These were pre-VU songs Reed knocked off as a jobbing songwriter at Pickwick which appeared under various names (The Primitives, Beachnuts and Roughnecks respectively, Sneaky Pete the flipside of The Ostrich).Īt a stretch however we might allow The Ostrich to almost pass muster here because when the label wanted a group to tour the garageband sound of The Ostrich (a Reed parody of dance crazes, “I was stoned. VU fans will recognise some of the titles: The Ostrich, Sneaky Pete, Cycle Annie, You're Driving Me Insane (as with the first two given added excitement by the sound of studio whoops and party noises). It also suggests it is Volume 1 but where they might go after this bottom-trawl is debatable. My copy – white label, blue wash coloured vinyl – says it is on Plastic Inevitable Records 1979 (it was, but my copy is obviously much later than that). So what does all this have to do with the album in hand, Etc?Ībout as much as Etc has to do with Velvet Underground as we know and understand them. When they toured Tucker came back and the band was filled out by a couple of Yule's friends from his former band. By that time Reed too had left so it was late-comer Yule who pretty much did it all by himself. No one seriously considers Squeeze of '73 to be a VU album although it came out under that name. Loaded saw the group on record down to half their original number. Hardcore purists baulk a little at their self-titled album of '69 when Doug Yule replaced Cale and cool even further for Loaded which credited Tucker but who was actually absent for the sessions. Most rock people would say VU were Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker who in '67 released that Warhol banana cover album (with Nico), and White Light/White Heat the following year. There are plenty of albums of very dodgy provenance (live and studio bootlegs, outtakes never intended to see the light and so on) but few misrepresent themselves quite as much as this one which, any passing civilian might rightly think was the Velvet Underground.
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