Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Venus In Furs
2. Prominent Men
3. Heroin
4. I'm Waiting For The Man
5. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
6. All Tomorrow's Parties

Disc 2:

1. All Tomorrow's Parties
2. Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground, Nico
3. I'm Waiting For The Man - The Velvet Underground, Nico
4. Femme Fatale - The Velvet Underground, Nico
5. Venus In Furs - The Velvet Underground, Nico
6. Run Run Run - The Velvet Underground, Nico
7. All Tomorrow's Parties - The Velvet Underground, Nico
8. Heroin - The Velvet Underground, Nico
9. There She Goes Again - The Velvet Underground, Nico
10. I'll Be Your Mirror - The Velvet Underground, Nico
11. Black Angel's Death Song - The Velvet Underground, Nico
12. European Son - The Velvet Underground, Nico
13. Melody Laughter
14. It Was A Pleasure Then - Nico
15. Chelsea Girls - Nico

Disc 3:

1. There Is No Reason
2. Sheltered Life
3. It's All Right (The Way That You Live)
4. I'm Not Too Sorry (Now That You're Gone)
5. Here She Comes Now
6. Guess I'm Falling In Love
7. Booker T.
8. White Light/White Heat
9. The Gift
10. Lady Godiva's Operation
11. Here She Comes Now
12. I Heard Her Call My Name
13. Sister Ray
14. Stephanie Says
15. Temptation Inside Your Heart
16. Hey Mr. Rain

Disc 4:

1. What Goes On
2. Candy Says
3. What Goes On
4. Some Kinda Love
5. Pale Blue Eyes
6. Jesus
7. Beginning To See The Light
8. I'm Set Free
9. That's The Story Of My Life
10. The Murder Mystery
11. After Hours
12. Foggy Notion
13. I Can't Stand It
14. I'm Sticking With You
15. One Of These Days
16. Lisa Says
17. It's Just Too Much
18. Countess From Hong Kong

Disc 5:

1. Who Loves The Sun
2. Sweet Jane
3. Rock And Roll
4. Cool It Down
5. New Age
6. Head Held High
7. Lonesome Cowboy Bill
8. I Found A Reason
9. Train Round The Bend
10. Oh! Sweet Nuthin'
11. Satellite Of Love
12. Walk And Talk
13. Oh Gin
14. Sad Song
15. Ocean
16. Ride Into The Sun
17. Some Kinda Love
18. I'll Be Your Mirror
19. I Love You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7241 in Music
• Released on: 1995-10-02
• Number of discs: 5
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: 1.92 pounds
• Running time: 380 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This comprehensive five-disc retrospective of the Velvet Underground chronicles the band from its earliest demo tapes, recorded in 1965, to Lou Reed's final work with band, in 1970. At their notorious peak, Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker epitomised the sound of intellectual art punks being spontaneously creative in Andy Warhol's Manhattan. Rock & roll has never been the same since Reed's gutter-rock observations and Cale's cool, droning electric viola blanketing the band's mysterious three-chord innovations. It's all here: loads of feedback, classic songwriting, and Reed's transformation from Dylan imitator to sonic-rock auteur. With previously unreleased gems, live performances and other oddities, this is everything you wanted to know about the Velvets but were afraid to ask. --Mitch Myers

CD Description
Released some thirty years after the band first emerged from the streets of New York City, PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE is the definitive documentary of the Velvet Underground, undeniably one of the most influential bands of the 1960s. Its five discs weave in and out of studio material, live nuggets and some unreleased songs that place the band's innovations and evolution within a career-long context, and are sure to make even the surliest VU completist smile.
Perhaps what is mostsurprising about PEEL SLOWLY is the earliest, pre-Maureen Tucker material. For the multiple demos of "Venus In Furs", John Cale sings over a sparse acoustic guitar, but his delicate pronunciation and Reed's coarse phrasing are less noticeable than Tucker's conspicious absence. Without her deliberate pounding VU was a thoroughly different band. Also of interest is the insight we get into Reed's studio demeanor. Through a number of excrutiating demo takes of "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams", Reed's impatience and domineering attitude become obvious--it was his show from the beginning.
By the second disc, the band we know and love begins to take on a familiar shape. Tucker's human metronome qualities ricochet off Cale's grating electric viola sounds, and the band sounds super-charged, ready to take on the world. Whereas on the demos Reed's sing-song qualities came across as a New York-y Bob Dylan (complete with harmonica), by the time of the firstalbum Reed is all menace, with no acoustic guitar or harmonica to serve as a buffer. The chugging rhythms spurt out like strangled blues, and on moments like "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "Venus In Furs", the remastered sound quality is unreal--it's as if one has never heard these songs before. Alsoof interest to Velvet Underground fanatics are the unabridged versions of the LOADED sessions. Songs like "Sweet Jane" are extended to their true length (some thirty seconds were lobbed off in the final mix), making Reed and Morrison's guitar phrasing that much more eloquent.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant but a bit superfluous for fans
This should really have two star ratings - one for existing Velvets fans who have all their albums and are just after the bonus stuff (*** - docked a star for having to buy all their albums again) and one for the Velvets virgin who reckons it's time they got all their records and why not get 'em all at once (*****).

The contents include...
their original albums:
The Velvet Underground & Nico*****
White Light/White Heat*****
The Velvet Underground (3rd album)***** (in the otherwise currently unavailable "Closet Mix" which features a completely different take of "Some Kinda Love")
Loaded*** (people who claim this is their best album are not serious Velvet Underground fans, but it has some great moments and is still essential)

Plus: a whole CD of very early demos from 1965 which is interesting to the serious devotee - once or twice - but rapidly becomes tedious due to the multiple takes of each song. The best take of each would have been adequate.**
and dotted through the remaining 4 CDs, a whole bunch of live tracks, demos and out-takes, mostly previously issued on posthumous albums or bootlegs (completists note: the two 1980s albums of additional studio material, VU and Another View, are not here in their entirety) but overall the additional material is obviously the only reason for a Velvets fan to buy this box, and it is mostly good to superb.****

So very little wrong with the contents (apart from the 1965 demos, which I guarantee you won't play a third time) but most serious Velvets fans would only need about 40% of this, making it a rather big investment despite the nice box (peelable banana) and excellent booklet.

The awesome beauty of rock
Astonishing in its diversity, this influential album appeared like a supernova and endures as a classic because of the quality of the songs. With the exception of the discordant Black Angel's Death Song and to a lesser extent European Son, a lovely melody line underpins every song.

This is especially evident on the melancholic Sunday Morning, the resigned Femme Fatale and the yearning All Tomorrow's Parties, but by no means lacking on more confrontational tracks like Venus In Furs or Heroin.

I'll Be Your Mirror has the same folky feel as Sunday Morning, while the roughness of Black Angel and European Son (the latter dedicated to poet Delmore Schwarts, one of Reed's heroes) has become more digestible as the mainstream has caught up with this pioneering work.

The voice of Nico, the archetypical Teutonic Blonde, adds a strange and eerie dimension to the album as a whole. These songs have often been covered; to name just a few of my favorite interpretations: Sunday Morning by OMD, Waiting For The Man by John Cale and Nico on various of their solo albums, Femme Fatale by Propaganda, All Tomorrow's Parties by June Tabor, There She Goes Again by REM.

The legacy of the VU, and of this album in particular, may be observed in the beautiful sonic sojourns of bands like inter alia Mercury Rev, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, Suicide and Swans. The "Banana" album remains a monument to the fierce spirit of rock 'n roll.

The ultimate box set
The first album by the velvet underground remains the greatest rock record of all time still sounding fresh today.

This box Set, sets out to portray the recording career of the Velvets and does so brilliantly collecting all the original albums.that this group remained primarily an underground group during there recording lifetime remains one of the great rock n roll mysteries.

anybody interested in guitar driven music from the Beatles to the Jesus and Mary Chain should buy this now.A classic (Mark Allen 8/01)