The Velvet Underground

Volume 2 of this live set starts off with an eleven-minute version of "Ocean" that explains why so many hopeless geeks ever picked up a guitar. The song stays away from histrionics, flowing like its namesake over Mo Tucker's crashing cymbals and Reed's barking narrative. It's raw, epic and beautiful and it's only the first song on this collection.

It's nice to have a decent-sounding live record of the legend, especially one that adds a few new songs--notably "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together"--and choruses to the canon. This is a more impressive testimonial to Lou Reed than any of his solo LPs. And if it's not as essential as any of the four studio albums, it does provide an overview of the band's music: deadpan, demotic, jaded, oddly sensationalistic, primitive both harmonically and rhythmically and all but devoid of flourishes, always hard-edged and usually quick, never slow and heavy at the same time. (Grade - A-)