The Velvet Underground – Now Playing

The Velvet Underground’s “Now Playing” LP includes 10 seminal tracks from across the artists catalog. Few rock groups can claim to have broken so much new territory, and maintain such consistent brilliance on record, as the Velvet Underground during their brief lifespan. The mid – to late ’60s was an era of explosive growth and experimentation in rock, but the Velvets’ innovations – which blended the energy of rock with the sonic adventurism of the avant-garde, and introduced a new degree of social realism and sexual kinkiness into rock lyrics – were too abrasive for the mainstream to handle. During their time, the group experienced little commercial success; though they were hugely appreciated by a cult audience and some critics, the larger public treated them with indifference or, occasionally, scorn. The Velvets’ music was too important to languish in obscurity, though; their cult only grew larger and larger in the years following their demise, and continued to mushroom through the years. By the 1980s, they were acknowledged not just as one of the most important rock bands of the ’60s, but one of the best of all time, and one whose immense significance cannot be measured by their relatively modest sales.

01. SWEET JANE (FULL-LENTH VERSION) 02. ROCK & ROLL (FULL-LENTH VERSION) 03. WHO LOVES THE SUN 04. OH! SWEET NUTHIN’ 05. I FOUND A REASON 06. I’M WAITING FOR THE MAN (LIVE AT MAX’S KANSAS CITY, 8/23/70) 07. FEMME FATALE (LIVE AT MAX’S KANSAS CITY, 8/23/70) 08. I’LL BE YOUR MIRROR (LIVE AT MAX’S KANSAS CITY, 8/23/70) 09. OCEAN 10. I’M STICKING WITH YOU