The 'Great Lost Velvet Underground Album'

Between May and October 1969, The Velvet Underground went into the Record Plant Studio in NYC several times with engineer Gary Kellgren andrecorded a number of tracks for a fourth Verve/MGM album, an album that was never released, although a catalog number was reserved by MGM: SE-4641. These songs began to appear in rough form on bootlegs in the mid-seventies, and were finally officially presented in remastered form in the mid-eighties on the collections of previously unreleased recordings VU and Another View. Five tracks - re-remastered and with some extra time - were also reissued in the 1995 Peel Slowly And See 5-CD box set.

The 14 cuts split between the two outtakes compilations, "The Great Lost Velvet Underground Album" remains actually unreleased. However it can be restored by extracting and reassambling g the tracks from the various sources that offer material from the 1969 MGM studio sessions.

Below are the guidelines to two different editions. The first one 'Hi-Fi' is made from the remastered tracks released on the official records. The second one 'Lo-Fi' - for diehards only - is made from original rough mixes from various bootleg releases.

2014 update: 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 chronologically and the source shown is the best one available. Audio software is required to normalize the VU and Another View tracks to make them sound as loud as the Peel Slowly And See ones. Perfectionists will need to add the introductory coda to Foggy Notion, which appears only 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

The sources given are in my opinion the best available – you can find these tracks on some other bootlegs but usually with inferior sound quality – e.g. Orange Disaster. Speed correction is necessary using the officially released tracks as a reference. The completist will restore the introductory coda to Foggy Notion which is only available on the old famous 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: January 14, 2024