The 'Great Lost Velvet Underground Album'

Between May and October 1969, The Velvet Underground visited the Record Plant Studio in New York City several times with engineer Gary Kellgren to record a number of tracks for a fourth Verve/MGM album. According to the MGM Album Discography (Part 10: SE-4601 to SE-4800, 1969–1972) by Mike Callahan, David Edwards, Peter Prevost and Patrice Eyries, MGM reserved catalogue number SE-4641 for the album.

These songs began to appear in rough form – probably from acetate sources – on bootlegs in the mid-1970s and were finally officially released in remastered form in the mid-1980s on the previously unreleased recordings collections VU and Another View. Five tracks, remastered, were also reissued in the 1995 Peel Slowly And See five-CD box set.

Of the 14 tracks split between the two outtakes compilations, 'The Great Lost Velvet Underground Album' remains unreleased. However, it can be reconstructed by extracting and reassembling the tracks from various sources offering material from the 1969 MGM studio sessions.

Below are the guidelines for two different editions. The first, 'Hi-Fi', is made from the remastered tracks released on official records. The second, 'Lo-Fi', is intended for die-hard fans and is made from the original rough mixes found on various bootleg releases.

Update, 2012: Sundazed Records released a five-LP box set. This included an 'incomplete' version of the 'Lost Album', titled '1969', featuring ten tracks from the 1969 sessions.

Update, 2014: The Velvet Underground | 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition Disc 4: 1969 Sessions includes all tracks, credited as "14 songs recorded during 1969 for the legendary "Great Lost 4th VU Album", presented in either their original 1969 mixes or in new 2014 mixes".

Hi-Fi edition

The 14 tracks are presented in chronological order, with the best available source used for each one. Audio software is required to normalise the 'VU' and 'Another View' tracks, making them sound as loud as the 'Peel Slowly and See' ones. Perfectionists will also need to add the introductory coda to 'Foggy Notion', which only appears on the vinyl version of the 'VU' album.

#	Title	Date	Time	Source
1	Foggy Notion	May 6, 1969	6:56	VU(vinyl)+PSAS
2	Coney Island Steeplechase	May 6, 1969	2:26	Another View
3	Andy's Chest	May 13, 1969	2:50	VU
4	I'm Sticking With You	May 13, 1969	2:28	PSAS
5	She's My Best Friend	May 14, 1969	2:47	VU
6	I Can't Stand It	May 20, 1969	2:47	PSAS
7	Ocean	June 19, 1969	5:10	VU
8	Ferryboat Bill	June 19, 1969	2:11	Another View
9	Rock And Roll	June 19, 1969	5:15	Another View
10	Ride Into The Sun	September 5, 1969	3:24	Another View
11	One Of These Days	September 23, 1969	3:59	PSAS
12	I'm Gonna Move Right In	September 27, 1969	6:29	Another View
13	Real Good Time Together	September 30, 1969	2:56	Another View
14	Lisa Says	October 1, 1969	2:57	PSAS

Lo-Fi edition

In my opinion, the sources provided are the best available. You can find these tracks on other bootlegs, but the sound quality is usually inferior – for example, on 'Orange Disaster'. Speed correction is necessary, using the officially released tracks as a reference. Completists will want to restore the introductory coda to 'Foggy Notion', which is only available on the famous old '22 demos' tape. 'I Can't Stand It', 'Real Good Time Together' and 'Lisa Says' have not surfaced in their rough mix form.

#	Title	Date	Time	Source
1	Foggy Notion	May 6, 1969	6:40	22 demos + White Heat or Etc.
2	Andy's Chest	May 13, 1969	2:56	NYC
3	I'm Sticking With You	May 13, 1969	2:09	White Heat or Etc.
4	She's My Best Friend	May 14, 1969	3:00	NYC
5	Ocean	June 19, 1969	5:11	Everything...
6	Ferryboat Bill	June 19, 1969	2:12	Everything...
7	Rock And Roll	June 19, 1969	5:04	Everything...
8	Ride Into The Sun	September 5, 1969	3:01	Ride EP
9	Ride Into The Sun [w/ intro]	September 5, 1969	3:10	Ride EP
10	One Of These Days	September 23, 1969	3:57	And So On
11	I'm Gonna Move Right In	September 27, 1969	6:40	NYC

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by olandem@aol.com
last modified: April 23, 2026