Talk:Sister Ray

Sweet Sister Ray

I removed the following from the article, and bring it here for discussion:

Before live versions of Sister Ray, The Velvet Underground would often play an extended jam session (which sometimes ran from 20-40 minutes) dubbed "Sweet Sister Ray." The song has not had an official release but one version of it, taped in 1968 at La Cave by Jaime Klimek, appears on numerous bootlegs. According to band members (and Mr. Klimek), this was apparently merely one of several permutations of "Sister Ray" performed at the time, the most infamous being the perhaps-taped but never-bootlegged "Sweet Rock and Roll".

Is there any basis in fact for this claim? If so, can we get a source and a rewrite so that this makes some sense? ---RepublicanJacobite_{The'FortyFive'} 18:03, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

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References to....

Had to track it down & listen to it because Jon Spencer sings "my father was.....Sister Ray!!" repeatedly in the Blues Explosion song "Full Grown".

71.201.69.192 (talk) 04:15, 16 July 2011 (UTC)JimKChicago

Brief audio sample

At one point, this article had like a 15 sec. audio sample. I think an audio sample should be re-added to the article as a short sample should not be a copyright violation and I also think an audio sample from the following live version should be included as it's such a great example of The guitar style of The Velvet Underground. This itself is an audio sample I made, and I'm suggesting a much shorter sample be made from it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4UXOR7QJJo — Preceding unsigned comment added by PA292 (talk • contribs) 21:48, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

The Stranger Article by Hannah Levin

In the introductory section there is a lengthy quote attributed to Hannah Levin's article "Journalists Are Foul Vermin A Special "Interview" with Lou Reed." In this article Levin creates an ideal interview with Lou Reed from an eclectic collection of sources which she does not specifically cite. Levin writes "So in lieu of an actual question-and-answer session, I've created my own interview, one where highlights from the past 30 years of brave Reed interrogations (i.e., real Reed answers taken from real publications and films) are quoted against the kinds of questions any fan would want to ask."

This is the included quotation from Levin's article: "'Sister Ray' was done as a joke—no, not as a joke—but it has eight characters in it and this guy gets killed and nobody does anything. It was built around this story that I wrote about this scene of total debauchery and decay. I like to think of ‘Sister Ray' as a transvestite smack dealer. The situation is a bunch of drag queens taking some sailors home with them, shooting up on smack and having this orgy when the police appear."

This is a great quote, but there is some question about the reliability of the source. Lou Reed may have indeed stated this; however, if it is going to be prominently featured at the top of the article, the source where Reed actually makes this statement should be cited instead. Unfortunately, Levin does not have a very informative bibliography, and finding the actual quote could prove to be a somewhat cumbersome task. Schmaupin (talk) 16:35, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

References

Hello Schmaupin, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your message. I wasn't aware that the quote came from such an "odd" source (there are lots of other things I'd like to call it, but I'm in a charitable mood). The author of the Stranger "interview" lists her sources at the bottom of the page. I'll see if I can track down some of them and identify what Reed said, when he said it, and source it appropriately. Thanks again. — Malik Shabazz ^Talk/_Stalk 03:52, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

The quote is from an interview with Reed from the 1970s or very early '80s. I found it, incomplete, in 1983's Uptight: The Velvet Underground Story, which included quotes from various interviews Reed and Cale had given over the years in which they had mentioned the Velvet Underground. (Morrison and, I believe Tucker and Yule, cooperated with the authors and gave them fresh interviews.) I found the entire quote in a 2009 book, Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell: The Dangerous Glitter of David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed. Neither book identifies the original source. — Malik Shabazz ^Talk/_Stalk 05:04, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Hello Malik Shabazz, thanks for your response. I spent a few hours myself looking for this quote. I found all of the same stuff that you did. It was quite frustrating that none of the authors took the time to draw up a proper citation for the primary source. It seems like something that Reed would have said, I am just skeptical because of the lack of proper citation across many sources.Schmaupin (talk) 19:01, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Joy Division cover

Why was my Joy Division cover section removed? They're an influential band, so notability shouldn't be an issue. If it was an issue with sourcing, then there are ways of handling that without deleting the entire section RocketsFallOnRocketFalls (talk) 07:10, 11 July 2021 (UTC) Disregard section, JD cover readded with proper sourcing/notability requirements RocketsFallOnRocketFalls (talk) 03:36, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Dubious claim about Ray Davies and song title

I removed the sentence and reference pasted below. I am unable to check the source as the episode is not available online, but given the long public feud between Tom Robinson and Ray Davies it seems extremely likely that this was intended as a dig at Davies and is not factual information.

There's more background in the Tom Robinson article, but the gist of it is the dislike goes back to Davies' signing and producing an acoustic band Robinson was in but the album flopped. Robinson then became a gay activist, before forming the punk Tom Robinson Band. He publicly mocked Davies who retaliated by writing the song "Prince of the Punks" about him. A sample verse:

He tried to be gay, but it didn't pay,

So he bought a motorbike instead.

He failed at funk, so he became a punk,

'Cause he thought he'd make a little more bread.

Here's the part I removed from the article, which seems to me likely to be a response to the verse above:

Reed called the song "Sister Ray" in a nod to Ray Davies of the British band the Kinks.

24.17.40.164 (talk) 05:38, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

Add a Proto-Prog Classification?

This song has some qualities of Proto-Progressive Rock/Proto-Prog, such as improvisation of different guitar/organ/drum structures (such as in polyrhythm, what chords are played on the guitar, different patterns/volumes of all of those instruments, vocals and lyrics that tell a story, the length of the song (17 minutes in length), and more. StaleGuy22 (talk) 16:07, 15 May 2025 (UTC)

Vox Continental?

Although the VU was sponsored by Vox, YouTuber Cam Forrester makes a good case that John Cale played a Rheem Mk VII on Sister Ray. The main points in favour are:

1. There are photos of Cale on stage playing this instrument (such as this one)

1. The Vox Continental cannot go low enough to play the bassline in Sister Ray (Forrester needed to use a piano bass to recreate the organ part when using a Vox).

Whether this is strong enough evidence, I don't know, but the Vox Continental reference is purely circumstantial. Paul Brookes (talk) 13:14, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it's not and having a hard time finding any online source. Maybe a Cale bio? That video is incredible, especially the live segment. Thanks for sharing. Ceoil (talk) 02:58, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

pinging User:Popcornfud, who might know more about combo organs from the mid 1960s. Ceoil (talk) 03:01, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

I’m afraid organs are an area of ignorance for me. How embarrassing. Popcornfud (talk) 05:00, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Flip. Will check if there is anything on "What's Welsh for Zen: The Autobiography of John Cale". Ceoil (talk) 06:47, 18 November 2025 (UTC)