* For information or to purchase one of the CD Art Clocks pictured in video, please click on the appropriate link below (or Copy & Paste into web browser):
VIDEO INFO: [This is a Re-Upload of the version I posted 6 months previously] The film footage was first revealed to the world about a year ago courtesy of the G. WILLIAMS JONES FILM AND VIDEO ARCHIVE AT SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY (SMU). It is a recording of elements of ‘Dallas Peace Day’ which was part of a nationwide day of protest called the ‘Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam’ on 15 October 1969 at White Rock Lake, Dallas TX.
The video footage (perhaps the only high-quality colour footage that exists of the band pre the 1993 reunion) is obviously of stunningly good quality, but unfortunately, the audio track was virtually non-existent although faint snippets of ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’ and ‘Beginning To See The Light’ can be discerned. So in the spirit of that, I crudely overlaid the audio of the latter song that was recorded originally as part of a bootleg of the famous ‘Matrix’ shows in San Francisco, 26-27 November, 1969 that I liberated from Disc 5 of the 45th Anniversary/Super-Deluxe edition of the 1969 self-titled/grey album. I selected it based on sonic quality, although it is virtually indistinguishable from the version that appeared on the ‘1969: Velvet Underground Live /Volume 1’ album that indeed had been recorded in Dallas within a few days of this peace-day. So, I am confident that what I present here is authentically close to what would have been seen and heard that day and have I have kept virtually every frame of footage that included either the band or the audience during their set.
The band quite evidently had shed some of the noir appearance of the Andy Warhol/John Cale period and this Mark II/rebooted version has a lot more sunshine about them in every sense and along with Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker, is newly recruited Doug Yule, who seems to get most of the camera’s attention.
Intriguingly, I’ve since been told that the footage was recorded for/by Stoney Burns (seen alongside Sterling wearing a sheriff’s hat) who was a well-known counter-culture journalist running a publication called ‘Dallas Notes’ at the time. This was in effect shut down the following year, after a heavy-handed Police raid where virtually everything was seized (typewriters, credit-cards, telephones etc) including camera equipment and rolls of film, which may help explain the disappearance and remarkable standard of preservation of this footage ...apparently, there had been an unsuccessful challenge to get all this material returned, that had reached as high as the US Supreme Court 🍌
