The Complete Matrix Tapes

The Complete Matrix Tapes is a live album by the New York City-based experimental rock band the Velvet Underground, released on November 20, 2015. It features unexpurgated recordings of the band's two-night stint on November 26 and 27, 1969, at San Francisco club The Matrix, owned and operated by Jefferson Airplane's Marty Balin. The band's appearance represents one of the rare occasions on which the Velvet Underground was professionally recorded in a live setting, and while several of the performances in this set have been released in various fashions and configurations before (in particular, on the album 1969: The Velvet Underground Live and the 45th anniversary reissue of The Velvet Underground, as well as via much lower-quality audience recordings in Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes), it is the first time all of them have been collected together. Additionally, this represents the first time much of this material has been presented in a CD version sourced directly from the original tapes, which had been considered lost for decades, and nine tracks from this collection had previously been completely unreleased in any configuration. The resulting product has been widely praised both for its sound quality and for the power of its performances.^[1][2][3]

Several of the songs on this set, such as "Over You", "Sweet Bonnie Brown", and "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together", still have not been released as studio recordings by the band, and it is not known whether the band ever recorded them in the studio. Others, such as "Lisa Says", "New Age", and "I'm Waiting for the Man", feature significantly different or expanded lyrics from their studio counterparts, and many of them are substantially longer than their studio counterparts (in particular, "Sister Ray" is very nearly twenty minutes longer than its studio version, while "Ocean", "I'm Waiting for the Man", and "White Light/White Heat" are also presented in significantly expanded performances).

Track listing

Disc 1:

1. I'm Waiting for the Man (version 1) - 13:07
2. What Goes On (version 1) - 8:53
3. Some Kinda Love (version 1) - 4:58
4. Heroin (version 1) - 8:07
5. The Black Angel's Death Song - 6:19
6. Venus in Furs (version 1) - 4:37
7. There She Goes Again (version 1) - 3:13
8. We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together (version 1) - 3:20
9. Over You (version 1) - 2:23
10. Sweet Jane (version 1) - 5:11
11. Pale Blue Eyes - 6:05
12. After Hours (version 1) - 2:56

Disc 2:

1. I'm Waiting for the Man (version 2) - 6:33
2. Venus in Furs (version 2) - 5:11
3. Some Kinda Love (version 2) - 4:04
4. Over You (version 2) - 3:02
5. I Can't Stand It (version 1) - 7:54
6. There She Goes Again (version 2) - 2:50
7. After Hours (version 2) - 2:30
8. We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together (version 2) - 3:40
9. Sweet Bonnie Brown/Too Much - 7:50
10. Heroin (version 2) - 10:05
11. White Light/White Heat (version 1) - 9:27
12. I'm Set Free - 4:46

Disc 3:

1. We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together (version 3) - 3:15
2. Some Kinda Love (version 3) - 4:38
3. There She Goes Again (version 3) - 2:59
4. Heroin (version 3) - 8:27
5. Ocean - 10:59
6. Sister Ray - 36:54

Disc 4:

1. I'm Waiting for the Man (version 3) - 5:30
2. What Goes On (version 2) - 4:31
3. Some Kinda Love (version 4) - 4:03
4. We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together (version 4) - 3:24
5. Beginning to See the Light - 5:30
6. Lisa Says - 5:59
7. New Age - 6:28
8. Rock and Roll - 6:54
9. I Can't Stand It (version 2) - 6:52
10. Heroin (version 4) - 8:17
11. White Light/White Heat (version 2) - 8:42
12. Sweet Jane (version 2) - 4:19

Total length: 4:34:42

Band personnel

• Lou Reed: lead and backing vocals, guitar
• Sterling Morrison: guitar, backing vocals
• Doug Yule: lead and backing vocals, bass, organ
• Maureen Tucker: lead and backing vocals, drums, percussion

References

1. Pitchfork review
2. Rolling Stone review
3. Allmusic review