The Velvet Underground and Bessie Smith

Lemon Twist's recent post and praise about hearing The Velvet Underground for the first time made me think about when I first of them....(thanks LT for triggering fond memories in my mind!)During my senior year in high school (Spring '88), I sat in front of this guy named John in history class. We often talked about music, and he turned me on to lots of cool things (like the Dr. Demento show for instance). Well, one day he asked me if I had heard of Lou Reed, "the guy who did take a walk on the wild side." I had heard this song zillions of times on the radio, but that was all I knew about Lou Reed.So John told me about his 60s band, The Velvet Underground. Said they were a "cool 60s band I hadn't heard yet." I remember him telling me about a song "of a guy who sends himself in a package to his girlfriend." (This turned out to The Gift, from White Light/White Heat).It was about a year later that I finally got around to buying a Velvet Underground Lp. It was at Collector's Records (R.I.P.) in Dallas. Cds had been on the market for a few years, but there was still lots of vinyl at most stores. And there was lots of neat, intriguing looking discs there: Bob Marley, blues Lps, Betty Boop soundtracks, etc. Some of these Lps I bought that spring (1989), some many years later. It was quite a time to be 19; I was finally fed up with pop radio, and wanted to deliberately experiment with my musical purchases.So one day I bought a copy of the third, self-titled VU Lp (for $6), and also bought my first blues Lps (a Bessie Smith comp, for $5) that same day. Both were in shrink wrap.It was a momentous day! From the first note of "Candy Says" I was hooked. This was cool, weird, and groovy! I don't know how many times I've listened to that records since then (probably a 100 or so!) Each song flows beautifully into the next, like a story. The contemplative, uncertain nature of "Jesus" goes into the what the heck nature of "I'm Beginning to See the Light" (probably my fave 2 songs on the album). Maybe because this was so unknown, undiscoverd (to me), it began my lifelong search for cool, obscure songs from the 60s (and before!)I had heard a couple of songs from the Bessie Smith Lp before (on a radio show in Dallas, station and show long forgotten by me). "Gimme a Pigfoot" was a rowdy, goodtime number (with a young Benny Goodman on clarinet); it was such rollicking fun, it was sad when I found out that that was one of the last songs Bessie recorded.Maybe because I loved movies from the 20s and 30s (and the jazzy music that would often accompany images of the 20s in documentaries), I got into the music from that era, too! I thought, "there has to be something odd, crazy from 1930 that I haven't heard yet!" Another lifelong passion that continues to this day. And I finish typing as I listen to the VU's first Lp (the banana peel one), which was another momentous records for yours truly! But that'll have to wait for another music post....