Notes

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Velvet Underground

LA CAVE 1968 / PROBLEMS IN URBAN LIVING

La Cave, Cleveland, Ohio
early October 1968

1. Move Right In
2. I Can't Stand It
3. What Goes On (officially released, not included)
4. Waiting For The Man
5. Pale Blue Eyes
6. Foggy Notion
7. Heroin
8. Jesus
9. Venus In Furs
10. Beginning To See The Light
11. Sister Ray
12. Story Of My Life

Track 3 is not included here because it is an official release (track 1 of disc 4 of "Peel Slowly and See"). I'm not certain of the actual date of this show--I've seen it dated as both October 2nd and 4th, 1968.

This is a good VU audience recording from 1968. It is very listenable, and the performance is excellent.

"In the period of April '67 to Mar '69 the Velvets played Cleveland 7 times. After an appearance with the Exploding Plastic Inevitable at Public Hall, they returned 5 times to play a basement club called La Cave, situated between a ghetto and the Cleveland Orchestra's home, Severance Hall. Located beneath the local social security offices, the former coffee house was virtually the only place during that period in which the band could play, the only other options being the Music Hall, a 3,000 seat auditorium, and the 10,000 seat Public Hall which was more suited to circuses and expositions. La Cave's dimensions were 60'x125' with a seating capacity of 250-300. The club would generally book rock bands to play Fri-Sat, two shows a night with an occasional 3:00 Sunday afternoon show. For the mere sum of $3.50 entrance was gained to a dimly lit rectangle with burlap and church pews covering one long wall, the stage on the other, and tables in between. The PA was Voice Of the Theaters powered by a low tech amp and mixed by a rudimentary board. The stage was a platform 10 inch high with barely enough room for the Velvets stage gear, which was comprised at first of double cabinet Vox amps, later changed to Acoustic amps. The drums had to be put on Lou's right, on the floor next to the PA cabinet. On Oct 4, 1968 the VU came in for another 3 day stand. With Cale being given the boot in late August, this marks Yule's first public appearance with the band, and Reed rose magnificently to the occasion with marvelous guitarwork and much more forceful vocals than had been his wont. Sterling put the finishing touches on his bid for the title of the worlds greatest rhythm guitarist."
The three following tracks come from the Live '68 bootleg album. This album was recorded at La Cave on October 4, 1968 on a mono Norelco cassette recorder using a hand held mike and a Norelco C-120 cassette.

October '68 La Cave Tapes:

"October 2, 1968" aka "Early show"

Tape: aud, B, 65 mins. Though the date is inaccurate this recording is usually listed as 2/10/68 - it circulates also sometimes as "October 21, 1968"... Pale Blue Eyes has false start so that Lou's mic can be turned up. Sources: Live '68 LP (1, 4), Problems In Urban Living CD (1-9), Peel Slowly And See 5CD (1), Searchin' For My Mainline 3LP and 3 CD (2).