OFF : Velvet Underground

[Doug Pearson]

On Wed, 5 Sep 2001 15:56:34 -0400, John McIntyre <mcintyre at PA.MSU.EDU>
wrote:
>Doug Pearson wrote:
>> Do you mean the Dream Syndicate?  (Cale / Reed / Maclise & Lamonte Young)
>
>Oh my, we are confusing things.  Reed was not in the Dream Syndicate.
>Tony Conrad was.

Ack! Yes!  Thanks for catching that - can't believe I let that one slip ...
(at least this makes a convenient time to mention the album on which the
Faust rhythm section backs Tony Conrad on violin, probably one of the
closest things to the Dream Syndicate until the CD on Table of the Elements
briefly came out).  [And to try to minimize further confusion, this Dream
Syndicate is no relation to the 80's band whose amazing debut, 'Days of
Wine and Roses' was just reissed by Rhino, and whose original lead
guitarist wrote a song that BOC covered.]

>Cale wasn't writing songs for Pickwick like Lou was.  What happened
>was "Do the Ostrich" got some airplay so the label decided to put
>together a live band to milk their success.  Cale and Conrad were
>drafted at some party because they looked the part.

Time to dig out my back issues of 'What Goes On', I guess!  (It was my
understanding that Cale was hired by Pickwick because he had the
conservatory degree, that he & Reed met at the Pickwick offices, and that
both were writing AND recording there, albeit with Reed probably doing the
more of the former; of course, the only thing that can be positively
identified on those recordings is Lou's voice.  And I wasn't aware that
Tony Conrad was at all involved with the Pickwick stuff.)

>They were told not to worry
>about not knowing how to play guitar as all the strings would be tuned to
>the same note, which is what they were doing with their violas in the
>Dream Syndicate. (-8

Indeed!  (Actually, a violin rather than viola for Conrad, but it's not
like there's *that* much difference between the bowed things you stick
under your chin.)

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com