Live at Max's Kansas City

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Live at Max's Kansas City
Live album by The Velvet Underground

Publication
(s)

1972

Label (s) Cotillion Records
( Atlantic Records )

Format (s)

LP

Genre (s)

skirt

Title (number)

10/17 (CD Edition)

running time

38m21s

occupation

production

Geoff Haslam , The Velvet Underground
Recording: Brigid Polk

Studio (s)

Atlantic Recording Studios, New York City

chronology
Loaded
(1970) 		Live at Max's Kansas City Squeeze
(1973)

Live at Max's Kansas City is a live album by The Velvet Underground . The album was released on May 30, 1972 on "Cotillion Records", a sub-label of Atlantic Records , and is considered one of the first "official bootlegs " in rock history.

prehistory

In autumn 1969 The Velvet Underground had signed a two-record deal with Atlantic and initially produced the studio album Loaded , which was released a year later in September 1970. In the meantime, the band leader and songwriter Lou Reed had dropped out due to differences with the other band members and began his solo career. As a substitute Doug Yule took over the vocals and guitar parts in the band. The promotional tour for Loaded took the band through the USA and Canada . To secure the record deal for another album, the Velvets wrote and played new songs, with the intention of incorporating the material into the studio production. However, after the moderate chart success and the sluggish sale of Loaded, Atlantic no longer had any confidence in further commercial success of the group and decided to use archive material instead and terminate the contract with the band.

The album

The band recordings that would later become the album Live at Max's Kansas City were rather accidentally made by Brigid Polk , a collaborator and "superstar" of Andy Warhol , on a portable cassette recorder live at a concert on August 23, 1970 in the New Yorker Max’s Kansas City nightclub added. During their “Loaded Tour” the band played two sets in the nightclub that evening. Polk, who was doing tape recordings of everything and everyone at the time, recorded this last concert with Lou Reed as the band leader of Velvet Underground, recording both of the evening's live performances. Later, A&R sound engineer Danny Fields listened to the tapes and suggested them to his supervisor at the time at Atlantic as possible live material. The tapes initially disappeared in the archive until the decision was made in 1972 to produce a rather half-hearted live album from the technically inadequate material.

The first release of Live at Max's Kansas City from 1972 is a combination of both sets. Lou Reed and Atlantic producer Geoff Haslam made a subjective selection and remixed the material in an order that only showed the loud and the quieter pieces. It was not until August 2004 that Rhino Records , a sub-label of the Warner Music Group responsible for new editions , released a "2-CD DeLuxe Edition" which contains all the band material in its original order as it was created that evening with all the nuances in between.

Due to the poor sound quality of Live at Max's Kansas City , the album is often referred to as "the first legitimate bootleg". The recordings were made with a simple mono tape recorder on cheap ferrite (Fe 2 O 3 ) cassettes. The Max's Kansas City was a small venue and so the babble of voices of the tightly packed crowd can be found on rustling band material, so that the background noise mostly drowns out the actual music of the Velvets. The cult status and charm of the recording is less in the music itself than in the authenticity as a sound document, which reflects the "feeling" of the Velvet Underground club appearances at the time and transports the listener directly back to the concert.

The recording

During the performance, the Velvets - despite Reed's threatened exit - were in an exceptionally good mood. The recording features dynamic versions of the band's faster and rockier pieces alongside the more emotional slower songs, which are sometimes drowned out in the game by 16-year-old drummer Billy Yule , who replaced the pregnant Maureen Tucker . You can hear Lou Reed joking with the audience and the voice of the author Jim Carroll , who was standing next to Brigid Polk that evening and talking to her about drugs during the breaks.

Track list

Live at Max's Kansas City

Cotillion SD 9500 (mono), May 30, 1972

All songs were written by Lou Reed and arranged by The Velvet Underground.
Sunday Morning was written by Lou Reed and John Cale.

page 1

  1. I'm waiting for the man
  2. Sweet Jane
  3. Lonesome Cowboy Bill
  4. Beginning to See the Light

Page 2

  1. I'll be your mirror
  2. Pale blue eyes
  3. Sunday morning
  4. New Age
  5. Femme Fatale
  6. After hours

Live at Max's Kansas City - 2CD Deluxe Edition

2CD, Atlantic Rhino 8122-78093-2, August 3, 2004

CD 1

  1. I'm waiting for the man
  2. White light / white heat
  3. I'm Set Free
  4. Sweet Jane
  5. Lonesome Cowboy Bill
  6. New Age
  7. Beginning to See the Light

CD 2

  1. Who Loves the Sun (incomplete)
  2. Sweet Jane
  3. I'll be your mirror
  4. Pale blue eyes
  5. Candy says
  6. Sunday morning
  7. After hours
  8. Femme Fatale
  9. Some Kinda Love
  10. Lonesome Cowboy Bill
The Velvet Underground
Studio albums

The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) • White Light / White Heat (1968) • The Velvet Underground (1969) • Loaded (1970) • Squeeze (1973)

Live albums

Live at Max's Kansas City (1972) • 1969: The Velvet Underground Live (1974) • Live MCMXCIII (1993) • Final VU 1971–1973 (2001) • The Quine Tapes (2001) • The Complete Matrix Tapes (2015)

Singles

All Tomorrow's Parties (1966) • Sunday Morning (1966) • White Light / White Heat (1967) • What Goes On (1969) • Who Loves The Sun (1971) • Head Held High (1971) • I'm Waiting for the Man (1973) • Sweet Jane (1973) • Venus in Furs (1988) • Venus in Furs (Live) (1994) • Foggy Notion (2011)