDT, DASLUD at AOL.COM wrote:
> >In a message dated 9/5/01 1:01:01 PM, mcintyre at PA.MSU.EDU writes:
> ><< In the interest of historical accuracy, maureen tucker was not a
> >founding member of the Velvet Underground.  She replaced Angus Maclise
> >who left when the band started playing paying gigs, something about
> >money corrupting the purity of the art.
> > >>
> >
>
> Do you mean the Dream Syndicate?  (Cale / Reed / Maclise & Lamonte Young
> playing avant-garde drone music ... one CD FINALLY released after 35 years
> on Table of the Elements, and immediately surpressed by the greedy a$$hole
> Young, even though Cale & Reed approved it.)

Oh my, we are confusing things.  Reed was not in the Dream Syndicate.  Tony
Conrad was.

> >and what did "purity of the art" mean to lou reed when he played on the
> >records by 'the soundalikes', [not the right name], those ersatz versions
> >of hit records on pickwick, etc.  lots of such records in the '60s....
>
> Exactly; it wasn't the same issue with Lou (or Cale, as the two of them met
> while writing songs for Pickwick's budget cash-in comps ... some of which
> are pretty great songs!) that it was for Maclise.

Cale wasn't writing songs for Pickwick like Lou was.  What happened was "Do the
Ostrich" got some airplay so the label decided to put together a live band to
milk their success.  Cale and Conrad were drafted at some party because they
looked the part.  They were told not to worry about not knowing how to play
guitar as all the strings would be tuned to the same note, which is what they
were doing with their violas in the Dream Syndicate. (-8

John McIntyre
Physics - Astronomy Domine Dept
Michigan State University
mcintyre at pa.msu.edu