#moe tucker

[davidhudson]

Lou Reed, March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013.

Gerard Malanga, A rare smiling shot of Lou Reed with members of the Velvet Underground at the Castle, the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, 1966.

[jt1674]

[pixiedeadbeat]

The Velvet Underground, 1967

[sk8rambler]

and happy OTHER late birthdays to both george and doug <33

[my-favorite-axe]

[legendarytragedynacho]

The Factory days

On Couch L to R: Gerard Malanga, Nico, Donovan, Barbara Rubin. Behind couch L to R: John Cale, Danny Williams, Sterling Morrison, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Moe Tucker and someone behind Lou and Andy

Photo by Nat Finkelstein

Source: Barbara Rubin Film IG

[wildeyed-freecloud]

[das-lied-von-der-erde]

I finally watched the Velvet Underground documentary. Here is my artistic rendition of the time Sterling had to get kicked out of the studio because he could not stop laughing at Moe’s singing.

[holdoncallfailed]

"[Lou] was a good friend through everything. We had this brother-sister type relationship in the group, and it lasted long after the group split. We would always exchange Christmas cards, Valentine cards. It was one of those friendships where it didn't matter if you didn't see each other a lot. We'd meet up after two years or five years and it would be like we'd seen each other last week. As you get older, you come to realize that that kind of friendship is rare, so I miss him a hell of a lot. It's just dawning on me that he's not out there anymore...Now Andy's gone, Sterling's gone, Nico's gone and Lou's gone. It feels strange. I miss them all, but I really miss Lou. He was a great songwriter who pushed the boundaries in terms of what he was writing about, but more importantly, he was a good and loyal friend. It doesn't seem right that I won't be sending him a Christmas card." (via)

photos: lou reed & maureen "moe" tucker (& sterling morrison & doug yule), late 1960s.

correspondence from tucker to reed: undated valentine's day card + fax sent on january 1, 1996, referencing reed's obituary for sterling morrison, which had been published the day before in the new york times magazine.

[guerrilla-operator]

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. MAY 1969.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

The Modern Lovers - Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, February 23, 1974

The end of the Original Modern Lovers? This might've been the band's final official gig — thanks to Jesse J for passing along a recently surfaced tape. Jesse calls the recording's quality "atrocious," and he's not wrong (though it's as much the fault of the venue's cavernous acoustics as it is the tape's). Whatever, atrocious quality audience recordings are what Doom & Gloom is all about, am I right? So adjust your ears and take a trip back to a bitter New England winter just about 50 years ago.

Historic/interesting stuff! The set sees the Modern Lovers attempting to bring together their older, more VU-inspired material with the quieter, more innocent songs that Jonathan Richman was writing. There are tunes that will certainly be familiar — "Roadrunner," "Government Center," "Pablo Picasso," etc. And then there are several strong songs that — as far as I know — don't appear anywhere else in the Modern Lovers' discography (officially or unofficially). And hey, it all works pretty well; in some alternate universe, the band might've been able to reconcile their two sides and finally record a proper debut LP. It was not to be, alas — soon, Jerry Harrison would head back to Harvard to get his master's degree in architecture. And today, he is renowned as one of the world's greatest architects ... right???

Of course, we have to note the truly bonkers lineup — a heretofore unknown alignment with the Velevet (sic) Underground and George Thorogood galaxies. Though if the description below is correct (though the source says the date was Valentine's Day), Moe Tucker didn't even get to play because of George. That's truly b-b-b-b-bad. But, as Jesse pointed out, Jonathan and Moe did make it into the studio a few days later to record their charming rendition of the VU's "I'm Sticking With You." Was Moe's band really called the Bloody Virgins?! Hmmm, further investigation is warranted.

An eyewitness account? Although the Modern Lovers broke up in 1973, they reformed in '74 (maybe late '73) with a different drummer but that didn't last long because the drummer hated Jonathan. They did at least one concert: Valentine's Day 1974. I was there early with Jonathan so I got to see all the sound checks for all three bands. Unfortunately, the idiot promoters let the mediocre opening band, George Thoroughlynogood and the Delaware Destroyers, play for one hour and 45 minutes. They should have had 25 minutes max. Thus, the Modern Lovers could only play one hour. And the second band couldn't play at all, which is very unfortunate, as it was Mo Tucker's excellent (and totally unknown) all-girl band the Bloody Virgins (but me and Jonathan got to watch their excellent 25-minute sound check). Seven or either years ago, an internet music forum was discussing Mo, and I talked about seeing that band. A noted music critic (and friend of Mo) was pissed off and said that Mo never had any such band and that I was a liar. Luckily, I still had the concert ad and uploaded a photo of it to the forum.

Ernie Brooks: At one of the last gigs we did, when we played “Roadrunner,” we still didn’t have a record out, but that was always a catchy song, and we actually got some applause—and then Jonathan said, “People like that song too much; I don’t think we should do it anymore….” I think it was just part of Jonathan’s natural inclination that when things seemed to be going well—to go against it. He was very contrary. He was very difficult. I mean, anybody who is on to something new has some element of being a contrarian, because they’re rejecting the status quo. They’re doing something in the way they’ve figured out how to do it—and they don’t want to hear something different, even if it could make things better. When Jonathan said, “I won’t play 'Roadrunner' anymore,” it was pretty much the classic case—you can’t really get any more contrarian than that.

[rolloroberson]

Velvet Underground

[jt1674]

[whiterabbitguitar]

Morning tunes 🎶

[higherentity]

[musickickztoo]

Moe Tucker *August 26, 1944