Quick! Your old friends from college are coming over any minute. They all majored in either Accounting, Business, or Nursing, and so they all have real jobs now (you majored in Art History and work part-time in a used book store that your Alderman is constantly threatening to shut down), and they spend their time and money on things that sound... well, “awfully foreign” to you, like “yo-ga,” and “sa-shi-mi,” and something called “health in-sur-ance.” You’ve got nothing to show for yourself. Shit, they’re gonna be here any second. Why did you ever agree to this? You need a status symbol. You need some upper-hand... some cool... some cred... something that says “yeah, I’m into stuff too"... something rare and arcane and abstruse and impenetrable that can effortlessly connote your intellectual, artistic, and cultural superiority. Argg! If only you had some kind of, I don’t know, internet-exclusive The Velvet Underground Singles 1966-69 7 x 7” Vinyl “Rare Mono” Box Set! That’d hit the spot nicely.
Well, you’re in luck, friend. Sundazed Music, on-line purveyor of all things sunny and crackly and reverberant and vintage, is set to release just such a rarified box set from The Velvets on September 15, and is currently taking pre-orders! This dreamy, steamy singles box, honoring those druggie, lovable “New York Beatles” will neatly compile their 7-inch vinyl output in, yum, rare mono versions (Score! Your friends probably don’t even know what "mono" is!). The set features exact reproductions of your favorite VU singles, packaged in a distinctively designed box (naturally), along with rare “vintage” photos and some brand-ass-new liner notes by Rolling Stone's David Fricke (who also penned the acclaimed notes for that other, now toooootally obsolete 1995 Velvets CD box set Peel Slowly and See. Eww, “CDs”...).
The seven singles included in The Velvet Underground Singles 1966–69 comprise the four singles originally released in the U.S. on the Verve and MGM labels, plus an additional pair of singles that were prepared for release but got sidetracked on their way to market and ended up buying some magic beans instead. There’s also a special radio-only promotional single. And these alternate mono versions promise to differ in “significant ways” from the songs' stereo album versions. And hey, at a totally reasonable $39.98 for the whole shebang, you can actually afford the thing, even with your... pathetic... bookstore... job... oh shit! A knock at the door! They’re here!
Complete tracklist:
1. All Tomorrow's Parties b/w I'll Be Your Mirror (Verve VK-10427)
2. Sunday Morning b/w Femme Fatale (Verve VK-10466)
3. White Light/White Heat b/w Here She Comes Now (Verve VK-10560)
4. White Light/White Heat b/w I Heard Her Call My Name (Cancelled single)
5. Temptation Inside Your Heart b/w Stephanie Says (Cancelled single)
6. What Goes On b/w Jesus (MGM K-14057)
7. VU Radio Spot b/w VU Radio Spot 2 (MGM VU-1)
