I've listened to hundreds of punk and noise albums and Sister Ray is still the craziest song I have ever heard. Why? I think because the song gyrates between cohesion and chaos like seven different times in 17 minutes. This is like a Formula 1 driver going 225 miles an hour, losing control of his car 7 times, not crashing and still winning the race.
Makes sense. I wish more bands would do more live one take songs. I watched a documentary here on RUclips about the velvets and it covered every album they did. I’ll try and find a link
Favorite story I’ve heard about this song (supposedly true). In the studio, the recording engineer set up the mics, hit record, then left the building, saying, “they’re paying me to record this shit, not to listen to it.”
Being a very insecure person, this is one of the few songs played on my earphones that has made me walk around people without feeling their eyes on me.
Was it cause you couldn't hit it sideways? All jokes aside I agree. It's like the first time a song that gave off the "I don't give a shit" type of mentality
@@GregoryWonderwheel as much as I like captain beefheart, they weren't even close as important to punk as the Velvets. In regards to avant guard Music obviously they were unbelievably important and left an impact, but personally I actually think they impacted hard rock more than punk.
I've heard a lot of ridiculously filthy/heavy punk, hardcore, noise, and sludge music and it's insane how this song STILL holds a candle in how acerbic and nasty it is. VU were onto something big.
How fitting that your pfp is The Money Store and you commented how chaotic and hardcore this music was, while this made a gateway to Death Grips as well.
To this day you can hear tons of groups being influenced by the whole album, specifically Sister Ray, I mean listen to the first stooges album, that album’s guitar solos and sound is similar to the VU, even Bowie was influenced by them
The comparison is quite valid. The Beatles sold a zillion records and are still seen as gods(and I like them too). VU were largely ignored and reviled(Dylan had no use for the Factory crowd)---part of a true counterculture telling the hippies there'd be a price to pay eventually,that drugs could actually KILL you,that all the peace and love would not last. Reality. They predictably didn't sell many records but were decades ahead of their time. George Harrison,ironically,got it and admitted to being influenced by VU(the feedback) when he penned ''IT'S ALL TOO MUCH.'' Punk and new wave,you can argue,sprouted up here. ROLLING STONE declared ''THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO'' to be ''maybe the most prophetic album of all time.'' These two bands were revolutionary,but I still think VU had a greater influence. The DIY thing. Democratic. Brian Eno famously stated that everyone who bought the first VU album went out and formed a band----whether they could play or not. The possibilities were endless.
Ok I mean everything you said is true enough and stuff I've already read abt a hundred times, but I don't see what it has to do with the comparison I'm talking about. Abt how people are constantly saying one is better than the other... Sound wise I wouldn't say they're in the same category whatsoever so the comparisons still make zero sense
Haha im exactly the same lol. If I was FORCED to pick a favourite, I will still say the "Live in 1969" version of What Goes On is my personal favourite song of all time. This is a very close second. Oh wait....Some Kinda Love (the "closet" mix, not that weird echoey one), The Gift, Pale Blue Eyes, Venus In Furs, Run Run Run, All tomorrows Parties, Heroin.....God its too difficult lol.
@@ralucagymnast yes what goes on has the best rhthym guitar from Uncle Lou, every time I hear it I want to try and learn guitar again. Sister Ray is more of a sprawling behemoth - a bit messier but almost orchestral...
maybe texas n y album yes yes what goes on for minutes and cale on the carnival keyboards i still think transformer still is very much one of my favourites velvets sunday morming
Aplasmabanana I have been listening to it nearly every night for 5 years now, and I'm not even close to tired of it. My hearing is pretty bad though 😎😎😎
"Too busy sucking on a ding dong!!" An outlandish lyric for sure but still cryptic enough compared to today's outright lyrics where they would have said "too busy sucking on a dick!" haha
I'm never too sure if they knew they were making crude music IE punk rock or are they really trying to sound like the Association? It's almost as though they got a time machine travel to 1979 and then came back it's that good then again you can do fantastic things on psychedelic drugs. The velvets much beloved by many.
I've loved this song, and the Velvets, since I first heard it in1973 aged 14. Never been able to sum up Sister Ray in words. You just did, brilliantly.
I’m calling it. I am now 19 years old. For nearly 5 years, Child In Time by Deep Purple has been my all-time favorite song. This has just beaten it. I love this song so damn much. I’ve been listening to it nearly every day for the past couple of months. Even though it’s 17 minutes and 30 seconds. I love this song so freaking much. My new favorite song of all time. Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground.
@@horizonsfluidline because they're my two favorite songs. They're totally different songs of course, the one is a musical masterpiece with every instrument on fire and the other is a noisy mess that still works out amazingly. But they are two of my favorites, even though they're totally different.
The story of this recording just adds to the lore. At the time the VU obviously didn't have a lot of $ for studio time. Towards the end of a session, the guy running the recording booth had grown slowly more upset at the music as the hour passed. He was ready to walk out. The band told him to turn everything up to 100% and leave which he did. What we hear now is one take at the end of the recording hour. Quite different than the produced, over produced, and produced some more music of today. Not saying all music should be made this way but this song remains a masterpiece. I understand some don't get it but I'm happy so many do.
Wow, fab story!! Absolutely spot on, you couldnt "produce" a song like this today; it seems it came to be as an accident almost, it could never be replicated in any way shape or form, even if Lou was still alive. Thats what makes it even greater, it really was a "one off", never to be repeated. There really are not enough superlatives to describe this.
I think a lot of it sounds improvised, and all the better for it. A producer would probably have reined in a lot of the 'madness', but it is that which makes it so unique and devastating.
Actually the guy simply left, saying that he doesn't have to listen to "this". He pressed record and they played. The thing is, they agreed to leave any mistake they might make or stuff like that. That's the beauty. 1 take.
Tom Wilson was his name. Even when he didn't like the music he could see the importance of the people he signed, kinda like when he signed The Mothers of Invention after walking in on a club performance and mistook them for a blues band after hearing Trouble Every Day. He learned to like the music and pretty much let Frank control everything he wanted to do. He also worked with Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel, etc. Pretty cool guy.
@@luminousmystery1208 It is mostly improvised. The studio version was done in a single take, and future live performances are radically different than this version.
Yep. There is none better. I've listened. I love loads of great stuff but this is truely rock and roll at its absolute peak. May a god strike me down if it be otherwise. Can you imagine my great aunts when this gets played at my funeral? It's a shame I'll be dead really.
The engineer--this was Verve Records, mostly a jazz label--couldn't take it. He just told them to tell him when it was over and then he left. But the producer was Tom Wilson, a black jazz guy...who also did Dylan.
I am serious. This is the most soothing music ever IMHO. I find no chaos. Just simple flow of melodies and vocals. A little unconventional, yes. Good thing is the duration of it. Could have been 23 minutes but let's not be too greedy.
Recorded in 1968, it is simply mind blowing the sounds John Cale got out of that organ. One of the most ferocious and intense performance of an organ in Rock history.
What Lou Reed himself said about this song..."‘Sister Ray’ was done as a joke - no, not as a joke, but it has eight characters in it and this guy gets killed and nobody does anything. It was built around this story that I wrote about this scene of total debauchery and decay. I like to think of ‘Sister Ray’ as a transvestite smack dealer. The situation is a bunch of drag queens taking some sailors home with them, shooting up on smack and having this orgy when the police appear."
The best onslaught of sound ever to grace vinyl -- without a doubt. I can't imagine ever getting tired of hearing this. It's what four geniuses at work sound like.
Im a girl but yes thats exactly how i feel about the velvets and mostly i was listening to their other stuff ( i cant stand the european son eventhough i tried)
+Anthony Procek European son is just a shitty track. Probably their second worst song. I would suggest everyone who hasnt listen to VU live 1969, they were a kickass live band as well.
VU soared over the heads of most music fans when they appeared,but the enormous influence they had on tons of bands can't be denied. A wonderful,hypnotic,truthful squall of aggression I never get tired of. VU were easily 20 years ahead of their time.
I wasn't talking about the sound of the two bands. No,they sure as hell don't have much in common there. You're obviously right. I was commenting more on influence and stand by what I said. The Beatles? If you don't like them that's fine. And,like all bands,they did lay some eggs. I like both bands but I prefer VU. I like lots of music. I think this comes with age,experience. I know far too many people of my generation(I'm 54) who will likely never leave the 70s. I like music from all eras. I still love the old Stones. I'm an Interpol fan and an REM fan. And so on. I think it's a lot more satisfying to have eclectic tastes. However,if you ''don't get all the fuss'' about The Beatles,I can't help you.
Isaac Soto Not comparing the MUSIC I'm comparing their INFLUENCE on SUBSEQUENT MUSIC. No-one said they were similar. I was pointing out that popularity does not necessarily equal long-reaching influence upon other artists.
I DEFINITELY concur. People ask me about music in general. To their horror I tell them that there is really only one record: White Light/White Heat. Nothing else sounds like it does. This is true blood soda: an unholy congress of Ornette Coleman, 96 Tears, A Rainbow In Curved Air, amphetamine and 'Last Exit To Brooklyn'. Nothing else sounds like this I've looked since first hearing it in 1982 and there is nothing that comes close. I don't think the band even knew what they had done here.
***** I concur. It's a stunning record. One of the most amazing, nerve-shredding bottles of noise ever perpetrated on the public at large. It's an astonishing racket to be making in 1967. But have you heard Les Rallizes Denudes? A band directly influenced by side 2 of 'White Light / White Heat'. Their mission was to take it further, and they brought on the Japanese noise scene. You will not completely hate them.
***** What about Tontos Exploding Headband haha!! Just for that name alone, they should be the greatest band ever haha. But yeah, this is my second favourite song of all time. Do you know what my number 1 is? The live in 1969 version of What goes on, nothing has eclipsed it, before or since. This runs a very close second.
***** haha - but no Nico there? ah well, you know next Factory party you have you should invite people who post on Velvets uploads on here - you'd be sure of total commitment then :-)
this is the nastiest VU song- thanks Michelle... hadn't been in NYC since the late 80s, of all things I was there for his passing... a memorial of pictures and flowers at the Chelsea Hotel
did not get a lot of airplay too busy sucking on my ding dong the lyrics are shit but the general cacophony of noise...they should play this in shopping centres at xmas
Is this the VU song the recording engineer skipped out of the studio on saying he'd have no part in recording this rubbish?? I think it was... Can't blame him in a way, it was so far ahead of its time and anything else made then or since. It was Lou and VU's shinin g testament for posterity. Maybe the best rock song recording ever?
I've listened to VU on Pandora every once in a while, but I never heard this song until I saw the movie Call Jane. Where has this song been my whole life! I absolutely love it! It's so raw!
My favorite part is 3:32 to 4:05 and a few more times into the song. That sound is so cool. It goes from metal to a joyful-ish hard piano is just incredible. The whole song is amazingly groundbreaking
People thought l was weird in 8th grade(73) listening to this on my cassette player. I have always loved it. Maybe I am weird. So what! VU, The Fugs, Stooges , screaming Lord Sutch, Fuzzy Duck, Mahavishnu etc. I feel privileged to have lived in that era!
can you imagine being part of this jam. Cale was on, once in a life time, fire. Of now to hear Lou's most perfect chord progression...Beginning to see the light
When I was 12 I got invited over to the pad of some hard core dopers to smoke a little weed and they were playing this. 1968 or so, shit was crazy back then in some very different ways...
This is amazing and such a rare delight I just came across this and I so love it for how real and rare it is I wish modern music was made in such a manner
This is heavy stuff. Not for the faint of heart. Fine tuned and built for the connoisseur if there is such a thing in the punk rock crowd. But 17.5 minute songs is why Velvet Underground remained well, underground.
Three incredible musicians soloing over one another, at eardrum-crushing volume, for as long as they damn well please. Rock n roll at its most pulsating raw power best. If methamphetamine was a song.
Imagine her desperately trying. Seriously maybe the only way to give this justice is to know how to play really well and then add the sleaze with copious amounts of drugs
Whenever I get together with a large group of friends and acquaintances, we like to take turns picking the song that we listen to off of youtube. Well, after a couple of rounds of this, and after everyone has had more than a couple of rounds of drinks, the music tends to keep getting louder and louder as people move around and dance and laugh and what have you. Well, at this point, when it comes around to my turn to pick the song, I always choose this, "Sister Ray". It reminds me of something Bill Hicks used to say onstage. Bill would do this long, drawn out bit where he would play Opera giving birth to I think something like Satan and Geraldo's baby, complete with sound effects and groans... There was no jokes, just 4 or 5 minutes of him squatting, pretending to push this Hell-baby out. And always, like clockwork, halfway through, people would get up and leave. And upon seeing the crowd dwindle, Hick's would say,"This usually clears a room". Well, like clockwork, every time I would put on "Sister Ray", 6 or 7 minutes in, someone would inevitably ask,"How long IS this?", obviously refraining to use the word song because they clearly don't feel like the label applies. And humans, being herd animals, tribal by nature, would begin to follow the first persons lead, and they would leave. Typically, they would, one or two at a time, go outside to the backyard where they would begin to congregate anew, until I am inevitably left all alone, just me and Lou. ButI will say, whenever some guy *did* choose to stay behind and listen with me, then I got a new friend. And the one time this girl stayed behind and sat next to me, rocking out, that was when I found the love of my life. That was almost 5 years ago, and we're still together to this day. And our song is 'Sister Ray".
August Greig what a great story. I have always loved Sister Ray. The most bizarre radio experience I ever had was in Bogotá, Colombia when in 1973 , Sister Ray popped out on an AM station...it was played in its entirety though I’m sure that less than .001% of the people listening to it at the office or whatever , understood a single word of it. I was baked, of course, and was laughing hysterically with my fellow American buds throughout. It was like it had been sent on room service or something especially for us. BIZARRE
"I don't care if my friends are a bunch of fools who don't share my interests! Of course they're all intellectuals who listen to Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin!"
I've loved this song since I first heard it as a teen in the 80s. I love everything about it but I especially love the rhythm guitar playing and how it changes at certain parts of the song. It's a masterpiece.
If you get Lou Reed's book of his lyrics, Pass Thru Fire, you'll be surprised at some of the lyrics in this song. It's like, "Oh I thought he was saying..." THey're EVEN BETTER THAN YOU THOUGHT.
Apart from being a great band and this particular version of Sister Ray bring magnificent, they gave birth to the Elghties Independent/Underground/Alternative scene world wide. The energy of punk had fizzled by 1980 and all that remained was pop and New Wave. In the UK the English "indie" press kept the post punk flag flying. In late 1985 two terminally unemployed brothers from Scotland Jim and William released the BEST Indie/Alternative album of the Eighties called Psychocandy. Theives and copy cats yelled some of the US press. WHY - the brothers Reid formed the Jesus and Mary Chain and had released Psychocandy. Yes . . . you could clearly here the influence of the Velvet Underground. The distortion and dark lyrical content being reminiscent of the Velvet Underground. I love both bands. I discovered the Velvets through the Jesus and Mary Chain.
"Psychocandy" was/is incredible. Especially on psychedelics. ... Punk brought us the American Underground scene of the 1980s, and Minutemen and Sonic Youth are two of the greatest American bands ever to record without (especially Minutemen) selling many records.
I've listened to hundreds of punk and noise albums and Sister Ray is still the craziest song I have ever heard. Why? I think because the song gyrates between cohesion and chaos like seven different times in 17 minutes. This is like a Formula 1 driver going 225 miles an hour, losing control of his car 7 times, not crashing and still winning the race.
really like your opinion my friend👍
I think. Because it was the. First
After listening I feel this had to be a one or two take song when they recorded it
@@jasonwade8774 one take
Makes sense. I wish more bands would do more live one take songs. I watched a documentary here on RUclips about the velvets and it covered every album they did. I’ll try and find a link
Sounds like they've been playing it 12 hours straight the moment it starts.
@@Xx_BoogieBomber_xX
Futuronic - Motorik ruclips.net/video/jnYKHy31HE0/видео.html
10 years old
@@Xx_BoogieBomber_xX i think original commenter was talking less about composition than about groove and feel
Guest Informant it sucks mate
lmaoooo well put, cheers! 🥃
sounds like they’ve been playing for years, like some unmovable force
People always complaining about how long Sister Ray is and I just say it's not long enough
!!!! так и есть песенка цепляющая
whip it on me, jim! whip it on me, jim! whip it on me, jim! whip it on me, jim!
DAMN YOU MARK PRINDLE
...fuck 'em and yes
I've done that one many times while working at my cleaning job
Favorite story I’ve heard about this song (supposedly true). In the studio, the recording engineer set up the mics, hit record, then left the building, saying, “they’re paying me to record this shit, not to listen to it.”
Wow I hope that's true
Close but wrong. You heard the story of Tom Wilson...the engineer in the studio on their first record. He didn't want to hear "Eurpeaon Son".
@@lagilbert67 I'm afraid you're wrong. See my comment above.
@@lotharroberts5978 Everybody's talking at me. Can't hear a word they're saying. Only the echoes in my mind.
I read that they decided to do 1 take and whatever happened was going on the record regardless. A masterpiece was born
Being a very insecure person, this is one of the few songs played on my earphones that has made me walk around people without feeling their eyes on me.
Doug and Sally inside
Their turd eyes can wolf on a fat pecker
Specifically not worried about the jim jims
Was it cause you couldn't hit it sideways?
All jokes aside I agree. It's like the first time a song that gave off the "I don't give a shit" type of mentality
This and "little black rocks in the sun" by add n to x make me walk around like the King of rage.
I like the bit where they play the chord G.
GG GG GG GG FC
Iamman i upload 5 times a day for 6 months thx for the tab even if dropping my bass on the floor could do it too xD
Major 7ths McGee 💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💊💊💊💊💊💊💊
@@omnirath 6
@@omnirath t
They invented Post-Punk and Noise Rock before Punk ever existed
!!!
LOL! They were working with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band to invent punk before punk was punk.
They're just proto everything
@@GregoryWonderwheel as much as I like captain beefheart, they weren't even close as important to punk as the Velvets. In regards to avant guard Music obviously they were unbelievably important and left an impact, but personally I actually think they impacted hard rock more than punk.
@@eddietasker9110 So many post-punk/new wave bands of the 70s list Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band as a huge influence
Moe Tucker should be considered one of the best drummers in Rock music
Influence that wouldn't really become apparent until the early punk era
Yep, absolutely, and not one drum fill!##
I used to see her at church every Sunday morning - front row wearing sun glasses. Deep south GA. What a world we live in.
She is considered one of the best drummers ever.
It's a shame that you can barely hear her on some of their songs.
I've heard a lot of ridiculously filthy/heavy punk, hardcore, noise, and sludge music and it's insane how this song STILL holds a candle in how acerbic and nasty it is. VU were onto something big.
How fitting that your pfp is The Money Store and you commented how chaotic and hardcore this music was, while this made a gateway to Death Grips as well.
They were on to it. The rest of the world had to catch up to them. Way ahead of their time 🖤😎
white light is about drugs
✮✮✮✮✮
One of the most important songs of the '60's.
Of the rock history.
Of ever.
"Sister Ray" (supposedly Ray Davies) and "It's All Too Much" tell you everything you need to know about the Sixties.
@@dennislockhart7678 first time I hear that about Ray Davies, but hey no complaints, I simply love The Kinks.
To this day you can hear tons of groups being influenced by the whole album, specifically Sister Ray, I mean listen to the first stooges album, that album’s guitar solos and sound is similar to the VU, even Bowie was influenced by them
The comparison is quite valid. The Beatles sold a zillion records and are still seen as gods(and I like them too). VU were largely ignored and reviled(Dylan had no use for the Factory crowd)---part of a true counterculture telling the hippies there'd be a price to pay eventually,that drugs could actually KILL you,that all the peace and love would not last. Reality. They predictably didn't sell many records but were decades ahead of their time. George Harrison,ironically,got it and admitted to being influenced by VU(the feedback) when he penned ''IT'S ALL TOO MUCH.'' Punk and new wave,you can argue,sprouted up here. ROLLING STONE declared ''THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO'' to be ''maybe the most prophetic album of all time.'' These two bands were revolutionary,but I still think VU had a greater influence. The DIY thing. Democratic. Brian Eno famously stated that everyone who bought the first VU album went out and formed a band----whether they could play or not. The possibilities were endless.
Ok I mean everything you said is true enough and stuff I've already read abt a hundred times, but I don't see what it has to do with the comparison I'm talking about. Abt how people are constantly saying one is better than the other... Sound wise I wouldn't say they're in the same category whatsoever so the comparisons still make zero sense
No that is why VU are one of the most influential rock groups of all time
Dylan loved The Factory crowd.
This song sucks
@@lotharroberts5978 Since when? he sold an Andy Warhol painting for a couch
If you listen closely, you can hear the birth of Sonic Youth.
Good point
and the punk rock too
Punk rock
Pantera
Pentagram
Doom metal
Grunge
And plenty of other !
I can even guess there was a big bang some time in the past.
Especially "Hot Wire My Heart"
I love when the organ's speaker literally blows out at 8:18. Love you John Cale.
I hear the organ still cooking along. He switches to Irmin Schmidt style karate noise.... Cale is the best. And Mo and Sterling
@@CarlDidur agree with you, but this was recorded before any Can release, so Irmin Schmidt was influenced by the Welsh Wizard.
Look I'm only gonna say this once about 10-15 different VU songs...this is the greatest song ever made
Haha im exactly the same lol. If I was FORCED to pick a favourite, I will still say the "Live in 1969" version of What Goes On is my personal favourite song of all time. This is a very close second. Oh wait....Some Kinda Love (the "closet" mix, not that weird echoey one), The Gift, Pale Blue Eyes, Venus In Furs, Run Run Run, All tomorrows Parties, Heroin.....God its too difficult lol.
Fuckin' A goddamn right
Couldn't of said it any better
@@ralucagymnast yes what goes on has the best rhthym guitar from Uncle Lou, every time I hear it I want to try and learn guitar again. Sister Ray is more of a sprawling behemoth - a bit messier but almost orchestral...
maybe texas n y album yes yes what goes on for minutes and cale on the carnival keyboards i still think transformer still is very much one of my favourites velvets sunday morming
The sound of the guitars, the organ, the outlandish lyrics. All absolutely incredible. I could groove to this for an eternity
Aplasmabanana
I have been listening to it nearly every night for 5 years now, and I'm not even close to tired of it. My hearing is pretty bad though 😎😎😎
I have been listening to it regularly for years. Still love it.
Given the length of it you probably will be ;)
"Too busy sucking on a ding dong!!" An outlandish lyric for sure but still cryptic enough compared to today's outright lyrics where they would have said "too busy sucking on a dick!" haha
I'm never too sure if they knew they were making crude music IE punk rock or are they really trying to sound like the Association? It's almost as though they got a time machine travel to 1979 and then came back it's that good then again you can do fantastic things on psychedelic drugs. The velvets much beloved by many.
saddest point in this song is just when you think it won't ever end
it ends
Yes
and then you play it again.
it's the only flaw
if this was played in elevators or supermarkets at xmas different world no shoplifting no cash just a riot
This is the fucking Guernica of rock and roll
+TheGoodManJoe AWESOME COMMENT!
+TheGoodManJoe Well put!
+TheGoodManJoe i came here intending to say something like this, but you said it best already
I've loved this song, and the Velvets, since I first heard it in1973 aged 14.
Never been able to sum up Sister Ray in words. You just did, brilliantly.
Best statement!
You're not a rock band until you've jammed to this in somebody's garage.
I'm confused. So you have this playing in the background while you and your band plays on top of it?
i bet the neighbours were pissd off f em
Or f@cked to it
I’m calling it. I am now 19 years old. For nearly 5 years, Child In Time by Deep Purple has been my all-time favorite song. This has just beaten it. I love this song so damn much. I’ve been listening to it nearly every day for the past couple of months. Even though it’s 17 minutes and 30 seconds. I love this song so freaking much. My new favorite song of all time. Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground.
Those are both fantastic songs! 😃
Nothing better than being young and discovering this shit for the first time, I'm jealous but welcome
Child in Time? Lol, the song with the stupid noodly guitar solo set to Bombay Calling by It's A Beautiful Day?
I don't know how you can even mention the two in the same sentence let alone compare them?
@@horizonsfluidline because they're my two favorite songs. They're totally different songs of course, the one is a musical masterpiece with every instrument on fire and the other is a noisy mess that still works out amazingly. But they are two of my favorites, even though they're totally different.
love that guitar riff in the beginning
Great Moe Tucker
Hedonist, dirty, street, underworld, decay, doom, masterpiece of noise and improvisation.
yes and ves not radio very commercial there is a market for dirty decay doom etc
love the noise
Greatest song in rock history.
agree
Hard to believe this recording is FIFTY years old. It sounds just as fresh, scary, compelling, and gruesome in a beautiful, pug ugly way! Peace.
It's a recording so it will always sound like this.
we hate 70 s discshtt
ONE OF THE GOOD THINGS TO COME OUT OF THE OPIUM TRADE.
Realest comment here
could be pharmacutical speed and a dash of smack
Ok, I laughed irl.
Thank you.
The story of this recording just adds to the lore. At the time the VU obviously didn't have a lot of $ for studio time. Towards the end of a session, the guy running the recording booth had grown slowly more upset at the music as the hour passed. He was ready to walk out. The band told him to turn everything up to 100% and leave which he did. What we hear now is one take at the end of the recording hour. Quite different than the produced, over produced, and produced some more music of today. Not saying all music should be made this way but this song remains a masterpiece. I understand some don't get it but I'm happy so many do.
Wow, fab story!! Absolutely spot on, you couldnt "produce" a song like this today; it seems it came to be as an accident almost, it could never be replicated in any way shape or form, even if Lou was still alive. Thats what makes it even greater, it really was a "one off", never to be repeated. There really are not enough superlatives to describe this.
I think a lot of it sounds improvised, and all the better for it. A producer would probably have reined in a lot of the 'madness', but it is that which makes it so unique and devastating.
Actually the guy simply left, saying that he doesn't have to listen to "this". He pressed record and they played. The thing is, they agreed to leave any mistake they might make or stuff like that. That's the beauty. 1 take.
Tom Wilson was his name. Even when he didn't like the music he could see the importance of the people he signed, kinda like when he signed The Mothers of Invention after walking in on a club performance and mistook them for a blues band after hearing Trouble Every Day. He learned to like the music and pretty much let Frank control everything he wanted to do. He also worked with Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel, etc. Pretty cool guy.
@@luminousmystery1208 It is mostly improvised. The studio version was done in a single take, and future live performances are radically different than this version.
This is Controlled Chaos .
Noisy and Dirty .
Love it.
It Grooves.
Like Sister Ray Says.
..possibly the best song ever recorded..but that's just my opinion..man
Yep. There is none better. I've listened. I love loads of great stuff but this is truely rock and roll at its absolute peak. May a god strike me down if it be otherwise. Can you imagine my great aunts when this gets played at my funeral? It's a shame I'll be dead really.
nobody fucks with the jesus
And done in a single take.
Miguel Torres and Piero Scaruffi’s one
The engineer--this was Verve Records, mostly a jazz label--couldn't take it. He just told them to tell him when it was over and then he left. But the producer was Tom Wilson, a black jazz guy...who also did Dylan.
Very few bands even come close to being as influential as the VU. These guys invented alternative rock in general.
Love, The Stooges and The Doors too. ;) Love them all
This song in particular invented punk
@@pabloisusi6097 yeah
All great bands!!!
Uncanny how it soothes my nerves every single time
I am serious. This is the most soothing music ever IMHO. I find no chaos. Just simple flow of melodies and vocals. A little unconventional, yes. Good thing is the duration of it. Could have been 23 minutes but let's not be too greedy.
Recorded in 1968, it is simply mind blowing the sounds John Cale got out of that organ. One of the most ferocious and intense performance of an organ in Rock history.
December 1967 actually!
Jerry harrison of the talking heads basically used this song as his template for his organ work with The Modern Lovers in the early 70s
Recorded in November 1967.
If you want to hear more of that organ, listen to John Cale's "Sun Blindness Music" recorded around the same time.
and to think this was not long before Inna Gadda Da Vidda came out, and that became a no. 1 hit. There is no justice in the world.
56 people couldn't hit it sideways.
Make that 49 people
They must not have had the time time! xD
Pussies....
@@anarchofilms just like Sister Ray said smdh
This song isn't long enough
There are 3 live versions of this song on The Velvet underground's "The Quine Tapes" 3 CD box set - each lasting much longer than the studio version.
If they don’t have John Cale it’s not this good.
@@slowpoke5042 yeah, that organ he's torturing is such a killer.
LOL!
You funny
What a wonderful and filthy song. Badass groove!! In the keyboard playing and the main riff I can hear what would later be "roadrunner".
it sounds like they’ve been playing this since the beginning of time, like some primordial beings
It is musics Vulture peak!
Urban swamp rock
Greatest, most epic opening of any rock 'n roll song ever.
the ultimate rock and roll masterpiece.
What Lou Reed himself said about this song..."‘Sister Ray’ was done as a joke - no, not as a joke, but it has eight characters in it and this guy gets killed and nobody does anything. It was built around this story that I wrote about this scene of total debauchery and decay. I like to think of ‘Sister Ray’ as a transvestite smack dealer. The situation is a bunch of drag queens taking some sailors home with them, shooting up on smack and having this orgy when the police appear."
Read Last Exit to Brooklyn, that is where this comes from...
It's simply great poetry!
Those smack shooting TVs do know how to party.
Haha what a surreal scene
The best onslaught of sound ever to grace vinyl -- without a doubt. I can't imagine ever getting tired of hearing this. It's what four geniuses at work sound like.
incredible shit!!
It is what four heroin addicts at work sound like.
i love how there's no intro, this song just begins
i just heard the end full stop
"Road runner- road runner- goin' 1000 miles an hour... with the radio on!"
"Am unlimited supply- EMI- and there is no reason why- EMI- I tell you it was all a frame- EMI- they only did it 'cause of fame-EMI!"
DAFT PUNK IS PLAYING AT MY HOUSE, MY HOUSE
L. Salisbury “i fall in love with modern world”
?
I could listen to this all day.
I do listen to it every day for entire day.
It nearly takes all day 😁
one of the best songs ever made
This song is 17:27 of pure chaos. love it
this... is not chaos, its rather ordered
I can remember a friend of mine played this on the way to school and it was still playing when we got home from school
The moment that you begin to love this even though you couldnt stand it at all
Im a girl but yes thats exactly how i feel about the velvets and mostly i was listening to their other stuff ( i cant stand the european son eventhough i tried)
These things take time !!!
+Anthony Procek European son is just a shitty track. Probably their second worst song. I would suggest everyone who hasnt listen to VU live 1969, they were a kickass live band as well.
The truth is that Sister Ray is not a song for every hour
exactly like the firsts shoots of heroin
Best track ever - miss you Lou
VU soared over the heads of most music fans when they appeared,but the enormous influence they had on tons of bands can't be denied. A wonderful,hypnotic,truthful squall of aggression I never get tired of. VU were easily 20 years ahead of their time.
+Mike Poitras More influential than The Beatles, easily.
+vollsticks why do people always compare the two? They're worlds apart. It's such a stupid and needless comparison
The beatles were the 60's one direction lmao. They suck. I dont get all the fuss.
I wasn't talking about the sound of the two bands. No,they sure as hell don't have much in common there. You're obviously right. I was commenting more on influence and stand by what I said. The Beatles? If you don't like them that's fine. And,like all bands,they did lay some eggs. I like both bands but I prefer VU. I like lots of music. I think this comes with age,experience. I know far too many people of my generation(I'm 54) who will likely never leave the 70s. I like music from all eras. I still love the old Stones. I'm an Interpol fan and an REM fan. And so on. I think it's a lot more satisfying to have eclectic tastes. However,if you ''don't get all the fuss'' about The Beatles,I can't help you.
Isaac Soto Not comparing the MUSIC I'm comparing their INFLUENCE on SUBSEQUENT MUSIC. No-one said they were similar. I was pointing out that popularity does not necessarily equal long-reaching influence upon other artists.
I remember that very first day i bought this in 68. Had to special order it in Huntington West Virginia! Yes Phillip Page...It DID change my Life!
Michael O'Shea McGoldrick ayyyyyy fellow Huntungton native! Good taste! What a great story!
exhausted every time I finish listening to it
I DEFINITELY concur. People ask me about music in general. To their horror I tell them that there is really only one record: White Light/White Heat. Nothing else sounds like it does. This is true blood soda: an unholy congress of Ornette Coleman, 96 Tears, A Rainbow In Curved Air, amphetamine and 'Last Exit To Brooklyn'. Nothing else sounds like this I've looked since first hearing it in 1982 and there is nothing that comes close. I don't think the band even knew what they had done here.
*****
I concur. It's a stunning record. One of the most amazing, nerve-shredding bottles of noise ever perpetrated on the public at large. It's an astonishing racket to be making in 1967.
But have you heard Les Rallizes Denudes? A band directly influenced by side 2 of 'White Light / White Heat'. Their mission was to take it further, and they brought on the Japanese noise scene. You will not completely hate them.
*****
What about Tontos Exploding Headband haha!! Just for that name alone, they should be the greatest band ever haha. But yeah, this is my second favourite song of all time. Do you know what my number 1 is? The live in 1969 version of What goes on, nothing has eclipsed it, before or since. This runs a very close second.
***** haha - great story - what did they expect? - and did you cover the walls in tin foil?
***** haha - but no Nico there? ah well, you know next Factory party you have you should invite people who post on Velvets uploads on here - you'd be sure of total commitment then :-)
While the world was in 1968, these guys were in 2068.
Earl Lemongrab true
While the world will be in 2068 I shall be in 1968...
Sounds right.
Well, 1977 at least.
Actually, the album was recorded the year before, 1967...
this is the nastiest VU song- thanks Michelle... hadn't been in NYC since the late 80s, of all things I was there for his passing... a memorial of pictures and flowers at the Chelsea Hotel
This has to be the heaviest and dirtiest song ever.. and I love it!
@Shut Up Before I Ankle Pick You I have to disagree
@Shut Up Before I Ankle Pick You This song is H E A V Y
this song is thicc
Ah! The Millenials!
Listen to the Japanese band Les Rallizes Dénudés. They basically took the formula of this song and took it to even more of an extreme.
If you listen closely, you can hear the invention of the entire genre of Punk
The most amazing rock song ever committed to vinyl.
did not get a lot of airplay too busy sucking on my ding dong the lyrics are shit but the general cacophony of noise...they should play this in shopping centres at xmas
The Velvet Underground were amazing and still are .
And they will be. One of the best bands ever
I’ve had a crappy day at work....this is really clearing my mind.....true genius.
Still remember seeing Mike Watt and the Secondmen play this song live like ten years back. Awesome cover.
Seventeen minutes and twenty six seconds of pure rock and roll awesomeness!
Is this the VU song the recording engineer skipped out of the studio on saying he'd have no part in recording this rubbish?? I think it was... Can't blame him in a way, it was so far ahead of its time and anything else made then or since. It was Lou and VU's shinin g testament for posterity. Maybe the best rock song recording ever?
Tom Wilson, also Bob Dylan's producer, called this album "mental masturbation". He just couldn't deal. lol
Quinnessential dance track to the apocalypse.
Perfect. Rock and roll will see us right to the very end
Prophetic and poetic. You got the vibe right there.
Now in this pandemic ... More than ever ! Velvets U is still current 😎
yeah man
I have to listen to this through earphones cos it blisters the paint on my walls
I've listened to VU on Pandora every once in a while, but I never heard this song until I saw the movie Call Jane. Where has this song been my whole life! I absolutely love it! It's so raw!
My favorite part is 3:32 to 4:05 and a few more times into the song. That sound is so cool. It goes from metal to a joyful-ish hard piano is just incredible.
The whole song is amazingly groundbreaking
Chaos manifested in the form of a song. What a trip.
This song is everything I didn't know I needed.
one of my all time favorite songs
John Cale on organ is such a belter - pure dominance I say!
wow what a tune
love it so much
This influenced Faust no doubt
I used to get drunk and go to the high school listening to this song, good memories
Recorded In A Single Take
Slowly becoming my favorite velvet song
this is the definition of debauchery
People thought l was weird in 8th grade(73) listening to this on my cassette player. I have always loved it. Maybe I am weird. So what! VU, The Fugs, Stooges , screaming Lord Sutch, Fuzzy Duck, Mahavishnu etc. I feel privileged to have lived in that era!
can you imagine being part of this jam. Cale was on, once in a life time, fire. Of now to hear Lou's most perfect chord progression...Beginning to see the light
✮✮✮✮✮
The only song that fully deserves this jugdment
There is more than one song on this album about someone's head getting drilled.
When I was 12 I got invited over to the pad of some hard core dopers to smoke a little weed and they were playing this. 1968 or so, shit was crazy back then in some very different ways...
This song always gives me a headache and that's what I love about it.
This is amazing and such a rare delight I just came across this and I so love it for how real and rare it is I wish modern music was made in such a manner
this is a seizure inside an episode inside a psychotic break - it makes me so happy
This is heavy stuff. Not for the faint of heart. Fine tuned and built for the connoisseur if there is such a thing in the punk rock crowd. But 17.5 minute songs is why Velvet Underground remained well, underground.
When in New York, you must listen to this song.
I know recorded at the record plant Hollywood yet the the velvets always were there black leather
And "Blitzkreig bop", "Chineese Rocks"...
In New York you must milly rock
@@l.salisbury1253 chinese rock was in London i think
This song used to be a chore to sit through when I first heard it...now almost ten years later, the song as the whole album is a masterpiece
Top 10 album closer of all time
Let's say Top 1
Still my favorite. I had them play the entire thing at my wedding reception.
What!!!
Hopefully it was the part where the bride came down the aisle. :-)
Three incredible musicians soloing over one another, at eardrum-crushing volume, for as long as they damn well please.
Rock n roll at its most pulsating raw power best. If methamphetamine was a song.
Messaged my music teacher if she could play this song during music class. Still haven’t heard back yet.
Imagine her desperately trying. Seriously maybe the only way to give this justice is to know how to play really well and then add the sleaze with copious amounts of drugs
Happy 50th anniversary to one of my favourite albums ever
had been a fan of the first album forever. i discovered this 20 years ago, while really jacked up on good coffee. CAFFEINE!
Caf-fi-fi-fi-fi-feine-uh!!!
Whenever I get together with a large group of friends and acquaintances, we like to take turns picking the song that we listen to off of youtube. Well, after a couple of rounds of this, and after everyone has had more than a couple of rounds of drinks, the music tends to keep getting louder and louder as people move around and dance and laugh and what have you. Well, at this point, when it comes around to my turn to pick the song, I always choose this, "Sister Ray". It reminds me of something Bill Hicks used to say onstage.
Bill would do this long, drawn out bit where he would play Opera giving birth to I think something like Satan and Geraldo's baby, complete with sound effects and groans... There was no jokes, just 4 or 5 minutes of him squatting, pretending to push this Hell-baby out. And always, like clockwork, halfway through, people would get up and leave. And upon seeing the crowd dwindle, Hick's would say,"This usually clears a room".
Well, like clockwork, every time I would put on "Sister Ray", 6 or 7 minutes in, someone would inevitably ask,"How long IS this?", obviously refraining to use the word song because they clearly don't feel like the label applies. And humans, being herd animals, tribal by nature, would begin to follow the first persons lead, and they would leave. Typically, they would, one or two at a time, go outside to the backyard where they would begin to congregate anew, until I am inevitably left all alone, just me and Lou.
ButI will say, whenever some guy *did* choose to stay behind and listen with me, then I got a new friend. And the one time this girl stayed behind and sat next to me, rocking out, that was when I found the love of my life. That was almost 5 years ago, and we're still together to this day. And our song is 'Sister Ray".
That is one great fucking story my friend, Congratulations.
August Greig what a great story. I have always loved Sister Ray. The most bizarre radio experience I ever had was in Bogotá, Colombia when in 1973 , Sister Ray popped out on an AM station...it was played in its entirety though I’m sure that less than .001% of the people listening to it at the office or whatever , understood a single word of it. I was baked, of course, and was laughing hysterically with my fellow American buds throughout. It was like it had been sent on room service or something especially for us. BIZARRE
"I don't care if my friends are a bunch of fools who don't share my interests!
Of course they're all intellectuals who listen to Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin!"
Good music bruh. Brings people together
True. Most people like to be spoon fed their music or any art really. Hence, pop 40 radio. If it doesn’t compute they flee.
I'm still listening to this music after all these years ...
Dancing to "Sister Ray" at The Boston Tea Party... the ultimate rock 'n' roll experience.
You were lucky enough to be there
I've loved this song since I first heard it as a teen in the 80s. I love everything about it but I especially love the rhythm guitar playing and how it changes at certain parts of the song. It's a masterpiece.
If you get Lou Reed's book of his lyrics, Pass Thru Fire, you'll be surprised at some of the lyrics in this song. It's like, "Oh I thought he was saying..." THey're EVEN BETTER THAN YOU THOUGHT.
it's just... the best.
Used to hate it but not any more. Turns out all the people who said that would happen were right. Love the organ.
sillypenta
It takes time to get into the Velvets; but once you do, there is no going back.
Right on my brother and listening to The Velvets over a long period will change your brain chemistry too.
John Cale on organ
Apart from being a great band and this particular version of
Sister Ray bring magnificent, they gave birth to the Elghties Independent/Underground/Alternative scene world wide.
The energy of punk had fizzled by 1980 and all that remained was pop and New Wave.
In the UK the English "indie" press kept the post punk flag flying.
In late 1985 two terminally unemployed brothers from Scotland Jim and William released the BEST Indie/Alternative album of the Eighties called Psychocandy.
Theives and copy cats yelled some of the US press.
WHY - the brothers Reid formed the Jesus and Mary Chain and had released Psychocandy.
Yes . . . you could clearly here the influence of the Velvet Underground. The distortion and dark lyrical content being reminiscent of the Velvet Underground.
I love both bands. I discovered the Velvets through the Jesus and Mary Chain.
"Psychocandy" was/is incredible. Especially on psychedelics. ... Punk brought us the American Underground scene of the 1980s, and Minutemen and Sonic Youth are two of the greatest American bands ever to record without (especially Minutemen) selling many records.
Punk didn’t fizzle out in 1980, it became hardcore.
Some great postpunk bands in early 80s. Gang of Four to name one
@@epitaph3988 first wave punk definitely fizzled out, the harder sound was certainly a distinct difference, a new subgenere