The Velvet Underground-VU (1985)

Artist: The Velvet Underground

Title: VU

Label: Verve Records

Format: LP 

Cat #: 823 721-1 Y-1

Year of Release: 1985

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1985 HRM Pressing

Sold Price: $24.99

Listed Condition: VG+/VG

Sell Date: 9/28/20

Discogs Last Sold: 8/12/20

Low: $7.00

Median: $25.00

High: $60.00 NM/NM 5/9/20

Current low price: $21.99 NM/VG

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 18

Have/Want: 1683/543

Where Sold: Evans, CO

Time it took to sell: 4 years

Where and When Bought: Worcester, MA, That's Entertainment $2.99 Used circa 1986

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go?: No

When this came out in 1985, Verve was doing a Velvet Underground reissue series, first on vinyl then the CD's began to come out by 1987.  In the case of VU, this got quite a bit of critical acclaim upon release.  These were considered holy grail 1969 recordings between the third album and Loaded, that went unreleased until the mid-80's reissue campaign.  Most of these are indeed classics.  The album itself was obliterated in relevance by the Peel Slowly and See CD Box set a decade later.  

Although these songs made it into my brain upon relisten, I have to say I spun VU very little upon purchase.  I seem to remember Another View was a less revered new release at WICN but the station didn't have a copy of VU, so I would bring this one every once in a blue moon.  In the mid-80's original Velvets vinyl was very hard to come by but the reissues rendered that moot for a low-end used buyer like me.  I bought the reissue Velvet Underground & Nico on vinyl, the station only had White Light/White Heat from the original era, I bought that and the 3rd album on CD when they were first issued in that format, but a used copy of VU bought when it was fairly new was good enough for me until the Peel Slowly and See CD box came out in the mid-90's rendering what I had redundant.

This is classic music and almost every song on VU is a "hit" to me.  There were a couple that somehow got ignored over time like "Andy's Chest" and "One Of These Days" and a couple songs where other versions reign in my memory banks, but something like this is almost impossible to have an intelligent review.  For me The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground and Loaded are A+ records and White Light/White Heat are A's.  The box is an A.  Quite simply this is one of the greatest cannons in all of music, superior to almost any of Reed or Cale's solo records and nobody can tell me otherwise without my eyes glazing over in boredom.  In my mind it transcends discussion and even these sentences I'm typing on the topic are filler blather.  And so,  I will end this part of the discussion.

As for the value, I got $25 for this and someone else got $60 for a near mint copy half a year ago, but that seems to be an aberration.  My cover was slightly dinged dropping it to VG although the vinyl was a super clean play.  I bet it was played 3 times in the last 25 years: once by the original owner, once by me upon buying it used and once today, which maybe a few spins on the radio in the mid 80's.   I seem to remember this being a discount mid-line priced record upon release, and I'm guessing I paid $2.99 for it at That's Entertainment. in Worcester, which was the baseline used price for a top shape common in-print record.