VELVET UNDERGROUND MOVIE
Directed by Todd Haynes
October 15th Apple TV and elsewhere
The Velvet Underground are the ones, the ones that made the music that flew straight into the face of convention, the ones that inspired so much, the ones that spawned so many others. Y’all know that, right? The numerous bands known, unknown and yet to be known that picked up, and began maybe by bashing, because of them; the artists, the filmmakers drawn in because of them, the designers, the writers set free by Lou Reed…
Few bands have meant so much to me.
And now, here comes Todd Haynes’ Velvet Underground movie, the public performance details following its Cannes Festival bow, were announced by Apple this week. It’s an exciting thing and maybe there’s no one better to help this happen than Todd Haynes. In the past Haynes has taken the very familiar- Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story; I’m Not There (Dylan); Velvet Goldmine (unsure what that’s about...) amongst many more dramas and documentary-drams and scratched and scratched at that until something entirely new comes into view for even the biggest fan. At last, Another View, perhaps.
Velvet Underground features the voice of Lou and new interviews with original Velvets, John Cale and Mo Tucker, you'll spot Ginsberg and Andy in the trailer of course, Andy, and also Jonathan Richman whom I met once at a Long Beach bowling alley and began to tell him ALL about seeing him on Top of the Pops, decades prior - as he very politely backed slowly away, stalker alert written in his eyes. Then he opened his set with what I had mentioned were my three favorite Jonathan Richman songs. Incredible.
Anyway, in the end ultimately for me, there is only one underground. It is the Velvet Underground.
