Waiting for my Man, The Velvet Underground

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I grew up listening to the Velvet Underground. I saw the core line up (Lou, John, Sterling and Mo) playing live in London in 1993 and it was the best gig of my life, I doubt it will ever be bettered.
A recent purchase of a rather cool fuzz pedal inspired me to attempt to cover one of their iconic songs. Waiting for the Man is a song about a man’s search for drugs. In the words of Lou ‘It’s not an endorsement; it’s just a song”.

I’ve been threatening to do a multi-instrument AVOYP for ages and finally got around to it. I used Garageband for the drums and midi keyboards (which I programmed), the rest is just me and guitars. Thanks to @twistor59 who has better ears than me and helped me transcribe some of the discordant piano at the end.

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Fantastico Paul! That looks and sounds so cool :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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thats was real cool

Im not a fan of the velvet but it sounded great

awesome job on the video
Mixing all together must have been tough

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Hi Paul… you did an amazing job!!! It’s really cool…I hope you feel very proud of yourself for this! My compliments Sir :slightly_smiling_face:

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Fantastic cover, Paul. I enjoyed it a lot. It must have been a lot of work to record and mix everything together. I also love the high-contrast minimalist video; it fits great with the song. I would probably set the vocals a bit louder. That would be the only small suggestion, all else is perfect.

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Cool band, cool song. Great cover.

:sign_of_the_horns:t2:

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Hi Paul, really cool. Video and audio. Never really took to Velvet Underground, which maybe is surprising because I’m a big fan of Lou Reed. You’ve focused my attention on them and I’ll try to take in some of their work.

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Paul

A superb job. The guitar has an insistent rhythm contrasting with the, at times, seemingly blase lyric. Very enjoyable.

Brian

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Great work Paul. Great sound, well done with pulling all that together and really cool video it really fits the bill mate, great work :clap::clap::clap:

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Cheers Phil. Thanks for transcribing help too!

Thanks for the listen & kind words Deborah. It was a labour of love!

Cheers Silvia - it was fun and frustration in equal measure :slight_smile:

Thanks Boris - Vocals are the thing I’m least confident with, so there’s a natural tendency to lower them in the mix :rofl:

Well, I’ve got to agree on points one and two, and thanks for the third Jason!

Thanks for the listen and kind words John. I saw Lou solo twice as well as the VU gig - also a big fan. However the VU were just awesome. I love the Brian Eno quote “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band” .

Cheers Brian! Yes, the VU can be quote hypnotic at times, very varied output though, and so inspirational for me.

Thanks Craig, I appreciate that - took a while to get it all together!

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Nice one Paul, have not heard this in ages. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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Wow, Paul, what a fantastic job. All instruments and a vocal that fits really well. A kind of deadpan speaky world-weary matter-of-factness vibe. Bravo.
I did listen to the Velvet Underground. Back in the day I had a C90 cassette tape with their first two albums, one per side. The Velvet Underground & Nico plus White Light / White Heat.
They were punk and urgent and raw and more and I loved it. My introduction was the non-typical story-song The Gift, played to me by my older sister when I was a wee teen.

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And it was worth the wait! Very well done, Paul.

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Hi Paul,
That was cool :smiling_face_with_sunglasses: :clap: and the video is mega cool :smiling_face_with_sunglasses::grin: :smiling_face_with_sunglasses: :black_heart:
:man_bowing:
Greetings

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Hi Paul,

Like me a bit of the VU.
Very cool cover. Totally nail the vibe.
Not sure if there’s something wrong with my speakers but i was only getting vocals in the left speaker. Was that deliberate (if indeed it’s not my speakers playing tricks on me?)

Digger

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That’s almost (!) my favourite Velvet Underground song. I grew up listening to VU because I was heavily into punk in the UK in the 70’s as a teenager and VU had such a big influence on the punk music scene. Sweet Jane has to be the best though. In fact, I might see if I can learn it. :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

Fantastic cover and great video too. Really enjoyed it. Thanks @mathsjunky so much. Made my day!

Best, Ian

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Oh, yeah, Lou Reed. One of the sounds of my youth; and a vastly different lifestyle :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:
Great guitar work Paul; and you’ve got the perfect voice for a Lou Reed cover.

Coincidentally, I’m about to record and upload another of his classics, so your post timely. Stay tuned.

Cheers, Shane

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Super stuff Paul. Great work on all the elements, instruments, sound and video production. No need to feel less confident about your vocal!
You certainly captured the raw, punk vibe of the song. Very well done.

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Cheers Mal!

Thanks for the kind words Richard - The Gift is a great song … you could get nightmares from that one as a a kid :slight_smile:

Thanks James!

Thanks Roger!

Thanks for the kind words Stephen - nothing wrong with your speakers. Not exactly deliberate, but I knew that was the case and meant to fix it … but didn’t :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the listen & kind works Ian. Sweet Jane is a great song too. Here’s most of a live version I did of that at a workshop a couple of years ago with some dodgy bass player :slight_smile:

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