More Invisible Hits! Go over to Pitchfork to read my rambles on the depthless mysteries of The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Sister Ray.” There’s a YouTube link to listen, as well. Or you can grab Sweet Sister Rayn’s Heroin, the awkwardly titled third disc of the VU bootleg box, Caught Between The Twisted Stars. It’s got “Sweet Sister Ray,” the “Guitar Amp” version of “Sister Ray” from 1969, a 1993 reunion rendition of “Hey Mr. Rain” and the only other complete recording from the “Sweet Sister Ray” evening: a crackling “Heroin.” It’s all so good, dudes!
[Dead/VU Freaks may be particularly interested in something Jesse Jarnow just pointed out to me about the Guitar Amp jam – the moment around the 17-minute mark when the VU appear to segue into “Turn On Your Lovelight.” For real!]
Let’s also take a minute to consider the following anecdote from Michael Carlucci, who says the Cleveland fan who recorded the ‘Sweet Sister Ray" tape “[left] it in his car. His sister used the car, saw the tape, put it in a cassette player and started recording her friends laughing and being stupid. He wanted to kill her.” That’s why the tape fades out just as “Sister Ray” begins. Also missing is a half-hour version of “Hey Mr. Rain.” Read it and weep!
Since Lou died last fall, I’ve been thinking about him even more than usual (which is a lot, believe me), and the main thing I keep coming back to is that the guy’s music was positive and life-affirming, despite the fact that he was the “poet of the dark corners of NYC, drugs, S&M, etc etc.” Like in “Sweet Sister Ray” he sings about getting electroshock therapy, which was basically his parents/society telling him: “You can’t be like that, you have to be like this.” The fact that he spent the rest of his life proving them wrong is nothing less than heroic. If Lou ever had a message, it’s that the possibilities really are endless. And that’s a message worth remembering.
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